REsources for Living
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Have you ever really thought about why we call those early settlers who came to New England seeking religious freedom “Pilgrims”? Unlike Puritans, who made the journey a bit later, the Pilgrims don’t get their name as a description of their religious beliefs.
The Puritans were religious folks who wanted a purer form of Christianity than they felt like they got from the Church of England. The same was true for the Pilgrims, for that matter, and each group sailed westward because they wanted to have their own separate church life in a way that the Church of England simply didn’t allow.
But that first group of folks who landed on Cape Cod in 1620 didn’t think of themselves as Pilgrims in the way that we think of ourselves as Unitarian Universalists, and other folks think of themselves as Methodists or Lutherans or Presbyterians. “Pilgrim” wasn’t a name for a particular religious denomination that described their subset of Christianity.
No, they thought of themselves as pilgrims—with no capital letter—as in people who were on a pilgrimage.
So what’s a pilgrim? A pilgrim is someone who goes on a journey for a religious reason. There are lots of famous places that people have visited on pilgrimages for thousands of years. Ancient Greeks went on pilgrimage to Delphi to consult the Oracle, and to be in the place which was considered to be the center (the omphalos—literally, the bellybutton) of the world. In the Middle Ages Christians walked hundreds of miles to visit Rome or Jerusalem or the Cathedral of Santiago de Campostela, among many other sites. Even today, it is one of the Five Pillars of Islam to make the hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, and every Muslim who is physically and financially able to do so is expected to make this holy journey.
But the Pilgrims weren’t pilgrims going to a special holy site. They didn’t even intend to end up in Cape Cod, where they built their settlement; they were aiming for Virginia, where English settlers had already moved in. But they saw their lives as a whole as a pilgrimage, and they were absolutely committed to a religious journey that would take them to a place where they could lead lives they felt were holy.
It’s kind of an amazing idea. It’s a pretty big challenge to be a pilgrim to begin with—traveling, even walking, hundreds or thousands of miles to get to a place that you believe will feed your spirit or deepen your religious life. But what if you saw your whole life as a pilgrimage toward your deepest faith and convictions, and nothing in the world would stop you from making that journey?
The Pilgrims, after all, made a heck of a journey. When they were not able to practice their religion freely in England, they set out for Holland, where there was more religious liberty. But not only was life in Holland difficult, but they also felt that their community was in danger of assimilating into Dutch culture and losing their distinct identity. So they decided to set out across the ocean. They didn’t have the money to make the trip, so they worked out a deal with investors that put them in debt for years to come. One of their boats, the Speedwell, turned out not to be seaworthy, so after two attempts that boat and all its passengers had to be left behind, splitting up families.
The journey across the ocean took more than two months, and storms prevented them from getting to their intended destination. Once they had landed, the weather turned out to be far harsher than they had anticipated, and they realized (perhaps not surprisingly) that they didn’t know the first thing about growing food in this environment that was totally new to them. More than half of them died from malnutrition and disease, and the only way that any of the Pilgrims made it through was because of the help they received from the Wampanoag who already lived there.
It’s hard to imagine that the Pilgrims would have ever set sail if they had known just how difficult the journey was going to be. But that’s the way it is when you head out on a journey. You never do know. Sometimes a storm blows in, and your little camping trip turns into a dangerous wilderness adventure. Sometimes the people you count on to keep you safe on the journey turn out to be totally untrustworthy. Sometimes you think the trail will be clear and well-marked, but you end up lost. Things happen on journeys.
But if you are a Pilgrim, there is no way around the risk. If your heart and soul and spirit are set on a path, if you see your whole life as a journey toward faith or justice, then you just can’t stay where you are and take what you’re given. You can hope that the weather will be gentle, and the ship that you’re sailing well-built. You can hope that the people you meet will be helpful and kind. But you only find out what the journey will bring by setting out in the direction of the land of your dreams, and then just continuing to move on. With any luck, there will be times of Thanksgiving as you go.
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