INTRODUCTION:
In our previous lesson or
topic we identified the issues or problems we are facing today—political,
moral, ecological, economic etc. Here in our second topic we shall deal on the
issues on migration.
OBJECTIVES:At the end of the lesson the
students is be able to:
·
critically
analyze the factors affecting human mobility or migrationand
·
to
design a small project that will show concern for the migrants’ families who
are left behind.
Let Us “SEE”
Activity:
Since this is already Theo 4, our capability building should be
higher. Instead of the usual looking at their experience or interview, let the
students have a photocopy, read and study the first booklet on migration,
authored by Maruja de Asis. It is comprehensive enough to give a picture of
contemporary migration. Give the photocopy to the students before the topic on
migration and require them to submit atleast 1 page written reflection/reaction
paper as their assignment with these guide questions to be discussed in the
class.
Questions:
1) According to the essay,
what are some of the reasons why people migrate to other places or countries?
Explain briefly. Which of these reasons
explain the experience of a member of your family, a relative, or a neighbor?
What is the social situation of his/her family that led him/her to work in
another country?
2) Enumerate some of the
effects or impacts of migration as discussed in the essay. Which of these do
you see in the person you know who migrated to other countries for work? What
has been his/her experience and its effects on him/her and the family he/she
has left behind? What other effects to
you see that are not discussed in the essay. Explain.
3) Asia has distinct
characteristics when it comes to migration. What did the author say are the
patterns or trends in Asian migration?
Do you also see these patterns or trends? Explain your own observations.
( The teacher will give a synthesis of the activity)
Every one of us has
experienced what it feels to be a “stranger”, in one way or another, such as
when we transfer residences, change jobs or move to one place or another as
part of our job, when entering a different place, and in the many ordinary
events, wherein we are the “other” such as in social parties, meeting new
acquaintances, even in markets, transport stations, churches, so forth.
A migrant is an
individual or groups who leave their places of birth for other countries to
find work. All of us have our own stories to share being a “migrant”. We have
been in a migration-like situation, such as transferring residences, changing
jobs as a tourist or whenever or wherever we are in a different space. It is
typically associated with the search for a better life, it is in this sense a
journey of hope.
Migration has permeated
the Filipino life. In fact, our country is now the leading origin country of
overseas migrant. In the latest survey there are about 10.4 billion overseas
labor-migrants, settlers, and irregular migrants in over-200 countries,
territories and ocean-plying vessels. This huge number of migrants produces
billon of pesos remittances to our country.
One of the major
beneficiaries of overseas migration is that universities. The economic status
is the main reason why people migrate because of wanting to invest for the
future of the family—a journey of hope in searching for a better life.
Migration is both a
blessing and a curse—since it has a social, emotional effect to both parents
abroad and children left behind. Studies show that overseas migration has both
positive and negative impact. The positive very significant and appreciated at
the household level the economic impact of the remittances. Remittances
typically used by the families to buy land, build/renovate houses, send family
members to a good school, investment and other more.
However, on the other
side, while family of a labor-migrant enjoying the remittances, negative
impacts opens up to a serious concern of our country or even within the
family—welfare of the migrants(women), national identity, growing materialism
and fears about stability and welfare of the family.
Some
negative impacts
1. In the absence of men, women
who are left behind women initially fell burdened by added duties and
responsibilitiesof supposed for men.
2. In the absence of women,
invited much speculation about the many adverse consequences that could befall
the family, especially the children. Most of the time, while women are abroad
men wasting the hard-earned money and more so resulted to infidelity of men.
3. Children left-behind,
economic gain of the parent contributed to the positive outcomes to the
children left behind. But, there are also an emotional cost borne by the
children and migrant parents.
It is in
this age of migration, that we are all challenge to how we can be of help to
the children left behind—victims of the negative impact of global
migration.
BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
REFLECTIONS:
A.
God: Creator of space and
whose divine presence is thoroughly inclusive, existential and experiential.
