6 CHAPTER 5 - The Gift of Prophecy
9:12PM, inside Father Eli's room on the third floor, he was seated on his bed while staring at his notebook filled with his illegible writings.
"Ugh. My writing sucks..." he sighed, then shook off his thoughts of his head. This is not the time to lament on his chicken feet calligraphy.
After going through his ugly notes once more, he realized that if he wants to know more about Mira, he will need to ask someone close to Mira who may possibly observe her more frequently than Nick ever was. It has to be someone who knows her well and understands the pattern of her behavior especially the changes she underwent recently. The only person that could fit the description seemed to be Mira's younger sister, Christine.
Tintin, being in the same room and going to the same school as Mira, would at least have more exposure on her sister's daily life. Regardless if Tintin was a mere preschool kid, she could at least provide Fr. Eli a possible lead that can help in this case. Reaching this conclusion, he knew he had to meet Christine the soonest.
He started pressing the keys of his Nokia 1110. His clean and slender fingers slid and pressed adeptly on the keypads, creating a pattern of rhythmic clicking sounds blending with its keypad tone. After checking the messages, he gave it a nod to show his satisfaction. Finding Ligaya's number in the list of contacts saved on his phone, he pressed send and waited a couple of seconds before receiving the 'sent' confirmation. To check further if the messages were sent, he went over his 'Sent Items'.
[ Ligaya, I hav another soul 2 entrust u. ]
[ Will let u know when I'll bring her 2 d community … maybe n 3-4 weeks?? ]
He was still rereading the message he sent for the third time when his phone suddenly rang with a vibration. It startled him so much that he almost tossed the phone too high into the air. That freaky conversation he had earlier about the midnight spirits made him reeeeeeally jittery tonight. He checked on his phone, it was just a text reply from Ligaya.
[ Is it the lil girl named Christine? 1 w/ d ability 2 'see'?? ]
"Now that's surprising," he thought in awe.
"But I guess I should really get used to her prophetic gift."
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June 2001.
Aliaga, Nueva Ecija.
Before Ligaya became part of the charismatic community, she was a renowned fortune-teller. Her exceptionally accurate divination paired with her innate ability created a sensation once from the province she hailed from. But the practice of divination has always been condemned by the Church as the act of peering into the will of the heavens often warrants severe punishments. And Ligaya was one of the examples of such a case.
As she used her gift for profiteering while using God's name, Ligaya's prized abilities began to go out of control. It was around that month that her divination showed purely bad omens for people seeking her guidance. This also led to a series of events that exposed her previous fraudulent acts. This soured the relationship she had with her town's people. She was even labeled as a plague by some of the folks and was banished from the town during the Taong-putik Festival (1). Hiding through crowds of people dressed in mud and dried leaves during the night, she went on her way with only candle lights as her guide going south. She thought of going to Manila to seek for a new home and a better opportunity in life since she had no relatives outside of Nueva Ecija anyway.
As if those weren't the worst, she eventually started suffering from nightmares showing different scenes foretelling her tragic death every night: being hit by a speeding car on a dark road, being crushed by a landslide of rocks by the mountainside, falling to her death and more. Yeah, it should be something like the ones seen in the movie Final Destination. Ligaya assumed she was being punished by the heavens so took those visions as warning signs for upcoming dangers despite how exaggerated some of them were. She ended up becoming more paranoid and crankier than ever.
In reality, what she was actually suffering from was a severe case of demonic obsession. Through this, she experienced being fervently harassed, both spiritually and psychologically, by evil spirits that gave her false visions that she was going to suffer a tragically painful death and that it was a curse of God a punishment for her deeds. She would even hear voices inside her head. She was confused and could no longer differentiate prophetic dreams from ordinary nightmares. This caused the young lady to fall into extreme stress and despair, begging God for mercy that she could almost crawl her way from the entrance of Barasoain Church to the altar in prayer (2). Fear started to eat away her sanity. If not for her regularly attending Sunday Mass, she could have succumbed to possession. For her, there's little faith and almost no hope for salvation.
"I'm finished," she thought, incredibly despondent, as she passed by one of the oldest churches in the province of Bulacan. That was when she crossed paths with Father Fabian Magcalas, an exorcist who also learned from the same mentor, Fr. Gabriel Linao, so he's technically Fr. Eli's senior.
Fr. Fabian, someone who trained himself to become a person of high spirituality, was gifted by the Holy Spirit two abilities: supernatural healing (3) and spiritual discernment. These graces granted to Fr. Fabian helped him become an exceptional exorcist. It's just that he was too elusive due to his constant travels across the country in pursuit of knowledge and spiritual development. After all, a priest couldn't really be tied to just a single ministry.
According to him, the solution for Ligaya's problem was not really complicated. The first thing she was tasked to do was renounce her past deeds through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in layman's term, undergo a confession (with a priest, of course). He also noted how she lacked faith that her prayers were heard by God and that she will be protected by Him regardless. That was the reason why the evil spirits had so much power to mess with her mind. Fr. Fabian even told her that she should be able to drive out these latching spirits away if she only focused on improving her spiritual life. With this, she could patch all the loopholes in her spirit that can be used against her, making it hard for them to come back.
"You just really have to believe. If God really wanted you dead, you shouldn't have been awake this morning. Given how powerful these twelve spirits latching on you, he could have just allowed them to strangle you to death instead of letting them just mess with you in your dreams," Fr. Fabian told her.
