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The Pilgrimage in the Great Jubilee
Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers

On April 28, 1998 the Vatican issued the document THE PILGRIMAGE IN THE GREAT JUBILEE. The document, which was prepared by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, examines the concept of “pilgrimage” as a basic Christian theme and explores the history of pilgrimages and the pastoral care of religious pilgrims today, particularly in light of the coming Jubilee of the Year 2000. Following are excerpts from a Vatican translation of the document


Introduction (Nos. 1,2)

“We are strangers before you, pilgrims only as were all our ancestors.”1 The words King David pronounced before the Lord sketch the profile not only of the biblical person but of every human creature. In fact, the “way” is a symbol of existence which is expressed in a wide range of actions like leaving and coming back, entrance and exit, descent and ascent, walking and resting. Since the very first moment of their appearance on the stage of the world, human beings have always walked in search of new goals, investigating earthly horizons and tending toward the infinite. [...]

Pilgrimages, a sign of the condition of the disciples of Christ in this world,2 have always held an important place in the life of Christians. In the course of history Christians have always walked to celebrate their faith in places that indicate a memory of the Lord or in sites representing important moments in the history of the church. ... Their pilgrimage was a process of conversion, a yearning for intimacy with God and a trusting plea for their material needs. For the church, pilgrimages in all their multiple aspects have always been a gift of grace. In contemporary society, which is characterized by intense mobility, pilgrimages are experiencing a new impetus. [...]


Israel’s Pilgrimage (Nos. 4-8)

Since the beginning, according to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, and later on, all through the millennia, it is possible to identify an Adamic pilgrimage: It starts with coming forth from the hands of the Creator, from the entry into the world of creation and from the subsequent aimless wandering, far from the garden of Eden.3 The pilgrimage of Adam - from the call to walk with God, to his disobedience and to the hope for salvation - reveals the full freedom with which he was gifted by the Creator. At the same time, it discloses the divine commitment to walk beside him and watch over his steps. ... It is through this divine attraction that for every person every wrong way can be transformed into an itinerary of return and embrace.4 Thus, there is a universal history of pilgrimages that includes a dark stage, through “the roads of darkness,”5 the crooked paths.6 But it also includes return and conversion through the path of life,7 of justice and peace,8 of truth and fidelity,9 of perfection and integrity.10

The Abrahamic pilgrimage, instead, is the paradigm of the history of salvation itself in conformity with which the faithful live. The language used in describing it (“leave your country”), the steps in Abraham’s itinerary and the relations he experienced affirm that his pilgrimage was already an exodus of salvation, an ideal anticipation of the exodus of the whole nation. By leaving his country, his family and his father’s house,11 Abraham goes with trust and hope toward the horizon that the Lord indicated. [...]

It was from the land of the Pharaohs that the great Exodus pilgrimage would ensue. The various stages - which included the departure, wandering in the desert, the trial, temptations, sin, entering the promised land - have become the exemplary model of the history of salvation12 itself. This includes not only the gifts of freedom, of revelation in Sinai and of divine communion, expressed in Passover (“passage”) and in the offering of the manna, water and the quails, but also infidelity, idolatry, the temptation to go back to slavery. Exodus acquires a permanent value. It is a “memorial” that is always vital and comes up again even upon the return from the Babylonian exile. This is sung by the second Isaiah as a new exodus13 that is commemorated each time Israel celebrates the feast of the Passover and is transformed into an eschatological representation in the Book of Wisdom.14 The final aim is in fact the promised land of full communion with God in a renewed creation.15... Because of this radical characteristic as a pilgrim, the biblical people are not to “molest the stranger or oppress him, for you lived as strangers in the land of Egypt”,16 rather, they are to “love the stranger..., for you were once strangers in Egypt.”17

Thus, whoever prays presents himself before God as “your guest..., a nomad.”18 Precisely by praying, the Psalms, which were written across the millenary period of the history of Israel, attest to the historical and theological awareness of the itinerary of the community and of the individual. And it is exactly through the devotional pilgrimage to Zion that being strangers even in one’s own land19 is transformed into a sign of hope. The “ascent,” which, in the three great solemnities of the feast of the Passover, feast of weeks and feast of tabernacles20 leads Israel amid hymns of joy (the “Song of Ascents”21) toward Mt. Zion, becomes an experience of stability, trust and renewed commitment to live in the fear of God22 and in justice. [...]