Central to the Christian
Faith is the fundamental horizon of a God with us. Ruah is one of the many ways to speak about God’s creative presence
and activity in creation. Literally, ruah
is blowing wind, a stream of air, or breath in motion.In Hebrew Bible, Ruah is the Divine Spirit who creates,
sustains and guides all things
In the reflections of Israel, God was, is and will
forever be with them, giving hope and encouragement in a troubled world,
fulfilling divine fidelity to the promise of shalom.
In our Theology 1 lessons, particularly on the topic Revelation-Faith
, we have learned that symbols or metaphors were used to address the Divine
presence. And one of the significant learning that we have was that, God has no
gender. We may use either HE/SHE. God can be address as a father, mother,
husband, female beloved, companion, friend,etc.
God’s free and unwavering
presence coaches us that the divinizing presence is thoroughly inclusive,
existential and experiential. When we say God is present, that presence is God;
when God acts, that action is God. And He/She actively present even in the most
unexpected, unusual and unfamiliar spaces. The divinizing presence is felt and
known in the ordinary, everyday events of life. There is no other way but in
the ordinariness of life where the “extra” is experienced, known and praised as
well. .
B.
Creation or the World: the
place where God reveals and saves in, other words, God’s home and humanity’s
homing to be home.
The reason why God
cannot, does not, and will not abandon humanity and the whole of God’s
creation, is because it is His/Her home. The Hebrew verb shakhan,”to dwell”,is at the root of shekinah, literally meaning the “dwelling”and“the one who dwells”.As used in the Bible, shekinah speaks of God’s
dwelling among people(confer Ex.25:8; 29-45-46). Shekinah then is another word
for God..
“Household”is a cognate
concept for dwelling. It is from the experience of the household that Israel
constructed its communal self-definition as People of God.” The words “home”and
“homing”are the metaphors used in understanding and speaking about the
relationship of God and humanity and among all beings in creation, including
humans and the natural environment. Home, speaks of destination, a place of
rest, and a base for living.it is both a physical and an experiential concept.Homing-
conveys seeking or questing. Going home, finding a home, making a home, coming
home and arriving home point to homing as a process.
The whole creation is not only God’s gracious gift, it
is also God’s home. To speak of God’s relational and gracious presence means
that God is home in a historical, concrete, particular, phenomenal way. From a
human standpoint, God’s home is not only thoroughly inclusive, existential and
experiential but profoundly temporal, spatial and relative as well. In this
perspective we can understand the exilic struggles of Israel and the plight of
the forsaken and strangers in Israel’s history in terms of the aspiration for
home and the imperative of embarking on a journey towards home.
The Scriptures take “land” as the tangible, physical
data where God’s action of homing takes place amidst contestation among human
beings.
Its significance for us
here is, creation belongs to God, and that includes the land humans use and
dwell in. In other words, humans are
just inhabitants in the land and they are just passing through; land is God’s
own and God is the host who welcomes people, cultures and societies.In this
land, the diverse and often conflicting guests are demanded to behave properly
so that all beings, humans and nature included, will be at home in God’s
dwelling.
C.
Jesus of Nazareth: God’s
carrier of universal presence and humanity’s compassionate companion.
The presence of God in
the world is not passive. What is experienced as revelatory presence of God is a
salvation encounters with God.In our Theology 2 we have learned that, we not
only have a body but we are our body. The materiality of ourselves is the
mediation through which God makes Himself/Herself present and through which we
sense God’s presence at the “heart of the matter”.For the Christians, Jesus is
the human embodiment of God’s presence in the world leading the creation to its
homecoming.
Jesus demonstrated God’s
universal offer of life by being a gracious friend to all, regardless of
culture, ethnicity, gender, religion and social status but especially the outcast,
poor, sinners, weak and victims of injustice.
In a society
characterized by boundaries of differences in terms of social grouping, status,
ranking and those who are “out of place”treated with apathy if not antagonism.
Jesus reached out to the marginal of his time, and many sought him out. There
is a great deal of crossing and revising of boundaries in Jesus’ ministry that
eventually led to his death. Situated in a sacred place (synagogue) and sacred
time(Sabbath), Jesus interpreted the social norms by restoring the bodily
health(that is the whole person) of a man with a withered hand.