"I believe that you should treated this as God's test instead of a punishment. I think he just wanted you to come to Him of your own accord rather than just rely on yourself."
"It must have been hard trying to do things on your own…"
After hearing those words, tears came falling from Ligaya's eyes like a heavy downpour. She felt that, finally, someone understands her. The loneliness, the self-doubt, the burden and the weariness inside her heart began to dissipate as the rain kept falling, clearing up the sky. She began to see more clearly. Fr. Fabian gently pulled her up from her kneeling position and removed the dusts on her skirt. In her eyes, he looked like a loving and forgiving father – one who has a heart to embrace the world.
"So this is what a true priest is like…" she thought to herself. He looked so different from the other priests she had ever encountered, priests who looked at her with disdain, apprehension and disgust.
After that encounter, she began to change herself. She actively took part in the catechetical works (4) until she was adopted into a charismatic community in the city. She promised to God and to herself that she will give back to others the goodness she received from Fr. Fabian on that day through faithfully serving other people with special needs like hers.
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9:34PM
[ I think sumthing happend 2 her so it cud take a while 4 u 2 meet her ]
Fr. Eli replied to her with a little bit of hesitation. Actually, he was still worried as to what happened to the girl but he really can't leave.
[ Dont worry Father. D gurl s fine. VM protectd by God. :D ]
[ I'll probbly see her on Fri. ;) ]
[ If u dont believ me, u can send a txt 2 her dad & check. U should probbly receiv d message by 2nyt or 2morrow. :p ]
He received three messages in reply. He could tell from these that Ligaya probably knows what happened to the girl so that's why she could say this with certainty. This girl is very mischievous but he knows she isn't the type to make such jokes on serious matters like this. Moreover, he really did have no choice but to wait for the news.
"Ah, just let it go and let God do as He will. I should sleep early and ask early tomorrow morning about it," he finally relented. It wasn't really like him to overthink.
He decided to entrust everything out of his control into the Sovereign Hands of the Almighty One through prayer. He offered a single Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be for the intentions of the Dinaguiba family as well as the other families whose cases he was still handling. His evening prayer ended a quarter before 10PM. He then retired to his bed and went fast asleep. The noises outside shouldn't bother him anyway if he's too deep in his slumber. He was resolved not to listen at all!
Evening came, morning followed. He rose up from his bed at 5:30AM – as a force of habit. He ate his breakfast, took a bath and readied himself for the day. Taking his liturgy guide, he attended the Holy Hour at 6:30 where the seminarians were to read the scriptures and offer some prayers for the sake of the world, the nation and the church. There is the Morning Prayer with some of the classes inside the seminary at 7:30. From there they take turns leading the prayer and doing scripture readings. At 8AM, the entire Seminary Community takes part in the Mass at the main chapel.
Fr. Eli immediately went to his office after the morning rituals are over. Why is the life in the seminary so tedious? Priests are trained in such a way to master the scriptures and teachings of the church so that they can be put into practice. In his opinion, it's not always effective to most of them though. There were some older priests snoozing out there, heads bobbing up and down. But this is their way of life. It's not really bad, but it could be really dull and boring sometimes.
Despite being drained, he didn't forget to send a text message to Nick to check up on the status of his kids – a message to which Nick replied through call instead of SMS. He told Fr. Eli that everything's all right as Christine only fell from a few steps of their staircase and only sprained herself a bit. She just fell unconscious due to her asthma attack after seeing something shocking last night. Meanwhile, Mira, after seeing her sister's asthma problem acting up, she swiftly ran outside in her panic to get Christine some medications and a physician to attend to her who lived a few blocks away from their home. By the time Nick got home, he found out that everything was under control thanks to Mira's speedy reaction to the emergency situation. Now, he wouldn't stop singing praises of her daughter for being well-raised by her mother. Fr. Eli's face was now in grimace as he's stuck listening to his blabbering without a choice. 15 minutes. 20 minutes. 30 minutes.
Inside his mind: "O God, no choice. Let's just agree with him then put down the phone politely. Make life easy, Eli. Nice. And. Easy."
He's actually starting to doubt if he was actually making himself appear as 'not a busy person'.
After Nick confirmed that he would be bringing Christine on Friday and a few more arrangements, they finally ended the call. Only then did Fr. Eli suddenly remember Ligaya's text message to him last night. He could already imagine vividly Ligaya's goofy expression while saying: "See? I told you."
That thought made his face twitch so hard, his gentle façade is disappearing.
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(1) Taong-putik Festival – a religious ritual done during 24th of June in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija in honor of St. John the Baptist. During the feast, people are smeared in mud and covered with dried leaves while roaming the village asking for alms, emulating St. John the Baptist who often dressed himself as a beggar in biblical stories. Home owners would often give them money or candles as they believe such gestures would bless them.
(2) There is a common belief among Filipino Catholics that a person who practices walking on his/her knees on the aisle from the entrance to the front of the altar would find it easier to have their prayers granted by God. It can also show an act of penitence to some.
(3) Supernatural healing – a general term for a method of treatment based on mysticism, which is granted to a person suffering from a disturbance of the spirit that led them to experience physical illness that can't be detected through empirical approaches.
(4) Catechetical work – a form of religious service done through educating people, both young and old, on the basics of the Catholic religion.
