The End of the World

‘Ladies and gentlemen.
‘Before the birth of Christ, pilgrims from all over the north part of the European continent walked to the edge of the world. This was before France or Spain came into existence, and even before the Romans occupied the whole of the southern part of the land mass. Who knows how far back in time the same roads that we walked over the last six days, were walked by others who had a different objective. They were making their way to what we know as Cape Finisterre. And even without any understanding of Spanish, the name means what we think it means — the edge of the world, and to the ancients, that’s what it was. They would look out to sea from the clifftop and they would be viewing the unknown. No-one knew what lay over the horizon.
‘In the days of prehistory people walked these paths until they got to the cape, and then removed their clothes and burnt them. It was only in the tenth century that the pilgrimage to Santiago became popular for the population of Spain, France and Britain, because it was said that the body of Saint James had been discovered there.
‘And now we come to my point. All pilgrims need is an objective. And the longer that objective has been in place the better. A thousand years is pretty good. So people have been tracking this route for that long, and as the knowledge of the pilgrimage has been enhanced by the provision of written material, and in the last twenty years by the Internet, so has the number of pilgrims increased. This, in turn, has resulted in the provision of services for the peregrinos. I know I’m just giving you a bit of history, but I’ll get to the point in a minute.
I would like to suggest to you, that the reason that the Camino has become what it is, is probably not because of a religious requirement: after all, many non-Christians make the pilgrimage. We might even have some non-Christians amongst us today.
‘Mostly we are motivated by a desire to join with our fellow man in a task which will give us a feeling of accomplishment. What could be more impressive than the completion of the Compostela by Major Strachan and Corporal Jones, who have walked more than seven hundred kilometres from Seville to Santiago, a wonderful achievement particularly considering the Major’s limitations. And if it comes to that, without the Camino, would the successful health provider, Sanctuary, have sponsored the walk, or got their senior people together to accompany the Major and the corporal?
‘So for us the Camino exists in its own right, without any reliance on religious symbolism. We can see it and when we have walked it we can enjoy the achievement. We are human beings and we are part of the great tribe that is humanity. On this walk we have demonstrated our faith, not particularly in the existence of God, whatever you perceive him to be, but in the existence of the tribe, and our mutual reliance on each other.
‘So, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us to go on our separate ways, back to our lives on that other world inhabited by a population who have not been as fortunate as we have, and have not enjoyed the comradeship resulting from the times we have spent together on the pilgrimage.
‘Completing the Camino is a homage to humanity and to each other, and I would be surprised if any of us forget the experience when we have returned to that other world. For myself I am grateful for the opportunity of walking with you, and dining with you this evening, and speaking to you here, not as a man of God, but as a member of the tribe that is humanity, and the group supporting our major and our corporal.’