PIGRIMAGE OF PAUL COELHO

By: Fransiskus Borgias M.

Two years ago I have bought the book of Paulo Coelho in a certain book store in Bumi Serpong Damai, Tangerang. Two or three days afterward I have finished reading it. Its title is The Pilgrimage; it is translated as Ziarah into Indonesian language. I think this is a very interesting book. Its main plot is a story of the journey of a certain pilgrim, in this case is the personal pilgrimage of Paulo Coelho himself, making a journey of pilgrimage to Santiago Compostela, in Spain. There are a lot of interesting aspects I found in this book. But here I will only concentrate on some important and interesting point for me of course from my present apprehension of the book. First of all, I would like to put emphasis on the importance or significance of pilgrimage itself. According to Paulo Coelho, pilgrimage was very important for Christian life in the early period of its historical existence until the present time. Christians at that time expressed their religious belief and religious life among other things through the pratices of making pilgrimages to the holy shrines.

According to this book of Paulo Coelho, the first road of pilgrimage was headed to Rome. In Rome there is the tomb of St.Peter, St.Paul, some martyrs, and many other holy places (including old churches, catacombs). Usually the pilgrims tracing this way while putting on the symbol of cross on their body. It is said that if we see people put on the cross of crucifix, then we are sure that they are pilgrims to Rome. The second road of pilgrimage was the road to Jerusalem. This is one of the holy places for Christianity since the very old time (although I do not deny the historical fact that it is also apply for the Jews people and the Muslims in the world). In Jerusalem there is a holy sepulchre (the sacred tomb) of Jesus Christ. Of course there are some other holy places in the places near by Jerusalem, for example Betlehem, Nazaret, Kafernaum, river of Jordan, the Dead Sea and the Galilean Sea. The pilgrims tracing this way usually bring the palm leaves. Hence they are called the palm-leaves-bearer. Palm leaves is welknown because this was the leaves used by people in Jerusalem to welcome Jesus just a week before his tragic drama of passion and crucifixion. Nowadays we know this event with the name of Palm Sunday, celebrated just a week before the Week of Holy Easter.

The third road is the road to Compostella, in Spain. There we will find the sepulchre of San Tiago, one of the disciple of Jesus. This sepulchre lays in the city of Compostela. By the way, San Tiago is the Spanish version of the name of Jacob(us), or James, or Giacomo, of Jacques. According to a very old Christian legend, Mary, the mother of Jesus also went to Spain to spread the good news of the Kingdom of God. The name of that places is Compostela, literary means a field full of stars (Campus + stella). Such name is based on a legend of a certain shepherd who saw the stars upon this big field. Field means compos or campos in Spanish and Latin. Stella is Stars. Maybe that is the reason why this road is also known as the Bimasakti road. According to Coelho, the pilgrims who go to make a pilgrimage through this way using the shelf. Until today this road is still used. It is said that Karel the Great (Charlemagne) also walked this way making a certain pilgrimage to that holy place in Spain; it is believed also that St.Francis of Assisi has walked through this way in his journey to Spain; it is believed also that the pope John Paul II himself in our modern time traces this road.

In the later and modern day there appear some other center of pilgimage. For example in Lourdes (related to saint Bernadette), in Fatima (related to Lucia, Jasinta, Francesco), in Russia, in Poland. Now in some countries of Asia we can find also some center for pilgrimage, for example in Vietnam, in Japan, in South Korea, in Taiwan, in the Phillipines, and even also here in Indonesia (Sendangsono, Goa Kerep, Sendang Jatiningsih, Sendang Sriningsih, Lawang Seh, Puh Sarang, Sawer Rahmat, Kanada or Kampung Narindang Dalam, just to mention some pilgrimage centers available in Java). In the USA also there are some centers for Catholic pilgrimage. I have visited the great and grandionse basilica of Saint Mary in the middle of Catholic University of America in Washington DC. What a beautiful and amazing place. I have visited also a Marian pilgrimage in the State of Maryland, which is considered to be the miniature and the imitation of the Lourdes (so it is known as the States Lourdes).
Some few years ago I remembered that, the late Father Kurris SJ, wrote, in Hidup Weekly Catholic Magazine, a story of the Road to Santiago Compostella. I have read the story when it is published as a short story in Hidup. Therefore, I have to find this book to read it once again in its contionus and complete version.

Now in these days I read another interesting book by a certain Spanish journalist, who is also welknown because one of his book has been translated into the Indonesian language, Allah Semacam Ini (Nusa Indah, back in the eighties). The title of this book of Juan Arias, is “Paulo Coelho: Obrolan Dengan Sang Penziarah.” It is a translation from the original work in Spanish: “Paulo Coelho: Las Confesiones del Peregrino.” From this book I came finally to know that Paulo Coelho wrote his book, Ziarah, after he has himself made a journey, a pilgrimage to Santiago of Compostela. It is said by Juan Arias in this book, that Coelho made this pilgrimage journey after he has totally abandoned the atheistic period of his life and decide to come back to the religious belief of his family, his father and his mother, that is Catholic religious faith. He wanted to sign this conversion of life, this metanioa by making a journey of pilgrimage to one of the important holy shrine in Europe. Now I can easily understood why in many of his book, Paulo Coelho write so many things about the detail of Catholic religious life and tradition. For example in the book of “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept,” Coelho wrote many things about the spiritual life of a certain young seminarian who want to become a priest but he also at the same time feel that he is fall in a love with a beautiful girl. The same also can be said about “The Alchemist,” his another book, even his masterpiece, in which he mentions so many things from the Bible (especially the New Testament).

Now in this new book of Juan Arias, I find a very interesting thing about his vision of Catholic practices of religious life. For example Juan Arias asked about the dogma of Catholic church, whether he believes it or not. The answer of Paulo Coelho is very interesting and amazing. He said that he totally believes in those dogmas, because he really want to be a humble religious believer. To underline this religious belief, Paulo Coelho quotes the expression of C.G.Jung, who once said that the dogma is the brilliant expression of the religious geniuses after a very long struggle in theological debates and confrontation. Coelho therefore said, that dogma already has a very long tradition, while I am only fifty years old only by now (at the time of the writing of the book). How small his life and age are compared to the long tradition of life of dogmas and religious doctrines. It seems that he believes dogmas like the welknown expression of Tertullian from the third century of history of Christianity: “credo quia absurdum.” But then he also said that he wants to be believe in order to understand: “credo ut intelligam.” Again this expressions of Tertullian are not a simplistic expression, a shortcut in front of the mystery of faith. No. It is not an easy expression at all. They are born out of the an intellectual struggle to explain and understand the content of the faith doctrines itself.

Plemburan, 31 Mei 2011
Computerized and edited in Nglempong Lor, 26 Februari 2013