Pilgrims have a favorite part of the Easter story. You’d think it might be the arrival at the tomb by the women or by the two disciples; tombs have historically been the endpoint of religious pilgrimages. But for most pilgrims, it’s later on Easter Sunday, with two obscure disciples walking away from Jerusalem for an unnamed reason. The resurrected Christ appears, but they don’t recognize him. It’s only after their encounter, as Jesus vanishes, that they start to understand Easter. It’s only after their journey that they recognized its significance: “Were not our hearts burning within us,” they asked each other, “while he talked with us on the road?”
I’m thrilled to have Josh Jeter back in our pages with another travel story. Last summer, we dedicated a special issue to his travels on Mount Athos. Now he’s back with Jeff Carver to describe burning hearts (and burning feet) on one of the world’s most famous pilgrimage routes, the Camino de Santiago. It’s not an Easter article per se, but it reminded me of that Emmaus journey, mixing pain, joy, and hope.
There’s nothing directly related to Holy Week in Rebekah Curtis’s article about miscarriage and the universe either, but it prompted me to think about Jesus’ mother at the Cross, her horror at witnessing the death of the one to whom she gave life—and from whom she would receive it again. And it prompted me to think about Mary after Pentecost, pondering how the one who once dwelled in her physically now again dwelled in her, and she in him.
Wes Jakacki’s piece on Blind Willie Johnson does have a direct connection to Holy Week. And since my Good Friday tradition has long included listening to Cross-themed gospel blues recordings from Johnson and others, I couldn’t refuse Wes’s pitch. (For some reason, “Dark Was the Night” wasn’t on my playlist! I’ve corrected that omission.)
Our secret Facebook group is going well so far. Thanks for everyone who has joined in already. We ran into some spam issues with Facebook, so if you didn’t get an invitation yet, please email us at help@behemothmag.com with Facebook Group as the subject line and your Facebook email in the message. We’re truly eager to share awe and wonder with you more often than fortnightly.
