“Wanna get away?”
That was the subject line of an email I recently received from Southwest Airlines… suggesting to me that the key to rest and relaxation, to peace of mind and my overall wellness and general happiness… was to fly off somewhere…to travel the world. To get away…
Travel is becoming more and more a high priority goal for a LOT of people. Perhaps it’s one of your New Years resolutions? To travel somewhere cool this year?
Multiple studies show that we are much more interested in travel now than we ever were before the COVID pandemic. One study said that young adults in particular are more than willing to go into substantial debt simply to keep their travel lives active. There seems to be an overall increase of what many call “fear of missing out” — FOMO for short.
Young people are very afraid that they won’t have the chance to do what they wanna do with their lives…especially visiting exotic locations. So there’s a sort of urgency to get away… Carpe diem, seize the day! Life is short! Travel now, because you might not have a chance later… You’ll get old, or run out of money, or get sick… or, GASP… you might have kids. And then… it’ll be impossible.
But why so much interest in travel?
That is the question that we need to always be asking ourselves.
Why, exactly, do we wanna get away?
Because… don’t get me wrong — I love to travel as much as the next person.
If you scroll my Facebook, you’ll see that I’m more than willing to drive very very long distances to ride the latest and greatest roller coasters. I’ve also had the beautiful opportunity to go on several incredibly impactful pilgrimages. I love praying in gorgeous churches, seeing new cities, exploring different cultures… eating awesome food from around the globe like everybody else. That’s all VERY good stuff.
But again… we need to ask that important question:
Why do I wanna get away?
Is it perhaps to share it on social media? To say that we’ve done it? To sorta compete or keep up with friends and family? To put another notch on our belt… collect more and more experiences? Is it to maybe convince ourselves that our life is fun enough, rich enough, interesting enough… fulfilled enough? Or maybe the reason is a little bit heavier… Maybe we want to travel because we find our life sort of miserable? Maybe we’re just trying to escape… to avoid real life. To run away from our vocation? From ourselves? From God?
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.
And we meet some travelers in our Gospel today: The Magi. Were there in fact 3 of them? The Scriptures are silent on the subject. But what we do know is that these “magi” — these “wise men” — went on a very long trip.
And so we can ask: Why did the Magi go on their journey? Why did they leave their homes from the Land of the Rising Sun… the Far East… to travel all the way to the little town of Bethlehem?
I propose that they weren’t just looking for a cool experience. They weren’t just looking to knock something off their bucket list.
No… they were on a pilgrimage.
A pilgrimage, in fact, to what we call the Three Transcendentals — the three deepest longings of the human heart:
Beauty, Truth, and Goodness.
First, the Magi went on a pilgrimage to Beauty. The star that rose to signify a newborn king must have been… so absolutely astonishing, so stunningly beautiful that it could inspire these magi to get up from their homes and start traveling towards it. That’s what Beauty does to us, isn’t it? It draws us like moths to a flame. We can’t help but go over and look at a beautiful waterfall, a beautiful painting, a beautiful cathedral. That’s another HUGE reason why I think travel is so captivating to so many people — So many of us live in an asphalt-covered, consumeristic, suburban wasteland. We are starving for beauty. And so, to go to the basilicas of Rome, the spires of Notre Dame, the snow-covered peaks of the Alps… that is a kind of pilgrimage to Beauty. That is what prompted this journey of the Magi — the appearance of this drop-dead beautiful star.
Second — the Magi went on a pilgrimage to Truth. This star that appeared was foretold… the magi had evidently studied the truths of the Hebrew Scriptures. They delved deeply into the ancient prophecies… and so they had become convinced that this Star was True. It was undeniable. There it was… a historical fact, hanging in the sky! And what’s more… there was only one star that they focused on in the sky. Only one fixed position by which they oriented themselves and were guided to their ultimate destination. There is only One Truth. Not many, contrary to what the Relativism of our day and age will tell you. And so the Magi set out to discover that Single, Rock-solid Objective Truth: The truth about life. The truth about themselves! The truth about God!!!
Third, and finally — the Magi were on a pilgrimage to Goodness. Because when their journey was at last finished… when they finally discovered Jesus in the arms of his mother, they found that this newborn King was very Good. In stark contrast to King Herod, who proved himself very NOT good… very untrustworthy, evil, malicious, manipulative… This little King… was truly and totally Good. He was Goodness itself! He was, in fact, the Source of all Goodness. All morality. All good behavior. He was, in fact, the Author of the Commandments. The Lawgiver Himself.
