People die on the Camino de Santiago from age, illness, and accidents. The hazard I had to face was Spanish drivers. Late in the day, as the pilgrim enters a town he often forgets that city streets have cars in them, and steps off without looking, and…. But nothing happened. Nonetheless, it was a sobering to see the memorials to pilgrims who had died on the Camino.
As the pilgrim climbs the path in the Pyrenees that leads from France ot Spain, he sees a stone cross, on which is written Je suis le chemin – I am the Way.
The pastor of San Juan de Ortega, near Burgos, has this meditation for pilgrims:
If you have to die tomorrow, on the Camino, tell yourself that your life is completely fulfilled because you will be in a state of absolute search. And if you return home, tell yourself that you are still on the way, and that you will always be on the way, because it is a way that knows no end. Know this and never forget it.
Forever we will experience Jesus as the Way to the Father, the Camino leads to Jesus, and He is himself the Camino, as the pilgrim is reminded a hundred time by crosses and inscriptions and graffiti – Yo soy el Camino.