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Good Morning

On this day in 1688 the English writer John Bunyan died. He’d fought for Parliament during the Civil War, was sent to prison because he refused to stop preaching his Puritan sermons and it was here that he started writing his most famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress. Written in another century full of war, pandemic and threat, the book has strong contemporary resonance, even if the Calvinistic theology and allegorical language is less accessible these days.

The central character ‘Christian’, goes on a journey. He sets off alone, leaving his family, and meets different characters along the way. Some assist him – ‘Help’, ‘Good will’, ‘Hopeful’ for instance. He also meets characters that obstruct him; ‘Mr Legality’, ‘The Giant Despair’ The Flatterer.

A whole landscape is created for him to travel through from the City of Destruction to the Palace Beautiful, through the Valley of Humiliation, Vanity Fair and the River of Death. His purpose; to relieve the heavy burden he feels of living in the world as it is, with him as he is.

Searching for salvation in the Christian sense brings him into close contact with anguish and shame. And while he starts off travelling alone, it is only by the end that Christina, his wife, teaches him that this life, with all its challenges and promise of salvation can only be lived well with others in community, together.

The instinct to try to move forward in order to find ways to relieve the heavy burden we carry is one that many people can recognise. Post pandemic distresses are pressing down. The weight of living in the world as it is, with human beings divided and fractious as we are, is proving nothing short of overwhelming for many people, caught too, between the reality of the heat of climate change and fear of the coming winter cold.

In Christian language the burden the hero carried was his sin, his separation from God. When he laid it down, it wasn’t that everything became instantly perfect. Instead, he found freedom and strength, was learning from his mistakes, was reminded of the importance of love, had even faced down despair. Many people in these days are digging deep for any number of personal, economic or societal reasons. The journey of a pilgrim in the spiritual sense is a journey inward to mine the deepest resiliences of your soul, which are there. It’s not easy to keep moving, but it is absolutely a journey worth making. To hold to your first avowed intent. And be a pilgrim.

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