Guardians of Memory

Last updated on: September 3, 2014 at 11:29 am by Father Pablo Migone

Guardians of Memory 2014-09-03T11:29:00-05:00 Father Pablo Migone

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When I travel to Peru, I often visit my grandfather’s cousin Maruja. For years she has gathered her side of the family for lunch on Wednesdays. Whenever I join them, I am usually the youngest by decades. One particular time as lunch was served, Maruja shared that the dish for that day had been her grandmother’s favorite dish to cook. She loved preparing it because it had been her husband’s favorite dish to eat. Her husband, my great great grandfather Emmanuele, died in 1917. I found myself enjoying in 2010 the same flavors that one century before had delighted my great great grandfather’s palate.

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When I was sixteen years old my grandmother took me to the Jewish cemetery of Lima to visit the tomb of her grandfather. Pausing at the cemetery’s entrance to find my great great grandfather’s name inscribed in a plaque, a gardener approached me with a yamaka to wear on top of my head. As I placed a stone on the tomb of Hermann Abramsohn, my grandmother began to share about her grandfather who died twenty-three years before she was born. He left Prussia in the 1860s during the German Unification War after receiving an almost mortal shot to the chest. The bullet remained lodged close to his heart, so for the rest of his life, he had to be cautious not to be hit on the chest. In Lima he married, had four children, and opened a cigar store downtown. During the days of carnival leading up to Lent in 1897, Hermann opened his cigar shop for business against his wife’s wishes. While standing outside the store, he was hit by a water balloon close to the heart, he collapsed and died.

During the Provincial Assembly of Priests in Savannah three weeks ago, Father Nicanor Austriaco, OP, shared with us the words of Saint John Paul II, that the elderly are the “guardians of shared memory.” In a world where many of the elderly are cast aside and feel purposeless, their vocation is to share their wisdom, advice, and guidance with the younger generations. The elderly are able to discover God’s providence and mercy as they reminisce and help the younger to do the same. In his 1999 Letter to the Elderly, John Paul II wrote that “to exclude the elderly is in a sense to deny the past, in which the present is firmly rooted, in the name of a modernity without memory.”

I have found in spending time with the elderly of my family and my parish family, that while the young are inspired by their dreams of the future, the elderly are inspired by their memories from the past. The elderly guard memories that ground and guide families, whole societies and the Church. For this to unfold, the elderly need our time, respect, and love. The two stories I shared above are but two of many stories that link me to my family’s past, and I had the privilege to learn them because I took the time to listen.

In his Letter to the Elderly, John Paul II cited the ancient Greek Phocylides, “respect grey hair: give to the elderly sage the same signs of respect that you give your own father.” In following this advice, all generations will be enriched and grounded, and find fulfilment through the memories shared.

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