Along the main pilgrim routes, we find milestones marking the remaining distance for the pilgrims to reach their destination. It’s very natural to want to know how far you’ve come, how much further you have to go, and to find courage when you realize you’ve passed the halfway mark and the final stretch remains. Scattered along the countryside of our islands we find many milestones. These were erected during the British imperial rule to assist the British sailors and soldiers find there way by indicating how far they are from Valletta or from Victoria in Gozo. During the Second World War, the distances indicated on these milestones were erased so they would not serve as guidance or aid to the enemy in the event of an invasion.

It is not exactly clear what’s the Maltese word for ‘milestones’ is. In fact, we more commonly use the English word milestones to refer to them. It’s a word often used metaphorically to indicate that a goal, target, or important stage in a process has been reached—whether in studies, a career, research, action plans, development, and so on.

In the Sermon on the Mount, when speaking about forgiveness, Jesus tells those around Him that if the foreign oppressor—the collective enemy of the people—forces them to walk a mile to serve him, they should keep going, even for another mile if necessary (see Mt 5:41).

In a pilgrimage, you will walk much more, but you do so out of free will and with commitment. And even if in daily life you feel like you’re walking endlessly without getting anywhere—like a donkey turning the wheel of a mill—through the pilgrimage you step out of that monotonous cycle and enter into a completely different experience. With each of these milestones, you will feel the satisfaction of having reached another point. But you will also come face-to-face with dark patches, even in broad daylight. Even though you walk as a free person, you carry your ‘everyday life’ with you, and in the solitude of the journey, you will be confronted by it.

Yet, like the milestones, these signs along the journey of life encourage you because they show you that you are still on the right path, even when facing darkness and the melancholy of dusk … And, the farther you travel, the deeper you go into the dark cave that leads to the depths of your heart, where you will relive events, wounds, sorrow and joy—experiences you had locked in closets or buried in trunks but which are still there like decaying corpses.

Do not be afraid! At every juncture, remember that there is someone holding your hand and whispering in your ear words of hope to stop, open, search and sift until you can collect the precious stone that emerges from each and every one of these experiences that you may offer it to Him in gratitude and in total surrender to His loving embrace. And he will return them to you cut and polished to support the foundations of your life, or even become a new foundation on which you can build a new life for yourself … because, even if you return to the same old monotony of daily life, after a pilgrimage nothing remains the same. Nothing can remain the same!”

Psalm 122: A Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
¹ rejoiced when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
² And finally our feet are standing
at your gates, O Jerusalem.
³ Jerusalem is built as a city
that is firmly bound together in unity.
⁴ There the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD,
as it was decreed for Israel
to celebrate the name of the LORD.
⁵ For there the thrones of judgment were established,
the thrones of the house of David.
⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you rest secure.
⁷ May there be peace within your walls
and security in your palaces.”
⁸ Out of love for my relatives and friends,
I will say, “May peace be within you.”
⁹ Out of love for the house of the LORD, our God,
I will pray for your well-being.