It had been a busy day, and I was tired. Returning in darkness from the shop to my rented house I hoped that none of my neighbors would see me. "Father is passing by," shouted a child from the door of his house. A pressing invitation to come in from Mareta, the lady of the house, could not be refused.
Mareta's Methodist niece, Anna, was visiting. She was unwell. Some nights she used to see a black figure approach her bed to choke her. On those nights Anna could not sleep at all. Could I do anything to help her?
“When did the black figure last appear to you?”
"Two nights ago."
"Did anything out of the ordinary happen the day before?”
"I'll tell you what happened, Father", Mareta broke in, "She had her tubes tied. I told her that it was wrong but her husband signed for the operation, and she had it done."
I had a hunch now that the black figure was a projection of guilt feelings.
"When did the figure first appear to you," I asked.
"About two years ago," she replied.
"Did you do something wrong at that time?"
"I had a row with my mother-in-law. I was attending a week-long church program and she complained because I was leaving the children with her each night. I answered her rudely."
"Did anything more serious happen? A mistake or fault you regretted but could not undo?"
Anna burst into tears and sobbed for a while.
"I gave birth to twins at that time, but one died some months later without baptism."
I asked Mareta to light a candle and to bring me holy water and a Bible. I read Saint Luke's gospel chapter 7, verses 36 to 50, the story of the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
“Anna, listen to the words of Jesus, ’her many sins must have been forgiven her or she would not have shown such great love’. Jesus speaks them now to you.”
I explained the different kinds of baptism - baptism by water, by blood and by desire. Anna agreed that she had really desired baptism for her infant and listened as I assured her that God counted that as faith on behalf of her child and had accepted her child into eternal life.
Anna held the lighted candle. Her aunt Mareta laid hands on her and prayed for her. I sprinkled Anna with the holy water, and we finished by praying the Our Father together. I then excused myself and slipped away. Somehow the tiredness was gone.
Some months later I asked Mareta how Anna was. She told me that Anna had not been troubled at night by the black figure since we had prayed for her.
Columban Fr. Frank Hoare lives and works in Fiji.