In Albert Nolan’s
analysis(1976:20-42), the restoration to health takes significance in a time
and place where illness in various forms is not only physical but tied up to
economic, religious, social and moral spheres. In short, we have a person
short, we have a person whose body is absent because his bodily sickness
prohibits him from working and earning a living. His sickness is also
attributed to the sins of his family. Consequently, he has few friends, if any,
and he is subject to exclusion from the circles of “able-bodied”( thus socially
ostracized and alienated).
Jesus crossed the
boundaries that exclude and kill, and turned to the sick person with a life giving,
saving word: “Come forward!” or “Stand in the center!”The rejected comes
forward, the marginal stands in the center! At stake for Jesus is the sphere of
God’s reign, which is non-geographical but a social body, in which inclusion of
the “least” and respect for the “different other” are seeds of a new social
order.
Jesus ate with the
people. Some people accused him of being a glutton & a drunkard. Whether
Jesus was a guest or host, Jesus displayed warm hospitality. Healing is not
only physical it is intrinsically bound to forgiveness and giving preference to
the poor and outcast in God’s reign.
“Making a place for
hospitality is not only about creating or transforming a physical environment
to make room for a few extra people. The human relationships and commitments
that shape the setting affect whether it is or is not welcoming.”(Pohl, 1999: 151)
The many stories about
Jesus inform us how this “marginal Jew” exploited physical boundaries and
social thresholds as settings of hospitality. Jesus transformed the boundaries
that divide people into “debatable spaces” where conflicts are resolved. In a
society or culture where social relationship and moral norms are strictly
bound, Jesus’ hospitality takes a subversive character because it was the
socially undervalued peoplewho experienced his power as a restoration of
dignity and a sense of recognition.Healing, forgiveness, acceptance, respect,
honor are the consequences of Jesus’ action.In Jesus, humanity se glimpses of
the possibilities and opportunities of what they could fully become.
D.
The church or community
of disciples: Christ bridge of solidarity in the world.
Jesus demonstrated God’s care to those who are afraid,
troubled and excluded because of fear of crossing a new boundary or because of
the structures of society that make people feel that they are outsiders. Jesus
offered His body to accompany people. He challenged His disciples to do the same
that is to offer their hearts of compassion and hands of solidarity.
Jesus’ challenge to those
in dominant and centrist position is also brought to his community of
disciples. Jesus is most critical of his disciples in terms of the way they act
in and out of boundaries.In terms of theme & space in the fourth gospel
strongly suggests two important things:
1. The key issue in the
Johannine communities is not its geographical location or social space. It is a
question of how the disciples position their selves with Jesus not in terms of
following but the kind of participation in Jesus’ cause.
2. Jesus’ group is called
”house””household”and “temple”, in the sense of a fluid space, instead of a fixed sacred
place.Whenever the disciples gather anywhere and seek to follow Jesus “in” the
world there the “sacred space”. In the synagogue, the disciples experience
rejection, hatred and excommunication, In Jesus’ fellowship; it is and must be
different.
In Christopher Schwobel’s
expression (2000:108-123), “the church therefore appears like a bridge
stretching between the life, death and resurrection of Christ and the time when
it cries of ‘Maranatha’come, Lord Jesus.
It is in this perspective
that the community of Jesus’ disciples is a cultural space and a creator of
space as well as for the conversations on life. By conversation, is meant real
encounter between humans, not only in words but also in their actions. Schwobel’s
(2000)metaphor of bridge for the church is speaking about the mission of Jesus
bequeathed to his followers.
Once again, let us try to
look at the function of a bridge according to Filipino theologian Emmanuel S.
de Guzman. In everyday life, a bridge is a physical structure built over a
river or land that allows people or vehicles to cross from one side to another
and it also serves as a connecting route between two geographical points or
adjacent elements in order to reduce differences of time, distance, or human
contexts.
