During June Gaynor and I spent a few days in the Basque
city of Bilbao, an interesting place with many things to see including
the famous Guggenheim Museum. One of the most interesting places
we visited during our stay was the basilica of Our Lady of Begoňa
(pictured below) dating from the sixteenth century.
This church is situated in the district of Begoňa high up on a hill
overlooking the city and visible for miles around. The name ‘Our
Lady of Begoňa’ comes from an appearance the Blessed Virgin Mary is
believed to have made to some local people in the early 16th century
and under this title Mary is the patron saint of the whole Biscay
region of Spain. In the Basque language she is affectionately
called ‘Amatxu’ - Mother.
One way of getting to this church is to walk up the Mallona Steps from
the old town area of Bilbao. These are very steep, perhaps even
steeper than many of the paths up the Great Orme, and it is a long
climb up to the church at the top. Along the way at intervals are
the ‘Stations of the Cross’, which devotion many pilgrims to Our Lady
of Begoňa doubtless follow on their way to the shrine. The
steepness of the way must add to the sense of being with our Lord in
his ‘via dolorosa’.
I have to confess at this point that there is another, easier way to
get at least part of the way to the top - a lift, which we indeed
took! The upper part of the ascent which we did do on foot was
through a built up area with lots of blocks of flats and I couldn’t
help feeling that these had spoilt what must once have been a very
beautiful area. It must also seem a bit strange doing the
stations in such a busy built up area before arriving at the peace of
the sanctuary above.
Yet on reflection I began to feel that these rather ugly blocks of
flats actually added something to the whole feel of the place.
The church and its immediate area were still beautiful and peaceful but
being so near to such a busy residential area meant that here ‘sacred’
and ‘secular’ were all mixed up together. Pilgrims doing the
‘Stations’ on the way up to the shrine would be praying in the midst of
the normal life going on around them, bringing that life to God’s
throne of grace.
This is surely as it should be. Our spiritual lives, our worship
and our prayer are surely not meant to be cut off, or detached from
normal life. When Our Lord was crucified he had to carry his cross
through the teeming, noisy, messy streets of Jerusalem and He died in
full view of the passing crowds. Mary, his Mother, whose shrine
at Begoňa we are considering, stood at the foot of the Cross in full
view of anyone who happened to be there.
This month we keep Holy Cross Day, which this year falls on a
Sunday. It is a day which gives us the opportunity to celebrate
the triumph of the Cross in a less emotionally fraught atmosphere than
in Holy Week itself. As we keep it though we need to remember
that we must not lock the Cross up in our churches and holy places but
live and pray this mystery in the messiness of the world around
us. Wouldn’t it be great to have the Stations of the Cross on the
slopes of the Great Orme?
As a short postscript to my letter – the Begoňa is also a flower
(begonia in English) - and in Bilbao in front of the Guggenheim Museum
is the famous Puppy which is covered with these flowers.