We are in a season of pilgrimages in the Christian tradition. Advent is a season of pilgrimage as we draw closer to Christmas, the birth of Christ. All the readings focus on the coming of the gift of Christ.
Christmastide is also a season, 12 days long, between Christmas day and Epiphany=12 days. The move this time is toward the coming of the Maji, the "We Three Kings of Orient Are." In her new book--a Jewish take on the New Testament by Amy Jill Levine--she reminds us that the Maji weren't necessarily wise men per se, but nonetheless players in this unfolding drama.
Soon, Jesus, Mary and Joseph would be taking off for Egypt on a pilgrimage. In fact, the Egyptian Coptic Christians in northern Egypt know of the wells where the family may have stopped by.
The pilgrimage is afoot!
Pace, B
