Chapter 4: CHAPTER 3 - Mira's Ambiguous Case
"I think my daughter has opened her third eye, Father," Nick concluded his story with this statement. He's got that serious look on his face which can make one hard to disagree with. After he recounted to Father Eli about Christine's encounters with the paranormal, he seemed pretty sure he figured it out correctly.
Truly, if there was one thing confirmed to Fr. Eli, it was that little Tintin is in possession of a charismatic gift (1) – discernment of spirits. He wouldn't exactly call it 'third eye' as it was ability that transcends any sense of sight. Not even other senses could explain such perception. That's why the other names for such abilities were 'the sixth sense' and 'extrasensory perception' (ESP). Nonetheless, in the Philippines, it was a term which was widely accepted by the public to call such abilities.
"Well, whatever works for him should be fine, I guess," he shrugged at the thought.
He took note of Christine's remarkable extraordinary perception. Children are typically more sensitive to spirits than adults, but hers was exceptionally strong in this aspect. At such a tender age, the little girl has already awakened to an aberrant talent of spiritual discernment. Though her father knew nothing about the essence of her abilities, he strongly suggested against her telling anyone about it. As such, the girl became an odd girl who stayed out of other kids' group. Since she had no one to share her experiences, afraid to be the weird one out by them, she obediently followed her father's suggestion. And so, little Tintin made very few friends whom she couldn't even confide with and this made Nick worry for her. Such a situation could most likely stunt the development of the young girl's social skills.
"Nick, whatever your daughter has is a gift from God. Fear comes from the unknown. You don't understand the uniqueness of her abilities and resolved yourself to isolate her from getting hurt. It may have its adverse effect."
Fr. Eli started to reason out with Nick. Oftentimes, the ability to see things and beings beyond the physical plane could mostly cause dread or uneasiness to most people, but these gifts are critical in some cases. They have access to properly understand some phenomena happening around them. Since the spiritual realm is not visible to the naked eye, people are caught unaware of the lurking dangers brought by unseen entities. Thus, the ability to discern the nature of spirits and understand them has been a prized talent even among spiritual leaders.
On the other hand, the failure to teach these gifted people on how to properly handle their abilities can potentially lead them to self-ruin. Fr. Eli didn't want that and Nick was beginning to see where his being overbearing and being overprotective as a father could have brought Christine. In addition to that, there was really nothing that could absolutely guarantee that her secret ability would escape the notice of others with sharp observation skills. Her social awkwardness would most likely attract unwanted attention, which was probably worse.
"So what should we do with her, Father?" Nick finally asked.
"There's a friend of mine from a charismatic community. Although the age gap is apparent between Tintin and the people in the community, there should be no problem for her from feeling a sense of belonging. The people there are very accommodating, after all."
Fr. Eli replied with a gentle smile of reassurance. He used to read an African proverb on raising children.
[The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.]
Perhaps Nick was a loving father, but sometimes, there are forms of love that fail to make children grow. He couldn't be the only one to grant the child warmth and tender loving care.
"Isolating her cannot take away whatever it is that was given from her. Only by better understanding it can she find her rightful place in God's plan. If you trust in God, I wish you would also put your trust in His people. We are supposed to be called to offer help to those in need and protect them. The world is not after your daughter. I want you to remember that if fear comes from the unknown, then we should face it, understand it and learn from it in order to overcome it. Perhaps this could be an opportunity for you to see something in Christine that could make you proud for what she is. Give it a try, Nick."
A charismatic community is a congregation of believers with different spiritual gifts. Each of its members has abilities unique to them although they can be classified in some categories. Although Christine's is one of the most common gifts, having a strong intuition on the nature of spiritual beings and an accurate judgment on what course of action to take is unique for someone as young as her. She told her father how she handled every paranormal encounters she stumbled upon. It was a total opposite of her older sister, Mira.
"Now can you tell me about Mira? You said she needed help too. I need to know have you learned about her so far."
Fr. Eli proceeded with the interview, probing into the case of the two sisters. To him, it seemed that Mira's case could probably be more serious than Christine's. In fact, in one of the stories recounted by Nick, Christine did mention about the probability of her older sister hurting her. It was just unclear as to why she was sure it would happen. It's possible for it to be a case that needed psychological help or a case for the deliverance team (2) to handle. Either way, Mira did seem to need some serious help.
