by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
“Let us fervently call upon Mary Most Holy, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, and St Joseph her spouse. Let us ask them to enlighten, comfort and guide every family in the world, so that they may fulfill with dignity and peace the mission which God has entrusted to them.” (Pope Francis, December 29, 2013)
Today is the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth and Holy Innocents Day. I recall Pope Francis’ words in his Angelus on this Feast Day last year:
“Today our gaze on the Holy Family lets us also be drawn into the simplicity of the life they led in Nazareth. It is an example that does our families great good, helping them increasingly to become communities of love and reconciliation, in which tenderness, mutual help, and mutual forgiveness is experienced. Let us remember the three key words for living in peace and joy in the family: ‘may I’, ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’.” He reminded us to be “mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family, and its beauty in God’s plan.”
Let us commit ourselves today to model our own families on the Holy Family of Nazareth.
On Holy Innocents Day we commemorate the massacre of innocent infants by King Herod as he sought to kill baby Jesus (Matthew 2:16- 18). This tragic event reminds us of the difficulties that the Holy Family faced. Today, family life is under threat.
Each of us must play our part to strengthen family life in our own homes, in our communities and in our nation.
By the time you read this article I will be in London celebrating Christmas with my family. I am still trying to trace the origins of my maternal Venezuelan grandmother and Barbadian grandfather.
On December 6, my father’s family – the Dials (an Anglicised version of the Sanskrit name Dayal) met at Hillview College, Trinidad, to commemorate the 156th anniversary of the arrival of my paternal forebears to Trinidad. My grandfather changed his name to “Ramdeen”.
The research of genealogist Shamshu Deen shows that 18-year-old Madaree and her father, Toofaney, and 20-year old Oozerun and his father, Deena, arrived in Trinidad on the ship Edith Moore, on December 6, 1858. They were sent to work as indentured labourers on the Mon Plaisir Sugar Estate, Cunupia.
It is not known if Madaree’s and Oozerun’s love for each other blossomed during the 96-day journey from India to Trinidad. We know that they were not married as their ship numbers were not consecutive (154 and 324).
Twenty-two years after arriving in Trinidad, they were on a ship sailing back to India as fare paying passengers. Shamshu Deen saw their names on a ship’s log in 1880 going back to India as fare paying passengers, with four of their five children. Their first son settled in Plum Mitan, in the East of Trinidad. Shamshu Deen then sees the name of the mother and children on the ship’s log of the Scottish Admiral in 1882, but their father was not with them. The children all had Madaree listed as their father’s name. It is assumed that Madaree died in India.
The descendants of the Dial family have accomplished much in various fields of endeavour. We must not forget to celebrate the small achievements made by each member of our family. Each one of us is of worth, with unique knowledge, skills and ability given to us by God.
We must recognise and encourage the growth and development of all our God-given gifts and stand in solidarity with those in need.
A journalist asked me what lessons we can learn from Madaree, Oozerun and the first generation Dials. There are certain family values that they had which we should embrace, e.g. they were not afraid of hard work and they pooled their resources in order to move onward and upwards.
They invested in cocoa plantations and became quite wealthy. In those days ‘cocoa was king’. Today, selfishness and individualism are rampant and too often we fail to see the value of pooling resources so that the rising tide will lift each person in our family.
Strong family ties and deep, abiding faith; respect for elders; thrift; industry; and the foresight to see the value of education as a means of upward social mobility were some of the positive attributes that characterised our ancestors.
Let us thank God for the gift of “family”. Let us “live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the differently-abled, and the poor” (CCC 2208).
