Shuka! Shuka! Shuka!

-Outside Looking In: In Negative-

Biblical writers were keenly aware of the destructiveness of blocked growth that makes people caricatures of the creative selves they might have been. Demon possession as described in the Bible was a pre-scientific misconception that mental illness was caused by the invasion of evil spirits. Although we know that this view is not literally true, as a metaphor it communicates vividly the demonic destructiveness of deeply distorted growth –e.g. in psychoses or in the collective insanity of institutionalized racism, sexism, or the balance of terror in the nuclear armaments race.

-Howard Clinebell
from Basic Types of Pastoral Care & Counseling

[A standard Pastoral Care text here]

I participated in my first exorcism on Wednesday.
Even three days later I’m not sure what to think.

We were in the tight confines of a room in the private ward.
The Chaplain. Myself. A Nurse - called to assist with prayer.
The Family: Mother, Sister, and the Possessed Girl.

Lying on the bed, her limbs twisted and writhing.
Her breath - her voice - raspy gasping of air.
Her eyes - glassy, distant, and panicked.

The pastor and nurse, on either side of me, began . . .
They Prayed. They Commanded. They Compelled.

‘Shuka! Shuka! Shuka!’
The Imperative form of the verb ‘To Depart’

My lips moved. Words were formed.
One-Fourth Participant. Three-Fourths Observer.

Her body twists. Her eyes flash. She arches her back and sits up.
‘Where is the demon?’ asks the mchungaji.
‘It is here,” she says, indicating her back.

Fingers point. The tone of voice intensifies.
‘Katika Jina la Yesu Kristo, Shuka! Shuka! Shuka!’
She sighs. She collapses. All is quiet.

‘It is gone.’
Her limbs are relaxed. Her breathing is normal. She can walk.
Gathering her things, she and her family leave.

The Voice of Reason protests – throwing up arguments and barriers.
Yet this was neither psychosis nor metaphor.

Among these people.
In this place. In this time. In this context.
This is Reality.

Defenseless, I’m left to wonder – to stand in awe.
What to make of it?
God only knows . . .