We were discussing The Way directed by Emilio Estevez and starring Emilio and his father, Martin Sheen. It was the movie that had first grabbed our attention and started us on the process that would eventually land us up where we are, walking as much of the Camino de Santiago as we were able.
Actually it was sponsored by tourism interests from the Galicia region of Spain, but the question remains--why would public entities be interested in helping to fund a film based on a thousand-year-old tradition of hiking to the supposed burial place of James the Great, brother of John, son of Zebedee?
Money. It is always about the money. European and even oriental pilgrims have known about and been walking the Camino for quite some time. It is an astounding thing to sit down in a medieval village, one little touched by the hands of time, and watch this procession of people literally from all over the globe. And they don't just walk through. They spend the night, eat and drink, purchase supplies and bring an influx of cash that this otherwise remote region would not receive.
And since the release of The Way a couple or three years back, the Camino de Santiago has begun to swell with another group of pilgrims--Americans!
Ask yourself why anyone does anything, and so often it comes back to one thing--money. Why would someone claim they had been asked to leave a fast-food franchise because of the scars on their child's face from a dog attack? Money. Why would anyone claim that 98 percent of people couldn't view more than five seconds of a graphic video on Facebook purportedly showing some kind of larva protruding from a woman's body? Money--clicking the link adds advertising revenue, so the more people who click, the more money is made.
Which brings me to my headline! How many articles have you seen lately that are captioned with some variation of "...and you won't believe what happened next!" The point is to make you click and read, and so increase advertising revenue. It was introduced by the website Upworthy and if you'll notice, Facebook is full of such headlines these days!
One might be tempted to think in this age of the Internet that we have entered the Golden Age of Communication, but the opposite seems to be the case. Slanted "news", propaganda, and outright lies so abound that it is often difficult to tell the difference between fact and fiction.
There's really nothing new about this occurence. Take for example the story of St. James himself. The Bible records in Acts 12 that James the brother of John was one of the first apostles to be martyred. King Herod had him put to death by sword.
It's extremely difficult to reconcile the Bible account with the stories that have sprung up about St. James. Local tradition says that he was preaching the Gospel in northern Spain when the Virgin Mary appeared to him, standing on a pillar. James returned to Jerusalem where he was murdered by Herod. Leaving the Bible account behind, the story becomes very interesting! You won't believe what happens next!
Angels take up the body of St. James and place it in a rudderless stone boat, where it sails through the Mediterranean Sea, up the coast of the Iberian peninsula and lands in the Galicia region where a massive rock closes around it and it is eventually taken to Compostela. There, according to one of two legends, it is interred and venerated and the source of all these pilgrims making their way to Santiago. A cathedral is built and an entire industry comes into being.
Read up on the history of St. James and the role the city and cathedral have played through the centuries and you will be fascinated by what you learn. Why would someone want you to believe that St. James is buried in this remote region of northern Spain?
As a former journalist and editor, it concerns me that the general public is not more aware of this playing fast and loose with the truth for the sake of making a buck. Snopes.com and other websites stay busy tracking down the rumors and trying to get at the truth but folks seem to busy to consult them. Why we aren't more careful at trying to evaluate the facts before we repost a sensational news item is a mystery to me, but I know I've been guilty of it and it must have something to do with human nature. Just as a general rule of thumb, I would say if something seems difficult to believe it really happened, probably it didn't!
None of this is new. The Internet and Facebook just make it easier to bend, shape or mold the truth for financial purposes.
Pontius Pilate was right to ask that question all those years ago: "What is truth?"
And there's still one good answer to that question. Jesus Christ gave it when He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Want to know more about real truth and to increase your faith? Read the Bible. Listen to the words of Jesus.
James' brother John wrote four books in the New Testament, the Gospel of John and three letters entitled 1, 2 and 3 John. John explained why he wrote what he did in 1 John chapter 5:
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13.)
John concluded his story of the life of Jesus with these words:
"Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:30-31.)
It's a fascinating story that John writes in his Gospel, which is the fourth book of our New Testament. And when you read the Gospel of John, you won't believe what happens next!
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