The Tourist & The Pilgrim | Reflections from Rome 2022
1. There are those who seek experience to bolster individuation; and, then, there are those who seek the experience to enrich the community.
2. There are those who in singularity chase the exotic to increase the value associated with their own name, image, and likeness; and, then, there are those who travel to distant lands to pass more deeply into the prayer of quiet conversion.
3. There are those who are self-reliant; and, then, there are those who take nothing.
4. There are those who find a backdrop for a selfie; and, then, there are those who bow in life-giving repentance.
5. There are those who will only reside in luxury; and, then, there are those who sleep in caves.
6. There are those who stir up sensation with indulgence, swinging from one mood altering stimuli to another; and, then, there are those who, having already died, receive the gift of pleasure having already been sated.
7. There are those who react to boredom and difficulties with bitterness; and, then, there are those to whom even what is bitter has become sweet.
8. There are those who enter churches bloviating; and, then, there are those who sing in the house of the Lord.
9. There are those who collect trinkets to boast of the places they have been; and, then, there are those who live from the memory of a sanctified place handed on.
10. There are those who have left a place to return home dissipated and longing for another escape next year; and, then, there are those who having gone, return to their native place empowered to embrace reality in recollected spirit.
11. There are those who journey to feed sumptuously; and, then, there are those who wage an interior war as strangers and sojourners.
12. There are those whose belly is their god and their eyes insatiable; and, then, there are those who eat with thanksgiving whatever is placed in front of them and keep their eyes from seeing what is vain.
13. There are those who travel only to find themselves more fragmented; and, then, there are those who, having gone wandering, find Who resides at the center of all things.
14. There are those who knowing the facts of a place drink the gall of cynicism; and, then, there are those who, having known a place, are inebriated with wonder & contemplation.
15. There are those who are always hastily clinging for more; and, then, there are those who eagerly await to give it all away.
16. There are those who never pray and devour the people; and, then, there are those who strive to pray without ceasing, even with their bodies.
17. There are those who love their temporal destination above all; and, then, there are those whose love can only be found in death.
18. There are those who wander a world without borders; and, then, there are those who remove their sandals when entering sacred dwelling places.
19. There are those who avoid suffering even to the cost of their own soul; and, then, there are those who receive rejection as perfect joy.
20. There are those who turn the transient supplies into obstacles for arriving unto their final end; and, then, there are those who take the tools of this world to speed their companions unto the eternal Easter.
21. There are those who are tourists; and, then, there are those who are pilgrims in the world.
Then there is the monk, who welcomes both as if they were Christ begging at the door.
Adam Lewis
Archdiocese of Cincinnati