In his book called “The Hidden History,” historian Daniel Boorstein,
explains the difference between a traveler and a tourist.
He says travelers are the ones, who explore.
Travelers are the adventurers.
Travelers are the ones who discover the new worlds.
Travelers are the ones who will go to new places
and meet new people and will not have any expectations
but will be open to learning new things and new ideas from all.
He says the traveler is open to the experience of new and the magical.[i]
He goes on to say that a tourist comes to observe.
They stand off a little bit
and they do not immerse themselves.
They do not engage in what they come to see
but they only observe, take note of it,
maybe even take some photos or mementos
and then they go back fundamentally unchanged by the experience.
It is an interesting difference between the root words.
The word “traveler” comes obviously from the word travel
but also that other word “travail” has the same root word,
which means to burden oneself, to labor.
A traveler burdens themselves with newness;
to go where no one else has gone before to use the Star Trek idea.
The idea is to explore.
The idea is to be open.
The idea is to work at it.
On the other hand the root word for “tourist” is“turnus.”
The same root word for turn.
Tourist means to keep turning in circles.
If we think of it, that is what a tourist does.
We have all been tourists at some point.
We come; we observe and leave interested but unchanged.
We go out from our nice hotel;
we go out and observe, take pictures, collect mementos
and then return back to our nice hotel in the evening unchanged.
Maybe had a nice time but
we are fundamentally unchanged by the experience.
The reason I bring up this distinction is that today,
Jesus sends out his disciples not as tourists.
He sends them out as missionary disciples;
he sends them out as travelers.
That is the closest understanding we would have as a traveler
is one to explore and experienced the newness.
And he says don’t take anything with you.
Don’t have any expectations.
No bag. No money.
Just go and embrace the experience.
And take what is offered to and if somebody does not receive you
then shake it off; don’t worry about it;
knock it off and keep going.
It is a great mindset for the disciples.
We can imagine how they come back; they are all excited.
Look what has happened.
And then Jesus reminds them,
“Your reward is not because you have beaten down the devils
but you have been the Word of God;
you’ve been the Holy Spirit and your reward will be in heaven,
reminding us that it is our long-term rewards that come to us.”
You know, as modern-day disciples,
we have to be careful not to be tourists.
There is a temptation to be a tourist in Catholicism today;
we come to Mass; sing some nice songs;
say some nice prayers and then we go back
fundamentally unchanged by our experience.
We meet some people, “Oh yeah, it was lovely. Nice.”
But we are really untouched.
So we observe. We look.
We do the right things and then we go back unchanged.
We go in circles.
While it might be the potential for a virtuous circle,
it is not because we remain the tourists.
We are called instead to be travelers;
to be pilgrims; to be people who, yes,
who come into the circle of life that we call the Eucharist
but we come to engage.
We come with newness; to experience;
and to be open to the Word of God revealed before us.
And not just here.
The openness starts here but it must continue out there;
in the other 167 hours of the week.
That is where the real traveler discovers.
And we come to be open to every experience.
In particular, we seek it out.
We look to engage with somebody
who maybe is just having a bad day;
or engaging with that homeless or broken person;
the person who, as Pope Francis says, is on the periphery;
who is the least welcome;
who is the least expected because we believe
that is where Christ is going to be present to us.
Pope Francis talks not only about where we go;
we go to the existential peripheries as he calls it; the very furthest
and also, he also tells us the how.
The Encuentro de Cristo he calls it.
The Encuentro de Cristo is the encounter with Christ.
The Encounter with Christ is that we expect;
again like the travelers
with wide-eyed expectation to engage
because Christ is there before we ever got there
and wherever “there” is; that may be a person or a place.
And what we come to do is we come to discover
the Christ in this other person.
The most unlikely person sometimes;
or the most unlikely place but we won’t discover that;
we won’t explore that or engage in that unless our mind is open;
unless we are eager to experience it like a traveler;
and not just come to observe like a tourist.
I know that some of you are going to be going on vacation like I am.
And there is an opportunity to actually
be a traveler here and not just be a tourist.
I mean I know there is some attraction in being a tourist;
you have no sort of ties to anything but a traveler engages.
When you go to meet new people in a new place,
ask questions; find out where they are from;
where are you originally from?
What are your dreams?
What are your hopes?
Engage them at every possible level from heart-to-heart
not just word-to-word,
not just place-to-place but heart-to-heart.
If we can do that then we start to live our discipleship.
We do not become a tourist to our Christianity.
We become a pilgrim, a sacred traveler;
one who wants to engage;
one that seeks to encounter the Christ among us.
And that is discipleship today.
May we be a sacred traveler.
A pilgrim. And not a tourist this week.
[i] Jay Cormier, Connections, (July 2016: Mediaworks,7 Lantern Lane, Londonderry, NH) page 1.
