MIGRATION | KAIROS GLOBAL | APRIL 2024

Author: Joseph Anthraper

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, although the penitent is expected to have ‘perfect contrition’ for his/her sins, often times, God in his great love and humility, wholeheartedly would welcome the ‘imperfect contrition’ of his beloved children – moving the penitent through the workings of the Holy Spirit and the prompting of grace, and bringing the process of reconciliation to completion through sacramental absolution (CCC 1451-1453). In his infinite goodness, even the fear of eternal damnation (hell) and the other penalties threatening the sinner, is a good enough starting point for God. The grace that never overwhelms, but gently walking side by side with the person, leading him/her to the fullness of His purpose. Even in today's world that is increasingly becoming more hostile and antithetical to (what it believes is) the Christian message, I believe grace is slowly moving in unexpected places and among unsuspecting people, and whomsoever responds is led to a greater realm, that no eye has seen, nor ear heard.

Migration is a comedy-adventure animation movie from Universal Pictures and Illumination, about a family of mallard ducks, living in an idyllic pond with all the basic necessities and amenities of life, deep in a forest somewhere in New England – Mack, Pam and their kids Dax and Gwen. Life is wonderful, just for the tiny problem that Mack is a super-protective dad, who is all too aware of the dangers of the outside world and tries to hammer into the heads of Dax and Gwen, the dangers lurking around the corner – much to the dismay of his wife Pam as well as son Dax, both of whom love to fly out and see the world.

So it happens that one day during a migration season, a flock of migrating ducks take a pit stop at their pond – and oh boy, isn't Dax excited to meet the new arrivals. The group tells him that they are on their way to Jamaica, and invites the Mallard family to join them, to see the golden glowing beaches of Jamaica. Pam, Dax and Gwen are overjoyed at the prospect of flying to Jamaica – but not Mack! Mack, rather politely (or rudely, depending on whether you ask Mack or Pam), asks the visiting company of ducks to leave and announces that they – the Mallard family, are going nowhere – this pond is their home and more importantly, the unknown outside world is full of dangers! Pam and Mack have a serious confrontation on the matter, wherein Pam makes clear her displeasure at Mack's ways of life and parenting, which makes Mack sad, of course, he finds it simply inconceivable as to why his wife and children wouldn't understand what is so clear as daylight to him.

Yet, in order not to lose his family, the next day, Mack announces that they are going on a holiday – you guessed it right, to Jamaica. Gwen pleads with their elderly uncle Dan, who also decides to join in the journey – and thus begins the journey of the Mallards to Jamaica. On the first day of flight, to their surprise they discover all other birds flying in the opposite direction and soon discover the reason: they fly straight into a rainstorm! As they take refuge in a swamp, they are invited home by an elderly heron, a usual predator-in-disguise in the many frightening stories that Mack used to tell his children to apprise them of the dangers around. She force-invites them to spend the night at her shack with her bed-ridden husband. Scared and totally out of wits, Mack and Pam try to escape at the dead of night with their kids, but to their utter dismay, they walk straight into the heron, who they see is about to eat their sleeping children – but no, lo and behold, she was protecting them from the real predator – a catfish!

Saying goodbye to the herons in the morning, the Mallard family along with Uncle Dan resume their trip onwards and upwards to Jamaica – just a small problem though; they lose their way and end up among the skyscrapers in Manhattan, New York City. Inadvertently, Uncle Dan ends up in confrontation with a group of pigeons, but the Mallards soon becomes friends with the leader of the pigeons, Chump, who leads them to Delroy, his friend, who hails from Jamaica, but now is caged by the famous human chef, whose speciality is...  yes, roast duck, indeed! Though initially impervious to the idea of a daring rescue act, at Dax's behest, Mack and Pam do the impossible and rescue Delroy from the cage of the evil chef, and Delroy promptly promises them to show the way to Jamaica.

Resuming their journey, they meet a group of Pekins, who live in a duck-paradise created for them by their human owners. However, the Mallards soon realise that the owners are selling the Pekins to a restaurant – the one owned by (drumrolls please....) who else, but our very own evil chef, and soon have to devise a plan to rescue the Pekins too. With brute force and duck-cunning, they do that too, much to the dismay of the chef. Now that he has been twice out-witted, he pulls out all guns and tracks down the migrating birds and captures all of them –  all except Dax and Gwen! Would Dax and Gwen be able to save their parents and would Mack and Pam find strength in them for one last fight to take them to Jamaica against all odds forms the rest of the story.

Migration is a light-hearted, easy to enjoy, family movie – just plain old-school entertainment. Yet, every good story points to a deeper spiritual truth – and in this case, I think it was interesting to see how yielding to the prompting to do one good thing, out of love for his family, at the start of the movie slowly brings out the courage and adventure in Mack. CS Lewis puts it aptly when he says, Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of...