By Fr Soroj Mullick, SDB –
October, the rosary month, brings to mind the reminiscences of processions, prayers and devotions to Mary. The “crown of roses,” (Rosary) in hand, with its innate beauty and fragrance, as well as ‘thorns’ brings forth the “joy, sorrow, light and glory of Jesus and Mary,” as the rosary is recited. The extraordinary missionary month (October 2019) reminds us of migrant families and individuals, who are ‘forced’ to find livelihood in various parts of the world.
The mysteries of the rosary relate the ‘Holy Family’ with the lives of these who continue to suffer. We are also reminded to pray the Mission Rosary for the five continents, with each colour of the decades representing: Asia (yellow) Europe (white), Oceania (blue), Africa (green), America (red), where the displaced and migrants find themselves.
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India is such process of enforced migration, displacement or disappearance (suicide, go in hiding), that can arrest, detain, abduct or deprive liberty to the citizens by agents of the state. It can conceal the fate or whereabouts of many families and persons, placed outside the legal protection. Such experiences are bitter-sweet sufferings and satisfaction, like the rosary. The sorrowful mysteries bring to mind, those ‘displaced’ being stripped of their lives and liberty; the agony of the families, caught between hope and despair; those stigmatized by society and heavily laden with the loss of the loved ones, find hard to attain justice.
The joyful mysteries remind of the little ‘success stories’ in life, finding certain fulfilment and happiness in the midst of struggles to survive, with the skeletal means to provide with food and lodging, and a bit of peace. Winning cases, putting perpetrators to justice or finding the lost ones and being reunited again with their loved ones, are some of the other joys as well. The glorious mysteries, remind of the right to truth, freedom and dignity. This ‘rising’ joy stems from true-to-life experiences of families ‘rising’ to a hopeful living.
The luminous mysteries that remind of the movements, associations and activists who bond themselves together in the common hope, pain and struggle, is an illuminating light that lights up a path toward an equitable world, where families are living witnesses of being liberated from the cruelty of crime – that their human rights are respected. Incessant campaign to attain a world without ‘displaced’ people and the ‘fight’ for freedom, rights and justice, parallel the repetitive recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary. Praying the rosary is an integral part of Christian faith and religious piety (Cf. Aileen Bacalso, The rosary and the desaparecidos, La Croix, Oct 15, 2019).
Several rosaries are recited and mysteries meditated upon, while many rosaries remain inside the pocket, unused. Every bead prayed with, helps one to transcend the earthly maladies of displacement and migration. The Holy Rosary has a significant and profound meaning, especially among the victims of injustices, violence, war, terrorism and persecutions of all kinds. Let us commit to the cause of such victims of enforced sufferings of all types due to human rights being violated and a rightful living denied.