Virtual Pilgrimage Day 4

Today in Rome…

Our pilgrims went to St. Peter’s Square and toured the Vatican Museums.

Listen to the morning talk, “The Treasures of Rome” by Joshua Burks here:

The daily homily was not recorded as the pilgrims went to Mass at St. Peter’s.

Fr. Cole Kennett concelebrating Mass at the Altar of St. Joseph in St. Peter’s Basilica.

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Read the daily recap with Joshua Burks:

Pilgrims, 

First off, a note of grace that we had the opportunity to be joined by Fr. Joseph Wahlmeier at dinner this evening! Indeed, it was such a great time that we didn’t even take a picture together. Fr. Wahlmeier has been studying in Rome and will return to Lincoln this summer as a pastor in Davey, NE, as well as a teacher at St. Gregory the Great Seminary. He was gracious enough to join us for dinner despite completing his thesis studies this morning with a comprehensive oral exam in Biblical Theology, followed by an audience with none other than Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican, followed by the fact that he travels home to Nebraska tomorrow morning. God bless him, it was such an honor to have him with us this evening. Emmaus looks forward to teaching our seminarians alongside Fr. Wahlmeier this coming year. 

Second, it is only fitting that I am as honest as possible with each of you as you make this journey with us from a distance, and I write to you very personally in today’s recap—today was hard. And it’s hard for me to say that today was hard, because today was supposed to be amazing according to my expectations. (And we all know how that goes!) 

Today we visited the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. It was stunning, don’t get me wrong. It was also indescribably hot and we were not the only pilgrims with this idea today. St. Peter’s was nothing less than shoulder to shoulder traffic at most if not all corners of the experience. That was really difficult for me, as the grandeur and beauty of a church like St. Peter’s is best received (in my heart) when I have the freedom and solitude to do it on my own time. 

Reflecting more upon this as the night progresses, I can only think of the unity that Jesus desires for his new creation people. I think of the scenes in Revelation in which heaven is described as containing 144,000+ people surrounding the throne of God. Boy oh boy did St. Peter’s come close to that today, or so it felt. I think of the 5,000 fed by our Lord and his disciples. I think of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Jews who would gather in Jerusalem year after year for the sacred feast of Passover. Nowhere in our faith tradition are we given the expectation that grace and beauty are found through personal space and solitude. 

As a product of my Western American culture, it was difficult for me to share “my special moment” in St. Peter’s with so many others. But I am forced to ask myself—what does Jesus desire for me to learn from this?

This morning, I invited our pilgrims to reflect in the “unsearchable riches of Christ” amid the grandiosity of Rome, especially St. Peter’s Basilica (cf. Eph 3:8). What is equally humbling as it is challenging to me is that each and every human soul in that Basilica today—no matter how sweaty, holy, or cheery they were—is infinitely more cherished by the heart of Jesus than are the frescoes, altars, or statues of that very place. 

Tradition tells us that when St. Lawrence the deacon (3rd century) was asked to turn over the treasures of the Church to the Roman Emperor, that he brought the sick, the poor, and the outcast of the city and presented them, saying, “Behold, the treasures of the Church.” 

I am all too aware of the irony of relinquishing my expectations at the titular basilica of Peter himself. In Matthew 16, after having received apostolic and papal authority from Jesus himself, Peter was not shy to make his expectations for Jesus known before everyone else. Like Peter, today’s experiences linger with me as an opportunity to lay my expectations, hardships, and weaknesses at the feet of Jesus. 

I must assure you that despite any interior hurdles today, graces were ample, palpable, and measurable—in my heart and in the heart of so many fellow pilgrims. How I wish I could write a novel to each of you today describing what it was like to prayerfully process through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s in this Jubilee Year. 

Instead, I would simply like to use this space to ask for your prayers that Jesus gives us every grace we need for the remainder of this trip to persevere amidst difficulties and discover his will for us—as a group and as individuals—in this time of intense grace and vulnerability. 

Ciao, 

Josh