Pilgrimage through Time

It was some time ago that this idea came across my mind. I began thinking that “Life is a pilgrimage though time”. Why did I think it as a pilgrimage and not a journey? Is both the same? Pilgrimage is itself a journey, but it is a journey that is made with a religious devotion to a sacred place (dictionary.com). Then is life a journey or a pilgrimage? It more likely starts as a journey, but as life goes on, it is transformed to a pilgrimage. To who is it transformed? Is life dynamic to everyone? Or is it stagnant? Can it just be some journey to nowhere? And can it be a journey to the wrong place? All these are possible facts.

We live in a world that considers religion as weird, and who ever speaking of religion as ‘crazy’. Many people just don’t go to Church or so, but say, they are religious. May do believe God exists, but is not interested in practicing religion. They may or may not do anything wrong in their lives. Understand ‘wrong’ by the notions of religion and society. They don’t see or understand any kind of growth in the spiritual lives, and sometimes they even are not sure about the existence of spirituality. They are not bothered to think about spirituality. But they try to be good in actions and try not to be harmful to anyone else. But is this right? Shall one be stagnant in their spiritual lives?

Think about a tree. The tree grows continuously throughout it life and as it grown a ring is added to it. Tree rings are signs of growth of a tree. The cells of a human body grow, die and regenerate, and the human body continues to grow and get old. The nature teaches the idea of growth which is applicable in spiritual lives too. It cannot be stagnant, but has to be growing. Why shall it grow? All journeys are towards a destination. Streams flow to river and river to sea. Therefore, to reach the destination, one has to grow continuously.

Where is the destination? When a little child is asked about his ambition, he answered honestly that he wanted to be a doctor. He wanted to study, grow and become useful to the society. Similar is the case with many children with an option to move forward in life. A will to become something in life is seen in each and every person. This is the worldly destination. But is there a spiritual destination too? The spiritual destination is to reach the uncreated Divine who is the creator and protector of the whole universe. Even though science has attempted to prove the story of creation in many weird ways, none of them has been convincing enough for the millions of believers in different religions around the world. And all do believe in one basic truth that there is a power outside the realm of human thinking. That power is God.

The spiritual growth cannot be stagnant but dynamic. After realizing the presence of a person beyond our intellectual strength, we are able to determine a destination. To reach the spiritual destination, to unify with the divine, we need to travel. We need to find the way. And the way is Jesus Christ. He said that he is the way, the truth and the life. Just not because of that. But the scripture makes it clear that Christ is the revelation of God to humans. He is also fully God and fully man. He is the savior who came down to the earth as a human, preached the word of God, died for the sins of the world, and resurrected from the dead. "The Son of God became the Son of Man, so that the sons of men can become the sons of God" (St. Athanasius). Christ created the bridge of cross over the river of sin that separated humans and God. The dynamicity of spirituality is the growth in Christ.

Now comes the question, how to grow in Christ? St. Paul says that “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). Unfortunately, many Christians merely understood the literal sense of this verse and kept believing that after confessing Christ and after believing that He is raised from the dead, a person is saved. Does it work like that? Is salvation a one minute process through confession and declaration? Even the devils believe that Christ is the Son of God and He rose from the dead. “If someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” (James 2: 14).So, is it just faith that saves one? Or is it the decision and habit made to constantly walk in the path of Christ to be saved and to unify with the Divine? God is holy, and when he asks us to come to Him, He is asking us to grow in holiness constantly to get nearer and nearer to Him. Thus one will get saved completely. Therefore, salvation is a step by step process of growing in Christ. It is dynamic, and it is the dynamism needed for a human spirit to attain it final goal. This is the pilgrimage of life through time.