Tower and Town, April 2017

  (view the full edition)

Clergy Letter: Destinations

'All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.' – Martin Buber

The image of a journey is used for all sorts of things. The journey of life, faith, the universe, hope, our soul … Think of anything and surely someone has already written a book about it. Journeying is one of the most used images in religious language, possibly even overused. However, thinking not so much about the journey itself, but about the destination may give us some fresh insights – or at least, that was true for me.

The first thing to say is that the destination in itself is significant; it is not all about the journey. When you go on holiday, you may enjoy the journey, but also you have chosen the destination for a particular reason. When you study for a degree, the learning is important, but the end-product, whether that is a thesis or a piece of paper that allows you to find a job, is not insignificant either.

That is also true spiritually, for example our Lenten journey leading towards Easter. We aspire in Lent to grow in faith and grow closer to God, but equally we prepare to celebrate that crucial moment in our history: the resurrection of Jesus on the first Easter morning. Thinking about Lent and Easter, we also observe the contrast between the solemnity of the journey and the joy of the destination, so to speak.

This second observation is true for many journeys and destinations. Think for example about pilgrimages: a hard journey culminating in arriving at a holy place. Or more mundane, a building project: hard work leading to a beautiful new or refurbished building – have a look into St Mary’s Church over the next few weeks to see for yourself!

Together these two reflections make us aware of a third truth about destinations, expressed by the quote of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber: often there are other destinations, or outcomes, of which we were unaware when we started our journey. When we start studying, we may discover an interest that leads us to a destination other than we had planned. Or, in our journey towards Easter, we may come across unexpected insights too, about God, or indeed about ourselves.

Maybe that is then the paradox of destinations: we have to choose a particular one to start us on our journey and not lose sight of it too easily, but having arrived, we may find ourselves at that secret, but true, destination, of which we were initially unaware.

I hope that this Easter we may find ourselves having travelled to that very destination.

Janneke Blokland