“Father Frank, you are a good friend of mine. But if you ever ask me to take that girl back again or even to talk to her again, we will be friends no more!”
I was stunned, not having said anything but only listened to Sant Ram, a court clerk in Suva, tell how his daughter Roshini had shamed him by eloping with a workmate. Roshini had earned good grades in her final secondary school exam. Her father was planning to send her to university in New Zealand. While he was saving money for this, Roshini got a job in the city with an import/export company.
Roshini attracted the notice of Jagdish at work. One day she didn’t return home in the evening. She disappeared. Her family was distraught. They searched among relatives and friends. Sant Ram’s wife wept continuously.
A few days later Sant Ram located Roshini at Jagdish’s house. She refused to return home so that her father could arrange a simple wedding for her. Then pained, frustrated and angry Sant Ram pointed at his daughter. “From now on you are nothing to us. We don’t know you. If you die none of us will come to your funeral; and if your mother should die I will not let you into the house to cry for her. Never come to my house again. “
I heard all this from Sant Ram when I went to console the family. After telling the story he issued me with the warning. Later that night he dropped me back to the presbytery. As the car came to a halt I was silent for a while. “I’m sorry my friend. I can’t do what you demanded of me. You know that I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. There was once a man who had two sons. The younger one said to him…” Slowly and quietly I related to Sant Ram the parable of the prodigal son. When I finished he was weeping unrestrainedly. I sat for a while in silence, then wished him good night and got out of the car.
After a few months Roshini met her mother by chance in the city. She reported that the romance had soured. Jagdish was going out with other girls and when she remonstrated with him he beat her. Roshini told her mother how unhappy she was. She wanted to return home.
That evening when Sant Ram returned from work Roshini ran to him and threw herself at his feet weeping and begging for pardon. He lifted her up and said to his wife, “Give her something to eat.”
Columban Fr. Frank Hoare lives and works in Fiji.