Martin Sheen is a confessed “radical Catholic,” and so it should come as no surprise that his next movie, "The Way," focuses on a father who embarks on a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago – or "Way of St. James" – following the death of his son, played by his real-life son, Emilio Estevez.
The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage that has been tackled by over a 100,000 Christians and the movie was penned by Estevez after Sheen travelled it in 2003. The film looks at the different types of grief people experience in life, and how an intentional inner journey can become a part of their healing.
“The Camino was filled with broken people who were suffering great loss and were in need of healing, which is very typical, because again, the Camino is metaphor for life,” Sheen recently told Christianity Magazine in an interview.
“Everyone is looking for an effort to unite the will of the spirit to the work of the flesh. That’s what all of our lives are about, whether we’re conscious of it or not," he added.
“All of us seek transcendence, and that’s why people walk the Camino. Pilgrimages are an effort to touch the sacred in our lives.”
Although the film deals with spiritual themes, Sheen believes that it encompasses even non-believers since it deals with our deep inner hunger to realise a “moment of clarity” when we know we are loved.
“You see it (knowledge of being loved) in them, or you see the absence of love in them. You see it in people who don’t believe they are loved, or don’t know they are loved, or have not embraced their brokenness, their darkness – they’re still living in the shadow self,” Sheen added.
“When you see the light, and it’s so clear, so obvious, you see someone who knows they are loved and they reflect love in return. Those that are broken, heal, and heal others. That’s the journey of love. That’s the journey of the Camino.”
When Sheen was asked how he specifically knows he is loved, he replied that in his opinion it lies in the “genius of God” who chose to be human, small and broken.
“That makes me realize I am healed, here in this reality, and I can heal others.”