A Pilgrim or a Tourist Approach to the Bible

What attitude one may have towards the Sacred Scripture, the attitude of a Pilgrim or that of a tourist?

Here are some definitions:

Pilgrim: ‘one who travels to a shrine or holy place as a devotee’

Tourist: ‘one that makes a tour for pleasure or culture’

Courtesy: The Merriam-Webster dictionary

A friend enrolled in a Bible course had the topic of this article as one of the assignments.  Looking at the topic that she shared, somehow made me introspect.

What is my approach to the Bible?

I tend to be most of the time, that of a tourist.  I wander into a verse or scriptural text because it has been chosen for that day’s reading of the Mass.  A cursory reading of the same before the Mass, then reflecting on the words read at the Mass and the explanation in the homily that follows gives me some immediate points for takeaway.

Yesterday’s reading, for example, on the healing of the leper, for instance, from Mk 1:40-45.  I never could understand why Jesus told the leper not to tell anyone that he had been healed, except the Priest.  The explanation given during the Homily helped me understand the reason.  Lepers were considered untouchables at that time and Jesus healed the leper by going against the societal norms of that time, that is why he asked the leper not to tell others.  These learnings that I gain daily, however, may not at all sink into me deeply as the cares and worries of the day go by.  I guess this is a casual tourist approach.

On the other hand, I have experienced that when I study the Bible with intent and focus and for a longer duration than just a casual reading, the words sink into me deeply.  For example, the weekly Bible study I am part of took two years to study the Gospel of Mathew.  We went verse by verse, and sometimes Chapters like Chapter 5 in Mt took more than three weeks to complete.  So, in-depth were these sessions.  As a result, this Gospel is embedded deep within my consciousness. And I can relate to it in specific situations.  For example, when someone behaves rudely to me, my natural instinct is to react immediately, but the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the meek” come to mind (some of the times!) and my response is different as a result.  I guess this can be called a pilgrim’s approach to the Bible.  It is a long-lasting one and preferred.

In trying to find an analogy, when I look back at the various family holiday trips, we have taken over the years, those many ones when I was trying to capture the moment through my mobile camera like a regular tourist rather than be in the moment by doing nothing and absorbing everything around yields totally different memories.  I can hardly remember the former, while the latter has immediate mind recall.

It does seem that approaching the Bible like a pilgrim makes sense.  Much like the Israelites walked with the Lord in the forty-year journey through the desert to the Promised Land.  Their only way of survival was to depend on Him completely.  Once they reached the promised land, they forgot Him in the course of time.

Speaking of approaching the Bible like a pilgrim there are great takeaways in the 19th-century Russian classic, The Way of a Pilgrim detailing the travels of a mendicant pilgrim through the lands clutching his most precious possession, his Bible at all times.  Unfortunately, his Bible gets stolen on his travels, and he adapts to this great loss for him by reciting the Jesus Prayer always internally, over and over again, just like his heartbeat it becomes part of his being.  This takes him through all the travails of his life right to the very end: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

This was the prayer he said again and again, over and over, many times a day.  A true pilgrim.

As I think of his example, and that of the many Saints we have who relied on the Word of God through all the challenges of following their difficult vocation, it strikes me that indeed it is better to have a pilgrim approach to reading the Bible for lasting impact on life to live as per His Will.

I reach for my dusty bible and start to read from the Gospels.  Let me make it a decision rather than a resolution and ponder over it myself.  The decision is to read the Sacred Scripture like a pilgrim, at least for ten minutes of the day.

This quote from the Author of The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan comes to mind:

Pray and read, read and pray; for a little from God is better than a great deal from men.