In a symbolical way,
bridges offer people a way to cross geographical, social, economic, political,
cultural and religious boundaries. It can be a space for crossing boundaries
and constructing new boundaries. What divides people may find in the bridge a
space to talk about differences or to form new perceptions and understanding of
others and lessen the conflicts.
The bridge is a space, to use Walter Vogel’s
wisdom(2002:166), where people wash their feet and offer drink, food and
shelter to one another.In human relationships, the bridge is the person or
group who acts as a go-between. When Filipinos want to communicate with one
another esp. between people of different status, they sometimes use a third
party who is familiar with the concerned parties. This bridge serves many
functions, such as conveying messages, negotiating, facilitating, trouble
shooting and even settling disputes and reconciling.
A go-between is
approached not only because of her competence to do things, but because he/she
possesses appealing and trustworthy qualities which make others approach him or
her in the first place. A go—between is gracious and has the ability to
persuade others in order to influence the course of action that benefits all
parties.
In our discussion above
remember that most of us if not all feels how to be a stranger, from our
everyday then, we know what a migrant feels. Recognizing our own strangeness in
a “multi-contextual setting”, in the bridge of solidarity, the category of
“native fades away” because all of us are “native” to our own social locations (De
Guzman,2004:144). The acknowledgement of cultural rootedness has an equalizing
power, whereby on the bridge engages in a relationship that is mutually
enriching and transforming.
In the footstep of the marginal Jew from Nazareth, and
of marginal others in our time space-givers are also required to extend empathy
and compassion to the migrants.
- Teachings of the Church on Migration
The universal church teachings
and concern for migrants came up only at the onset of the second half of the 19th
century, the time when the church was challenged with the massive migrations
from Europe to Americas. Triggered by the “Industrial Revolution” the church
caught themselves unprepared to take any considerable action or say anything at
all on the particular matter.
However, due to the
insistent cry of some groups of migrants in Americas asking for spiritual
assistance moved the Holy See to give more attention to the massive exodus of
the Europeans. US Bishops then, gathered in Rome on 1883 and decided to
establish national or ethnic parishes for the majority. The decision was
ratified by the third council of Baltimore, in 1884, whose final document
dedicated an entire chapter on migrants: Coloniset
Avenis (Setters and Newcomers)—they clarified that the church must take
care of migrants: “they are…Matris
Ecclesiae Filii (children of the Mother Church)”, and they…should be
welcomed because of the explicit commandment in the Holy Scripture:“Love the foreigner, for you were a
foreigner yourself’ and “I was a stranger and you welcomed me”.
In spirit of renewal and
updating, in 1969 gave birth to a new document on migration De Pastorali Migratorum Cura(On the
Pastoral Care of Migrants) by which introduced by Pope Paul VI, that urged to
review the methods of pastoral care of migrants due to increasing number of
migration. The document reaffirmed some essential human rights; the right to
home country, to migrate and the right to preserve one’s native and culture. It
further clarified the competence of the Office for Migrants within the Congregation
of Bishops—dictates and specifies the duties and faculties as a chaplain or
missionaries for migrants and as well recognizing the cooperation/ involvement
of both religious men/women and lay people in the care of migrants.
In
1970, Pope Paul VI launched the Pontifical Commission for the Pastoral Care of
Migrants and Itinerant People. The commission started to work on a new document
in 1978, Chiesa e mobilita humana(Church
and Human Mobility).
This document is composed
of three main parts. First part dedicated to an exhaustive description of the
phenomenon of migration in the modern context. Second part is on the
theoretical description of the attitude of the Church. The last part presents
some practical principle of the pastoral care of migrants such special
responsibility of all faithful/laypeople in the mission among migrants, the
role of the commission on migrants and itinerant people and the importance of
interdisciplinary studies on migration in order to better understand the
problems and be more proactive in their solutions.
In 2004, after 26 years,
instruction Erga Migrantes Caritas
Christi presented by the commission, redefined the answer of the Church to
a major challenge on rapid changes that occurred in the world of migration.
