Stranded Between Two Worlds

In religious contexts, people often speak of the difference between travel and pilgrimage. Travel is usually associated with vacations – something we do on our own terms as a way to experience another world. However, pilgrimage is something quite different, for it is on God’s terms, not ours. Yes, travel is usually a part of it, but it does not have to be anything exotic. Pilgrimage, rather, is an event in our life when we surrender ourselves to the experience.

World Youth Day is a pilgrimage, no doubt about it. Though Morgan and I are not necessarily classified as “pilgrims”, we discovered very quickly that we are not in control of our journey to Sydney. There is nothing like a cancelled leg of a flight to tell you that. That’s right, we made it from Toronto to Vancouver, boarded the plane to travel from Vancouver to Sydney – but never left the airport. After sitting (or sleeping) on the plane for three hours in the middle of the night, we were informed that the plane was broken and we would be stranded for one day. Air Canada did take care of us once they determined the plane could not be repaired, and after a night in the airport, we finally made it to a hotel to get some much needed sleep. After we caught up a bit, we were rescued by our good friend, Marc de Asis, SJ who toured us around UBC, which included a nice hike (see our rather symbolic photo above) followed by sushi with a few friends. Twenty-four hours later, we found ourselves at the Vancouver airport once again to board one plane with a passenger list for two.

The rest of the story is no more eventful than any other plane ride to the other side of the world. We have since settled into our temporary home in Sydney and will begin work shortly.