Pilgrims’ long journey ends
This story of an accident in the French alps involving a busload of pilgrims caught my attention.
A bus transporting Polish pilgrims from a holy site in the French Alps plunged off a steep mountain road, crashed into a river bank and burst into flames Sunday, killing 26 people, authorities said.
A further 14 people were seriously injured in the disaster, which occurred at about 9:30 a.m. (0730GMT) near the village of Vizille, not far from Grenoble, officials from the prefecture of the Isere region said.
Several other people received less serious injuries. There were conflicting reports of exactly how many people had been on board, but it was believed to be at least 50.
I knew right away where this happened, could picture it, because my family was in Val d’Isere a few years ago on that same road. I knew why they were there.
The pilgrims were returning from the shrine of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Grenoble.
It’s not as famous as other shrines, and it’s certainly not easy to reach, high up a very steep and winding road on a mountaintop. We visited it along a wonderful journey throughout southern France. I’ll never forget the spectacular view from there, and the serenity on the mountain at La Salette.
The story says this group was on about day 12 of a two-week journey to visit shrines and sanctuaries in France, Spain and Portugal, which included Fatima and Lourdes, two of the most famous. Two we have visited as well, coming away with a tremendous peace and renewed spirit.
This suddenly reminds me of something John Paul II wrote about pilgrimage, which I quoted in some writing about the Jubilee of 2000.
“From birth to death, the condition of each individual is that of the homo viator [traveling man],” observes Pope John Paul II in his Bull of Indiction, The Mystery of the Incarnation. “Sacred Scripture, for its part, often attests to the special significance of setting out to go to sacred places. There was a tradition that the Israelite go on pilgrimage to the city where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, or visit the shrine at Bethel (cf. Jg 20:18), or the one at Shiloh where the prayer of Samuel’s mother, Hannah, was heard (cf. 1 Sam 1:3). Willingly subjecting himself to the Law, Jesus too went with Mary and Joseph as a pilgrim to the Holy City of Jerusalem (cf. Lk 2:41). The history of the Church is the living account of an unfinished pilgrimage.”
And so this one, the journey of the Polish pilgrims, is finished. In absolute fullness.