In this way, the Magi discovered everything and more that they were looking for. Their journey — their travel — was a total success.
But perhaps we don’t think we can really relate to their experience.
Retreats and pilgrimages are great, and it’s awesome to be able get away to some secluded, beautiful place — a monastery or a convent. …I’m going on silent retreat this coming week. It’s gonna be amazing. And it’s great that these Magi had the flexibility in their lives to just drop everything and go on this insanely long pilgrimage.
But the fact of the matter is, this is impossible for many people. Whether it’s because of financial or physical restraints, some people simply can’t get away. They simply can’t go on any kind of physical pilgrimage.
So does that mean that they’re just out of luck?
No!
Because here’s the really good news: You do not have to physically travel at all to “go on retreat” — to go on a pilgrimage.
You can very easily, as Jesus himself directs us, go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret.”
In fact, this is a far more interesting, much more dramatic, and much longer-lasting experience than all the globetrotting we could ever accomplish in our lifetime…
I love this quote from Catherine Doherty, the founder of the Madonna House: “One day,” she says, “you [will] come to realize that all these geographical spaces are not enough, that they do not satisfy one’s desire for space. At that point, [we] begin the journey inward. This journey,” she says, “is far more beautiful and satisfies far more deeply. [It is} the great journey inward, exploring the vast spaces of God.”
Anybody here a fan of the band, “The Moody Blues?” — I used to listen to them a lot in high school. They have a song called “Thinking Is the Best Way to Travel.” But really, I think The Moody Blues got it wrong. Really it should be:
Praying is the best way to travel!
Contemplation of God and His love for us takes us so much further than planes, trains and automobiles ever could. We go into our inner room, and we discover Christ there. And He takes us on an adventure that will blow our minds if we let Him…
We might sometimes think of nuns and monks in monasteries as living sort of claustrophobic and boring lives… but that is entirely false. They are living in a much wider, much vaster expanse than we are.
We live pretty small lives in comparison actually. They’re busy traversing interior, eternal realities — they’re exploring the deepest trenches of the Divine. They’re hiking the mountains of Heaven. This is what St Teresa of Avila talks about in her classic: “The Interior Castle” — that journey further up and further into the very heart of the Trinity!
Let me ask you this:
Does your home have a designated prayer space yet?
I’m a huge proponent of this. I think that every Christian home should have its own designated prayer space. Even if it’s just a small corner of a room… where you set up a simple “altar” so to speak, with holy images, a couple of candles, a crucifix, a Bible, maybe even a kneeler if you can find one…
A prayer space like that is a place where you can physically travel to even within your own home. It’s like having your own Star of Bethlehem in your own house, guiding you towards an encounter with God. Even if it’s just a particular chair — that right there is my “prayer chair.” Mark it out. Designate it. And then make sure you go there consistently to find Beauty, and Truth, and Goodness. Go there to find Jesus. Have a cup of coffee with Him, crack open your Bible. He’ll be there with you.
Like the Magi, when you travel to that inner room — you are sure to discover Jesus in the arms of His Mother, Mary. And also like the Magi, you’ll be changed. You’ll be transformed soon enough as you travel farther and farther along the path of prayer.
Jesus once told the woman at the well: “Believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.”
This is what the Magi can teach us. They went on a long physical journey, yes — but only to ultimately enter into the fullness of that deeper, eternal journey of the human soul into God. “They went home by another way” we hear… why???
Because they found God-with-us — Immanuel! They discovered Jesus the Incarnate Lord who makes Himself accessible to us wherever we may be. They could never be the same after meeting Him.
This same Jesus especially makes Himself available to us here… in the Sacred Liturgy.
You can travel the entire globe — you can go to China, Uganda, Guatemala, France, India, wherever — but no matter where you go, the Catholic Mass is the same. Languages differ. Local customs may vary. But the heart of the Liturgy is identical. Jesus is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever. He’s also the same here, there, and everywhere.
Anywhere the Eucharist is celebrated, we worship the Father in Spirit and Truth together.
And we are changed together.
We can never be the same after meeting Him.
So… “Wanna get away?”
My answer is Yes! Absolutely YES….
But not to escape real life or my responsibilities. No — I wanna get away in order to embrace my life more fully! Yeah, we wanna get away! Whisk us away into the Heart of God. Take us deeper into You, Lord! Bring us into Your Presence here and now.
So that we can worship You.
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