The first part of the
document first part of the document stresses that migration as “signs of times”
and ‘concern of the church”. It introduces biblical and theological
considerations which constitute the fundamental of the concern of the church on
migration—Christ the “foreigner” and Mary as living symbols of the
migrant. The second part presented
“welcome” and “solidarity” as the main values of the pastoral care of migrants
in modern times. It stresses also the importance and special attention to the
religious differentiations of the migrants. Thus, interreligious dialogue,
inculturation is not an option. Third part presents the call to be agents of
pastoral work based on communion in both the sending and receiving Churches. And
the last part listed the pastoral structures supposed to address the challenge
by the ideal of unity and diversity.
Let us “ACT”
ATTITUDES
TOWARDS HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS:
1. Recognize respective
particular cultural locations so that we can accept that we are also the “other”
in the eyes of migrants or the “other”.
2. Accompaniment- being present among the migrant
crossers, in times of fear and trouble as well as in moments of joy and
celebration, so they may experience a hospitable place. To walk with another
side by side, sometimes to walk ahead and sometimes to walk behind, learning
when and how to hold another’s hands and learning when and how to let go of
those hands but always with great concern for the wellbeing of the other that
he or she may successfully cross cultures and economies.
3. Create a hospitable
place- a place where people flourish, a place that offers a shelter of
relationships and provides a sense of personal and communal space. In a
hospitable place, life is celebrated, yet it also has room for brokenness and
deep disappointments. Hospitable spaces should also be alive with particular
commitments and practices but in which guests are not coerced into sharing them.
In matters of religious faith, true welcome does not violate the stranger’s
identity and integrity. Christian groups and communities that offer hospitality
allow room for friendship to grow, of which food, shelter and companionship are
all interrelated in these settings. Hospitable places, in other words, are
“graced shelters where life, the world, and God can be trusted, and where human
existence has meaning and gracious.(see Caron,2005)
SPECIFIC ROLES OR TASK FOR CHRISTIANS
AS SPACE-GIVERS ON THE BRIDGE OF SOLIDARITY:
1. On the bridge, there is
the ministry of exciting storytelling.
-
Amidst
the loneliness, worries and anxieties of migrants and their families, we create
space for people to share their stories of life. For migrants who are
Christians, their stories are linked to the stories of and about Jesus of
Nazareth, so that they may be inspired to do things that are life-giving.
2. On the bridge, there is
the ministry of comforting listening.
-
Lending
a comforting ear to the struggles, difficulties and problems of the migrants
and their families.
3. On the bridge, there is
the ministry of itinerant preaching.
-
This
preaching takes the written word of God as source of consolation and
encouragement for discipleship today.
-
Christians
can help in creating opportunities for those who wish to participate in prayer
meetings, Bible reflections, Bible study groups.
4. On the bridge, there is
the ministry of gracious accommodation.
-
This
entails giving directions, introducing to contacts, attending to them, and
inviting them to homes for meals and other celebrations.
5. On the bridge, there is
the ministry of joyful healing.
-
Encourage
them
6. On the bridge, there is
the ministry of prophetic action.
-
Appreciating
what is good and life-giving and criticizing & denouncing what is bad.
-
Taking
actions that benefit those who are suffering, women and children.
7. On the bridge, there is
the ministry of refreshing table fellowship.
-
Nurturing
personal and communal life through table fellowships like the Eucharist,
communal cultural and religious activities.
8. On the bridge, there is
the ministry of fervent eyewitness.
-
Ministry
as attentive eyewitness sounds the alarm to make people aware of the negative
things that may come their way.
9. On the bridge, there is
the ministry of patient guide.
-
Accompanying
people and being patient in following the pace and process of the migrant.
-
They
have the sense of dignity and security in communion with others.
10. On the bridge, there is
the ministry of empowering the space-givers.
-
Standing
before and on behalf of the community, and empowering others to use their
God-given charisms.
-
Small Group
Project.
Develop/design a small
project that will show our concern for FAMILIES LEFT BEHIND. For students who are migrants in the
Philippines, their small project is about how they can live a meaningful life
as a migrant, or how they can develop a healthy relationship with Filipinos or
in their receiving society.
