I must admit that this cartoon from Pithless Thoughts quite challenged me. I have been to several countries. In those countries, I have visited the tombs of famous saints, or their places of death. I have visited famous cathedrals, or monasteries. I have imagined what it would be like to have stood up to evil people in the Coliseum. And, of course, I have imagined myself reacting quite heroically. I have never been on a formal pilgrimage. The visits I mention were when I was somewhere on church-related business. But, my imagination was that of some pilgrims or a football fan. (Notice I said some pilgrims.)
Die-hard fans love to imagine themselves on the field. They live vicariously through their presence at a game being played by their favorite team or individual. But, when the game is over they go home from the stadium, or they turn off the TV, or they go home from the sports bar, and their lives remain unchanged. And that is true of all too many pilgrims.
Too many pilgrims are looking for what druggies used to call a “contact high.” So, what is a contact high?
Contact high is a phenomenon that sometimes occurs in people and animals who come into contact with someone who is under the influence of drugs. It involves a supposed transfer of the psychological state of highness. This is often attributed to things such as stale latent cannabis smoke and transcutaneous transfer of psychoactive chemicals. However, this may be better explained by the subconscious picking up on the user’s “vibe” and sociological factors. A glossary of drug users’ language from the 1970s describes the term as “a psychogenic “trip” without taking drugs by being close to somebody while he is on drugs.
Basically a pilgrim’s version of a contact high is a feeling of mystical closeness to God without any commitment to live a life of holiness. Let me put in one caveat. I think that many pilgrims are attracted to places where holy things have happened because God has chosen to hallow that place, and thus there is a palpable feeling of God’s presence. Or, they go on pilgrimage because they wish to honor God and the saint who followed God.
But, there are all too many pilgrims who use a pilgrimage as a substitute for striving for holiness. And the reason that this cartoon got to me is that I can see that tendency in myself. I visit a site. I read the life of a saint. I identify with that saint. And, it is all too easy to feel holy without actually striving for holiness. I can see that in myself. I read a Gospel passage. I read the life of a saint. And, I imagine myself in that situation and feel quite good and quite righteous. I convince myself that I would behave the same way as the person that I admire. But, I have yet to strive for any holiness. It is all my imagination.
Provided a pilgrimage or the reading of the life of a saint or the watching of a movie about the life of a saint or attending a retreat or . . . leads to a personal change in my lifestyle, then it is a wonderful thing. However, if all a pilgrimage does is to make me feel good about my Christianity or makes me feel less guilty about my personal faults, then I am deluding myself. And, I am quite good at deluding myself. I have become convinced that one of Satan’s best tricks is to convince us to replace ersatz spiritual experiences for the real work of holiness and obedience. Sadly, I am so good at deluding myself.
And, so, this cartoon calls me to be less deluded and to live out a commitment to holiness. Now, may God have mercy on my soul and allow me to actually follow through on the previous sentence.
Being a passionately emotional person, I have been emotionally swayed by holy places and reading about holy people. Certainly there is nothing more emotionally persuasive that a passonate Black preacher with a gospel choir behind and a group of deacons in the Amen corner. Beautiful churches and cathedrals and even pictures of ornate Holy Icons can get to me as well. Well, to be truthful, a lot of that stuff gets to me. I have to be careful that my reactions become something mroe than a passionate emotional “feel good.” Living out the injunctions to growing in holiness are a challenge of will and need the grace of God and a strong dependence on the Holy Spirit. I cannot by force of will change my own heart very efficiently and certainly overly passionate emotion cannot do it either. It is only if the emotion inspires a willingness to change and a willingness to be open to God’s work in my life that a change occurs. In the words of Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12 Steps,
Step 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Step 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Step 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Emotion does nto do it, will power does not do it, all my good intentions do not do it, but a willingness to confess my wrongs, my sins, my defects of character, using my will to become willing to have these things dealth with in God’s way and asking Him to have mercy and to lend me His grace does.
That all being said, I still visit holy places and read about holy people and then remind myself to ask God to turn the emotions into willingness to grow in holiness.
Alix