Not what Jesus had in mind...

I´m in Santiago---oddly, traveling the last 200 or so kilometer took no toll whatsoever on my ulcerated foot blister (I suppose coming by train was the trick that I caught on to only too late in the game!).
I attended the pilgrim mass in the Cathedral today at noon. I´m sorry to say it was disconcerting. There was a group of about 20 Italian politicians visiting, accompanied by an Italian bishop, who were escorted to what might be called special ring-side seats right by the altar. There was no special place reserved at all for the pilgrims who had arrived after their long trek--they seemed scattered around the church, and some of them were standing. Various folks seemed to be swanning around looking important and cow towing to the diginitaries, with no special attention to the pilgrims.
The gospel chosen for today (though not today´s gospel in the calendar, I believe) was, deliciously, one from Matthew which actually involves Santiago (James): James´s mother asks Jesus to give her son(s), Santiago and john, a special place in the Kingdom, and Jesus replies that in earthly kingdoms the powerful and rich assume places of honor, but in God´s kingdom the important don´t assume places of honor but serve those who have the least (I´m half paraphrasing--based on what I remember from the gospel itself and from hearing it in Spanish this morning). There seemed to me an obvious connection between the gospel and the pagaent we had all witnessed, but the homilist chose to preach on themes other than those in the gospel!
At the end of most masses in churches along the camino, as readers of this blog know, the pilgrims are called up for a blessing, and the whole church prays together for the intercession of James and Mary for our health and safety. The Cathedral mass, however, ends with no such humble petition. Instead, it ends with what can only be described as a a circus performance. Former altar boys will remember the thurible, that little brass bowl of incense that is used to incense the altar. Well, Santigao´´s cathedral famously has an enormous one, at least as big as a large man´s torso. Six guys pull on an enormous pulley attached to the cathedral ceiling to get this baby swinging, and it rides through an incredible arc, close to the ceiling of this large cathedral, from one side right across the chruch to the other side. The closest thing it resembles would be the man on the flying trapeze as the audience--and we are an audience, not a congregation at this point--follow its flight. Eventually they stop swinging it, and everyone applauds (what else do you do after a good circus act!). Then mass is over and everyone goes home...This great thurible has a venerable tradition, which I understand and respect---it (or predecessors) have been used for centuries, and tradition goes that it was put in place at first to overpower the stench emanating from pilgrims who would have been a bit ripe after months on the road. But by now any connection to those medieval brothers and sisters of ours has been extinguished by the showmanship.
A curmudgeonly rant? Well, a bit I guess. But I suppose after so many days in which the spirituality of the camino has "outperformed," it was too bad--though no big deal--that at the destination of the whole camino the spirituality fell a bit short (just as I myself, admittedly, fell more than a bit short in my pilgrimage!).
Anyway, the pilgrims all seemed happy--and if I was annoyed, none of them seemed to be. And, of course, their spiritual lessons, like mine, had all been learned before they walked into the Cathedral to pay respects to James....