Nick didn't hold back his questions on this matter. He was never the type to play favorites on his daughters. It's just that the relationship between him and Mira was that of cold civility. He's currently at loss on what to do, so he needed to get all the help he could get from Fr. Eli. So there was no need for him to stand on ceremony. Fr. Eli was patient in answering all of his questions as to how he would start diagnosing the problem of Mira and what solutions were available. Since her case was still an ambiguous one, they had to rule out certain possibilities to make sure they properly cover their bases.
Like symptoms to an underlying illness, there are a certain common signs that could help him deduce what particular degree of spiritual affliction a person is suffering from. For the exorcist to effectively help the victim, it is important to understand its underlying cause before proceeding to conducting the Rites of Exorcism. Aside from the tedious preparations to be done before the Rite, a lot of steps must be followed to check if what the patient needs is to see an exorcist or a psychiatrist. Because sometimes, it is also possible to mistake something psychological as something demonic and vice versa.
According to Nick, Mira was never shown him any obvious signs suggesting she was too socially detached nor were there signs that she was psychologically troubled. She was just very much aloof all the time, to her father's dismay. Despite her seemingly cold exterior, she was still functioning as a normal girl in her late childhood based on the accounts of her teachers and other classmates. She never failed to perform her school duties and most of the time, she would even exceed the performance of an average child in school. She was also quite responsive and opinionated, though she might sound too crude to others sometimes.
As a person who can't help but have his hands moving, although he has an excellent memory and attention to details, Fr. Eli kept jotting down notes of the case as he continued listening to Nick telling him every single detail which could be crucial to the case. His thoughts and everything he learned about from his mentor:
It was important to note that although someone appears to be normal, one can never be so sure that nothing could wrong. A person suffering from a psychological disorder may also appear normal on the outside. Moreover, in past cases of demonic possession, one may notice that most victims would also appear to be normal people while some would show manifestations of a psychological disorders. Demons are inherently intelligent - or rather cunning - that they are capable of masking their presence at will if there is risk of them being found out and expelled from their 'territory'. Thorough checks were needed to gather sufficient information and eventually make a reliable evaluation on this case.
Nevertheless, even without any confirmation, Fr. Eli warned Nick against letting her venture too deep into the occult as it is one of the shortest paths that would lead to the third and the deadliest degree of demonic activity, possession. They both couldn't just risk taking chances that would eventually lead her there. Therefore, Nick took the young priest's advice to heart. He must take Mira away from playing with fire before she finally gets herself burned.
Fr. Eli took note of all that has been discussed during the interview as well as his next steps moving forward with this case. He pulled up a mobile number from his basic phone with the name 'Ligaya' among his contacts. She's one of his friends from the charismatic community he mentioned Nick earlier. As her name's literal meaning, her joyfulness had always been her most memorable characteristic when talking to people while unaware of her disturbing background. Regardless, Ligaya was a trustworthy person and knows how to care for the people entrusted to her. Thus, she was one of the esteemed figures in their community. Perhaps, one of these days, Fr. Eli was thinking of paying her a visit with Christine. And so, he left notes to remind him of this matter.
The skies were already dark as they walked out of the office. The hallways surrounding the office are always dark even in broad daylight. After all, it could be considered to be situated underground. Fortunately, the lights were on so they had no difficulty finding their way out. Fr. Eli, together with Nick and Antoinette, went out of the building and stepped into the darkness of the building premises, all thanks to the towering trees and thick shrubs surrounding the landscape. Who would even suspect that this seminary is actually within Manila with all this greenery?
Antoinette asked for the guards in advance to hail her a cab as the exit was too far for her to walk to. They've already been waiting for 15 minutes but no cab has entered the premises of the seminary to fetch her. Nick got his car parked somewhere nearby. He almost offered the lady a ride home when he suddenly got a call from home. It was Manang Lucy.
"Sir, please go back home. Your children just got into a terrible quarrel just now…"
"Mira ran away from home and I don't know where she went…
"Christine has fallen down the stairs and is currently unconscious!"
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(1) Charismatic gifts, also known as spiritual gifts, refer to supernatural abilities granted to a selected few and is said to be gifts granted by the Holy Spirit. It is distinguished from graces obtained by others through merits of personal sanctification. It could be said, in the narrowest sense, a naturally-endowed extraordinary ability given to an individual. Examples: discernment of spirits, gift of prophecy, speaking tongues, etc.
(2) A deliverance team is composed of a group of spiritually trained individuals whose purpose is to engage in spiritual warfare with demon particularly in cases of demonic possession.
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