Paths to God & The Way

In The Way, Tom Avery recently lost his son, Daniel, due to a storm while he was making a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. After deep remorse Tom decided that he would walk the Camino de Santiago and spread Daniel’s ashes along the trial. Along the way Tom meets three important people: Joost, Sarah, and Jack. The one that stands out the most to me is Jack. Tom, Joost, and Sarah meet Jack in a random open field as he was kicking the ground due to the immense pressure on him to overcome his writer’s block. Originally the writer’s block is the reason Jack took up this pilgrimage, to clear his head and get some ideas flowing, but by the end of the movie all the characters realize that their reasoning for walking the Camino de Santiago were wrong all along.

Through the movie, Jack’s journey portrays multiple paths to God according to Ignatian Spirituality that all connect together. One being the path of exploration. Jack started his journey all the way from Paris, France and all throughout the journey Jack was searching for something to kick start his writing. Something spiritual, motivating, or anything that he could make a book out of. That was the main reason for his pilgrimage at the time. But Jack didn’t know what he believed it and that’s why his exploration was so hard. For about 3 months Jack was searching, until Tom, Joost, and Sarah met him in a field. The first meeting between the 4, Jack’s mind is all over the place and is lost trying to make sense of every little twist and turn on the road. Until Sarah tells him “Maybe a dog fight near a cheese farm is simply a dog fight near a cheese farm.” This helps Jack calm down and not try to make a metaphor out of everything he sees on the road. This helps Jack’s path of exploration by getting his mind on the right path and not spiraling out of control like when they first met. Jack’s exploration led him to putting Tom’s story on paper and having much stronger faith and relationship in and with God that will be discussed shortly.

The second path that Jack’s journey embodies is the path of independence. Before Jack met the other 3, he was traveling alone from Paris to accomplish something that had nothing to do with God. He was ignoring his editors and later told the group that he hasn’t step foot in a church for a while. Jack is too caught up in his professional life that he barley had time to devout to God. He has an independent mindset and even describes a true pilgrim experience as someone who “walks with nothing…, lives of the land…, accepts the kindness presented to him, and carries his goods on his back.” What Jack doesn’t notice is that his time on the pilgrimage which was meant for him to overcome his writers block, slowly brought him back to the Lord which portrays his path of return.

Jack was lost, searching, and trying to do everything on his own until he had a rejuvenating experience on his path of return. Throughout the story Jack grew in himself and with the Lord. His path of return started ever since he met Tom, Joost, and Sarah and ended when he finally took the step into the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Jack is amazed at the beautiful interior of the cathedral and is overcome with a feeling of consolation. He is seen crying and praying to the Lord as he finally realizes why he was on the this journey. His journey through the Camino de Santiago reignited his faith in God and towards the end it seemed like his book did not even matter, all of his focus was on his rekindled relationship with God.