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Light of the World

Location: Pergamon, Assos, and Alexandria Troas

After yesterday’s late evening return from Ephesus, we started today’s pilgrimage with an “upper room” Mass at our hotel – we turned the rooftop restaurant, which was closed until lunchtime, into our early morning chapel. In Fr. Kasule’s homily, he challenged us to reflect on what, or who, we turn to for our strength and support amidst life’s ups and downs. As Mass concluded, he warned us with a grin that today would be a particularly grueling day, and with that, today’s pilgrimage began. 

Our first stop was Pergamon, one of the seven Churches in Revelation (see Revelation 2:12-17), which was split into two sites. We stepped off the bus into our first rainfall of the pilgrimage; the weather has been unseasonably warm and dry this year, making our pilgrimage more comfortable than usual. At the first Pergamon site, where many advanced medical and psychological practices developed, we could see temple ruins on the adjacent mountaintop.

Trekking through the rain, we could see the Pergamon hilltop ruins through the rainclouds ahead.

Accessing the hilltop temples was nearly impassible except for a lift ride to the top. After arriving at the hilltop Acropolis, we saw ruins of countless pagan temples. This difficult-to-access, yet prominently visible, location was where the generalLysimakhos, under Alexander the Great’s rule, stored his treasury – his own gold-tinted, pagan-temple-surrounded, light-on-a-hill storeroom of gold.

We enjoyed the reprieve of a dry lift ride to the top of Pergamon’s mountaintop temples.
The view from the top of Pergamon, with the Acropolis gold storeroom ruins behind, the Athena temple ruins ahead, and the amphitheater down the mountainside.

After a lunch stop, complete with yet another lunchtime concert series – this time, the restaurant owner serenaded us – we continued on our journey to our next mountaintop destination, Assos. We parked the bus at the foot of the hillside town and hiked winding cobblestone streets to the peak. From there, we could clearly see the landscape of Paul’s third missionary journey (see Acts 20:7-16). It was through these very foothills that Paul returned from his third missionary journey, twice bringing the faith into Greece, heralding its entrance into the western world. The contrast was striking – standing amidst the mountaintop temple ruins of Assos and Pergamon, which had long ago fallen into rubble, picturing Paul walking on pilgrimage, carrying the true Light of the World with him, the Gospel, which still stands and bears innumerable fruit nearly two millennia later.

The mountaintop vista from Assos, overlooking the Aegean Sea toward Troas, a journey Paul walked on his third missionary journey.

From here, we finished our pilgrimage by racing the golden hour sunset towards Alexandria Troas. Through winding countryside roads, with a couple of quick traffic delays, we hoped to see our final destination before it was too dark. Once we arrived, we quickly unloaded – and were met with a locked gate. But this was a fitting way to end our day’s journey: while Paul eventually found passage from here into the western world of Greece during his second missionary journey (see Acts 16:6-15), we were prevented from passing due to recent vandalism to the ruins. Paul’s journey into Greece marked the Gospel’s entrance into the western world, of which we are all inheritors. So, instead of walking through the rubble ruins, we stood at the locked gates and meditated on Paul’s successful passage. Hearing how he was spurred on his evangelical journey to preach the Gospel, I felt inspired to follow in his missionary footsteps.

Standing outside the locked gates, as the sun was quickly setting, we listened to Paul’s successful missionary arrival into the western world from the ancient coasts of Alexandria Troas.

As we continue our Via Apostolica pilgrimage, following the apostles Paul and John, know that we’re carrying you all with us. We could not make this trip without your generous support and prayers. We’re grateful for the countless seeds of apostolic faith you’ve cultivated in our lives, which continue to bear fruit nearly two millennia later. This faith is the true Light of the World.

-Blake Riffel, Diocese of Davenport

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