To the people of God, victim of discouragement, burdened by infidelity, the prophets also indicate a messianic pilgrimage of redemption, which is also open to the eschatological horizon in which all peoples of the earth will stream toward Zion, location of the divine word, of peace and of hope.23 Living again the experience of the exodus, the people of God must let the Spirit remove its heart of stone and give it one of flesh.24 In its life’s itinerary, it must express justice25 and faithful love26 and rise up as a light for all peoples,27 up to the day when the Lord God will offer on the holy mountain a banquet for all peoples.28 On the way toward the fulfillment of the messianic promise, already at this very moment, all are called to communion gratuitously29 and in God’s mercy.30


Christ’s Pilgrimage (Nos. 9-11)

Jesus Christ enters the scene of history as “the way, the truth and the life”31 and since the very beginning, he includes himself in the journey of humankind and of his people, uniting himself in some way with each man.32 In fact, he descended from being “with God” to become “flesh”33 and to walk along the paths of the human person. In the incarnation, it is “God who comes in person to speak to man of himself and to show him the path by which he may be reached.”34

While still a baby, Jesus is a pilgrim at the temple of Zion to be presented to the Lord;35 as a boy, with Mary and Joseph, he goes to his Father’s house.36 His public ministry, which takes place along the roads of his country, slowly takes the form of a pilgrimage toward Jerusalem which is portrayed, especially by Luke, as a long journey whose destination is not only the cross, but also the glory of Easter and the ascension.37 His transfiguration reveals to Moses, to Elijah and to the apostles his impending paschal “exodus”: “They were speaking of his passing, which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem.”38 The other evangelists, too, know this exemplary itinerary along which the disciple must walk: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me,” and Luke specifies “every day.”39 For Mark, the route to the cross of Golgotha is constantly marked by verbs and words of movement and by the symbol of the “way.”40

But Jesus’ road does not end on the hill called Golgotha. The earthly pilgrimage of Christ crosses the boundary of death, into the infinite and in the mystery of God, beyond death. On the mount of the ascension, the final step of his pilgrimage takes place. As he promises to come back,41 the risen Lord rises to heaven and goes to his Father’s house to prepare a place for us so that where he is, we may be with him too.42 In fact, this is how he summarizes his mission: “I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I leave the world to go to the Father. ... Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see the glory you have given me.”43

The Christian community, animated by the Spirit of Pentecost, goes out into the streets of the world and is immersed in the various nations of the earth.44 It goes from Jerusalem up to Rome, along the streets of the empire which the apostles and the heralds of the Gospel walk through. Beside them walks Christ, who as with the disciples of Emmaus explains the Scriptures to them and breaks the eucharistic bread.45 Along their footsteps set out the peoples of the earth. Spiritually following the itinerary of the Magi,46 they fulfill the words of Christ: “Many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.”47

The final destination of this pilgrimage along the roads of the world, however, is not written on the map of the earth. It is beyond our horizon, as it was for Christ, who walked with the people to bring them to the fullness of communion with God. ... Our pilgrimage, therefore, has a transcendent end, knowing that we are “aliens or foreign visitors”48 here on earth but are destined to be “citizens like all the saints and part of God’s household.”49 [...]


