All the lessons today speak to me of pilgrimage, of journeying to our holy home in the heart of God. The prophet Jeremiah’s image is full of hope, of joy and gladness to be found on the pilgrim’s way back to the Lord where “they shall never languish again.” What a precious promise! We find it echoed in Revelation 21:1-7: “…God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.”

The psalmist knows the joy that blesses those on this journey as he says, “Happy are the people…whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way.” As a metaphor for our holy destination, Jeremiah uses Zion for what the psalmist calls “the courts of the Lord.” In the gospel, we find the holy family, Mary, Joseph, and the boy Jesus, on the pilgrims’ way, making their annual trek to Jerusalem, to Mt. Zion, for the Passover festival. Mary and Joseph thought Jesus was accompanying them in honoring the Law of Moses, but in fact, they were accompanying Jesus on his earthly pilgrimage as he walked step by step on his pilgrim way to his cross, his resurrection and his ascension back into the heart of God. Because we know the end of Christ Jesus’ pilgrimage, we can be filled with hope as we follow him and walk the pilgrims’ way today.

As we journey forth, let us join in the apostle Paul’s prayer found in our epistle lesson, “…that the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give [us] a spirit of wisdom and revelation as [we] come to know him, so that, with the eyes of [our hearts] enlightened, [we] may know what is the hope to which he has called [us], what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe,” who trust in God’s promise to draw us into his holy presence, his glory, his love where “mourning and crying and pain will be no more.”.