In "Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture", Victor and Edith L.B Turner talk about how pilgrimage is often used as penance. I've always thought pilgrimage should be something that you decide to do because you've had a lifetime of constant reaching and all you've gotten is a cloying falsehood of spirituality. Penance is not punishment exactly, but its not far from it. Its a self-inflicted punishment that you can use to appease God. Not being a Catholic (at least not anymore), I don't see how punishing oneself by such Earthly means would appease God, nor do I think God is so malevolent that he would want his children to suffer. I don't believe the universe will be thrown off course by one man's sins.
Pilgrimage in its ideal form, should be something one arrives at like a logical conclusion, not an abrupt pang of guilt or heartache. Though often long and arduous like penance, pilgrimages are not just about purging oneself of sins and gaining back what you've lost. Its not just about "seeing the light" and the "error of your wanton ways". Its about understanding the world you live in as something that is so much deeper and complex than petty bargains between you and the divine. Going to a sacred place shouldn't be clouded with "what's in it for you" in the afterlife. Its about learning to gaze at life itself with all the wonder of a child seeing its own reflection.
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