Sometimes you have to leave home to find home. That’s the paradox of the immigrant experience: casting off from the familiar into the unknown, in hopes of a better life. I think about my ancestors who first came to this country from Ireland, Italy and Austria. They left behind everything they knew in a time before air travel and instant communication; in many cases, when they said goodbye to loved ones at the dock, it was the last time they would ever see each other face-to-face. My life has been much more privileged: I’ve lived almost exclusively within a two hour drive of my family, and whenever I’ve left home it was by choice. I am awed, and a little overwhelmed, thinking about the courage that my immigrant forebears had, and the heartache they endured.
That struggle is portrayed beautifully in “Brooklyn” (2015), directed by John Crowley and written by Nick Hornby (adapted from Colm Tóibín’s novel). Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) is a young Irish woman who leaves her home and family—her mother Mary (Jane Brennan) and sister Rose (Fiona Glascott)—for more opportunities in New York City. At first she is wracked with homesickness, unable to find a foothold in this strange, manic world. But with the help of her community, she slowly finds her place. Just as America begins to feel like home, however, a family tragedy calls her back to Ireland. Eilis finds herself pulled between the home she’s always known and the new one that she’s built for herself across the ocean. She’s also torn between two men who embody those homes: Tony (Emory Cohen) and Jim (Domhnall Gleeson).
“Brooklyn” renders Eilis’s journey in soft light and vivid colors. As a work of historical fiction it can sometimes feel too clean, but this style is used to evoke an emotional reality: the way that the heart attaches itself to a place, and how the particulars of that place become more beautiful the more it feels like home. The film’s overall beauty also serves to make Eilis’s choice more difficult. She is choosing between “competing goods,” to borrow a term from Ignatian discernment. In those situations, St. Ignatius counsels us to determine which of the two options makes us more loving and more free to live the life God desires for us. These are often the most difficult choices to make, since embracing one good means rejecting another. But Eilis realizes that only one will allow her to be true to herself.
We all make those choices, in one way or another. Home starts out as something given, but as we grow up it becomes something we have to make for ourselves. That requires courage, faith and attentiveness to the urgings of our hearts. Home isn’t just a place where we feel safe and comfortable, it’s a place where we can truly be ourselves and flourish in community. That doesn’t dull the pain of leaving a place we once called home, but it explains why we leave in the first place. The homesickness fades eventually, although many of us hold onto a little bit of yearning, even if it’s for a place to which we can never return. To me, that’s an echo of our spiritual restlessness, the unquiet part of our soul that knows we’re never truly home until we’re home with God.
Watching this film, I also couldn’t help but think about today’s migrants. “Brooklyn” is a testament to the great bravery and faith it takes to leave everything you know behind and create a new home for yourself somewhere else. It also requires people who will welcome you and help you find your place. For Eilis, one of those people is Father Flood (Jim Broadbent), who not only arranges a job, housing and educational opportunities, but provides a sympathetic ear to her at times of crisis. Catholic priests, sisters and laypeople continue that work today at places like Kino Border Initiative in Nogales, Ariz., the Jesuit mission in Brownsville, Tex. and Annunciation House in El Paso. I look to them for inspiration, especially after a presidential campaign where immigrants were routinely demonized. Eilis finds a home in Brooklyn because so many people are willing to welcome the stranger in their midst. In today’s America, will we dare to do the same?
“Brooklyn” is streaming on Max.