Pilgrimage Toward the Third Millennium (Nos. 18,19,20,23)

The Second Vatican Council was “a providential event” destined to constitute an “immediate preparation for the jubilee of the second millennium.”50... The very language of the Council symbolized the church - in its experience as a spiritual and missionary itinerary - a travel companion at the side of the whole humankind. ... The “pilgrim” church of God thus became a dominant profile from the very beginning of the conciliar celebration.51... It was the Council itself, in its constitutions, that presented the whole church as “present in this world and yet not at home in it.”52 Her pilgrim nature, mentioned repeatedly,53 reveals a Trinitarian aspect: Its source is in the mission of Christ sent by the Father;54 for this reason we too go forth from him, live through him and our journey leads us toward him,55 and the Holy Spirit is the guide of our way which is to follow the footsteps of Christ.56 [...]

A fundamental goal of the present historical pilgrimage of the church is the Jubilee of the Year 2000 toward which the faithful are walking beneath the vault of the Trinity. This itinerary should not be spatial but rather interior and vital, in the reconquest of the great values of the biblical jubilee year.57 With the sounding of the horn marking this date in Israel, slaves became free again, debts were condoned such that everyone would find again personal dignity and social solidarity, the earth spontaneously offered its gifts to everyone, reminding us that at its origin is the Creator who “waters the uplands until the ground has had all that your heavens have to offer.” (Ps 104:13) Thus, a more fraternal community, similar to that of Jerusalem, must be born.58 [...]


Humankind’s Pilgrimage (Nos. 24,31)

The pilgrimage which started from Abraham and is extended throughout the centuries is a sign of a vaster and universal movement of humankind. The human person, in fact, appears in his secular history as homo viator, a traveler thirsty for new horizons, hungry for justice and peace, searching for truth, longing for love, open to the absolute and the infinite. Scientific research, economic and social development, the continuous appearance of tension, migration throughout our planet, the very misery of evil and other enigmas that fill humankind’s being constantly interrogate him, thereby setting him on trails laid out by religions and cultures.

Even in our days humankind, on one hand, seems to be going toward positive goals of different natures: worldwide integration in global systems, but at the same time sensitivity for pluralism and respect for the different historical and national identities, scientific and technical progress, interreligious dialogue, communications that are diffused in the Areopagus of the whole world through instruments that are more and more effective and immediate. On the other hand, however, in each one of these ways, ancient and invariable obstacles appear in new forms and ways: the idols of economic exploitation, abuse of one’s political position, scientific arrogance, religious fanaticism. [...]

It does not seem strange that in the whirlwind of this constant change, humankind also experiences fatigue and wishes for a place, which may be a shrine, where he could rest, a space of freedom that makes dialogue possible - with himself, with others and with God. The Christian’s pilgrimage accompanies this search of humankind and offers him the security of a goal, the presence of the Lord “for he has visited his people, he has come to their rescue.” (Lk 1:68) [...]

Just as the church appreciates the poverty of the Buddhist pilgrim monk, the contemplative way of the Tao, the sacred itinerary of Hinduism in Benares, the “pillar” of pilgrimage in the sources of his faith characteristic of the Muslim, and every other itinerary toward the Absolute and towards his brothers and sisters, she joins all those who in a fervent and sincere way dedicate themselves to the service of the weak, the refugees, the exiles, the oppressed and undertake with them a “pilgrimage of brotherhood.”

This is the meaning of the jubilee of mercy that appears at the horizon of the third millennium, point of arrival for the creation of a human society that is more just, in which the public debts of developing nations will be condoned and a more equitable distribution of land will be accomplished, in the spirit of the biblical prescription.59


The Christian Pilgrimage Today (Nos. 32, 39)

All Christians are invited to join and take part in the great pilgrimage that Christ, the church and humankind have accomplished and must continue accomplishing in history. ... Lived as a celebration of one’s own faith, for the Christian a pilgrimage is a manifestation of worship to be accomplished faithfully according to tradition, with an intense religious sentiment and as a fulfillment of his paschal existence.60 [...]

