I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.
Psalms 143:5

As the Psalmist traverses a difficult phase in life one of the various ways solace is found is to look back and realise how wonderful the Lord has been in life through thick and thin in the past. Memory becomes a tool of healing and hope. Three crucial elements of this experience are

1. Remembering the days of Old.
   This looking back could be into the yesterdays of one’s own experiences or of the collective consciousness handed over from ages past.
2. Meditating on what the Lord has done.
   In good times and in difficult times the sustaining presence of the Lord is so special that when one recollects in tranquility one often sees the hand-holding so clearly. Generation after generation has testified to what the Lord has done for them and meditating on these experiences can truly be therapeutic.
3. Pondering the work of the hands of God.
   Innumerable and Immeasurable are the works of the Lord and when we reflect on those we are marveled at how strengthening these thoughts can be giving one courage to face any storm in life. The work of the hands of the Lord could be through manifold channels that the Lord decides and the church and the community of God could be one powerful channel.

I engaged in a conversation with a group of university students and youngsters recently on what they missed most in their new context and what they thought was the best ways to cope with those challenges.

We must realise that there could be several reasons why people move to a new context. Some would move for their studies or their jobs and would be looking forward to return while some others would have moved seeking better prospects. Others would have been forced to move either as refugees, asylum seekers or migrant workers because staying back in their own contexts was never a viable option for them.

The consciousness of people that define their memory consists of several key elements that could bring different associations for different people. For the simple question what do you miss most in the new context the answers included

• Home
  This includes parents, siblings, neighbours, the dear ones, the locality, the ambience, the flora, the fauna, the smell, the tastes, the sights, the sounds, the touch and the essence of living that was so familiar. However hard one tries to build one’s new nest in the new context, in many situations they remain houses and not the homes that sustained one so richly.
• Language and Culture
  To live in a context where one’s own heart language is not spoken is one of the hardest realities to cope with. When people are forced to learn and live in a foreign language and when in the pretext of language skills and integration they are subtly taunted it could be very traumatic. Culture is also a very broad reality and when the very essence of culture, identity and relationships are distinctly different, coping to the new milieu could be harder than anyone could imagine.
• Faith Foundations
  Faith was foundational to the upbringing of several of the migrants and diaspora communities. Their lives were centred around God and sacred spaces. Prayer and spirituality were part and parcel of their living. However when in a new context religion and faith are seen as aberrations of the mind, people find it hard to address the vacuum that is created by the absence of faith engagements.
• Understanding of Time
  It is said- West is West and East is East and the twain shall never meet. One of the reasons for this premise is the understanding of time. For one, time decides when what need be done and for the other people decide when what need be done. One finds pride in punctuality and says- Time and Tide waits for none while the other refuses to be tied down by the clock and the time that it determines.
• Food and Culinary habits
  A basic aspect that makes one at ease is the availability of food that suits their appetite and upbringing. Being forced to move into a new context food patterns and food habits can totally change. The fruits that they found were the tastiest would no longer be available for them even at hefty prices. People who came from sea shores would miss all the food that was webbed to the ocean. People who came from climatic situations that were never determined by the seasons would not comprehend the variety of vegetations that determine the food habits in a new context.

Creating Memories to Cherish: The Call to be the Church

The experiences of today are the memories of the future. Intentionality in the creation of memories would be the meaningful engagement we are today in the lives of migrant and diaspora communities. For this to happen I would want to raise a few questions for our reflection and considered response.

• Can we be the home away from home for people who have left behind their homes and are living in our neighbourhoods with strong memories of their homes?
• Can we respect better the heart languages and cultures that are different from ours and provide a safe space for people who are struggling to cope with new cultural contexts?
• Can we respect the faith expectations of ‘others’ in our reshaping how we offer the church experiences in multi-cultural contexts we are placed in?
• Can we be less judgmental in our understanding of the time sense of others?
• Can we be more respectful of the food habits of others when we offer hospitality?

Yes, people would keep moving on. As time passes the moments they spent with us here and now would become memories. We should be able to ensure that those are good memories which could be experiences worth cherishing for them.

Vinod Victor

May 1, 2024