Pilgrimages, however, also lead to the tent of meeting with humankind. All the religions of the world, as previously mentioned, have their own holy itineraries and their holy cities. In every place on earth, God himself becomes a meeting with the pilgrim and proclaims a universal convocation to participate fully in the joy of Abraham.61 In particular, the three great monotheistic religions are called to find again “the tent of meeting” in the faith so that they may witness and build messianic justice and peace before all peoples, to redeem history. [...]


Conclusion (No. 43)

Pilgrimages symbolize the experience of the homo viator who sets out, as soon as he leaves the maternal womb, on his journey through the time and space of his existence. This is the fundamental experience of Israel, which is marching toward the promised land of salvation and of full freedom; the experience of Christ, who rose to heaven from the land of Jerusalem, thus opening the way toward the Father, the experience of the church, which moves on through history toward the heavenly Jerusalem; the experience of all of humankind, which tends toward hope and fullness.[...]



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1 1 Chr 29:15.
2 Cf. Lumen Gentium, 49.
3 Cf. Gn 3:23-24.
4 Cf. Lk 15:11-32.
5 Prv 2:13; 4:19.
6 Prv 2:15; 10:9; 21:8.
7 Cf. Prv 2:19; 5:6; 6:23; 15:24.
8 Cf. Prv 8:20; 12:28; Bar 3:13; Is 59:8.
9 Cf. Ps 119:30; Tb 1:3.
10 Cf. Ps 101:2.
11 Cf. Gn 12:11-4.
12 Cf. 1 Cor 10:1-13.
13 Cf. Is 43:16-21.
14 Cf. Wis 11-19.
15 Cf. Wis 19.
16 Ex 22:20.
17 Dt 10:19; cf. 24:17.
18 Ps 39:12; cf. 119:19.
19 Cf. Lv 25:23.
20 Cf. Ex 34:24.
21 Cf. Ps 120-134.
22 Cf. Ps 128:1.
23 Cf. Is 2:2-4; 56:6-8; 66:18-23; Mi 4:1-4; Zec 8:20-23.
24 Cf. Ez 36:26-27.
25 Cf. Is 1:17.
26 Cf. Hos 2:16-18.
27 Cf. Is 60:3-6.
28 Cf. Is 25:6.
29 Cf. Is 55:1-2.
30 Cf. Ex 34:11-16.
31 Jn 14:6.
32 Cf. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, 18.
33 Jn. 1:2,14.
34 John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 6.
35 Cf. Lk 2:22-24.
36 Cf. Lk 2:49.
37 Cf. Lk 9:51; 24:51.
38 Lk 9:31.
39 Mt 16:24; cf. Mt 10:38 and Lk 9:23.
40 Cf. Mk 8:27,34; 9:33-34; 10:17,21,28,32-33,46,52.
41 Cf. Acts 1:11.
42 Cf. Jn 14:2-3.
43 Jn 16:28; 17:24.
44 Acts 2:9-11.
45 Cf. Lk 24:13-35.
46 Cf. Mt 2:1-12.
47 Mt 8:11.
48 Cf. Eph 2:19; 1 Pt 2:11.
49 Eph 2:19.
50 Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 18.
51 Cf. John XXIII, opening speech to Vatican Council II (Oct. 11, 1962); Paul VI, speech opening the second session of Vatican Council II (Sept. 29, 1963).
52 Sacrosanctum Concilium, 2.
53 Cf. Lumen Gentium, 7-9.
54 Cf. ibid., 3; 13.
55 Cf. ibid., 3.
56 Cf. Ad Gentes, 5.
57 Cf. Lv 25.
58 Cf. Acts 2:44-45; Dt 15:4-7.
59 Cf. Lv 25.
60 Cf. Congregation for Divine Worship, “Orientations and Suggestions for the Celebration of the Marian Year” (April 3, 1987), Notitiae 23(1987) pp. 342-396.
61 Cf. Paul VI, on Christian Joy, Ch. 5.