Angelic Telephone

A quick story about the Apostle Thomas as told to me by Gabriel (because I was annoying him).

Mic and I are sitting on the porch talking to Gabriel. We’ve come to the point now where there’s a fairly open line of communication. I ask Gabriel a question in my head, Gabriel tells Mic the answer and Mic tells me. It’s kind of like a game of angelic telephone. Tonight’s game started when I read aloud the article I wrote earlier: How to Hear God. Gabriel interrupted through Mic, and I yelled at him to let me finish. Which he did. And then told me the part about not touching the snow if it’s too cold is wrong- the snow is important in it’s own right, and has it’s own purpose. But I digress…

As the conversation progressed, with me asking lots of questions, as usual, eventually we got to the part of the game where my questions started to annoy Gabriel. Not the questions themselves, but my refusal to accept his refusal to answer some of them. I’m like a dog with a bone- I just can’t leave things alone. I can actually ask the same question a thousand times in under a minute in my head. You can imagine how that can get annoying, especially for an angel who is rarely, if ever, challenged by anyone- especially a mere human woman. I get that a lot from him. I like to push his buttons sometimes. He’s kind of a dick and it’s fun to get him worked up, especially as I can’t actually hear him the way Mic can. I just laugh as Mic winces and waves his hands as Gabriel roars.

In a bit of revenge, Mic shared with me that Angels are rather sexist towards women. They do not like to occupy women- they think we’re messed up in the head. I think they just cannot control us….

Anyway, after a while of my questions, Gabriel came to talk to me directly via Mic. He does this fairly regularly, but usually Mic has no recollection of the experience. This time was different. This time was for both of us, and when Gabriel left Mic was thrilled that he’d actually gotten to participate. Gabriel told us a story.

“What do you know about Saint Thomas?” he asked. “Very little besides the name.” And there’s more than one, so I wasn’t sure to which Thomas he was referring. “Saint Thomas lived in the time of Jesus, and right after Jesus.” he said. “So he was a Saint before there were Saints” I responded. Early saints were not canonized by the Church, as there wasn’t really a Church at that time, not like we have now.

“Exactly. Thomas doubted everything. He doubted God. He doubted Jesus. He doubted the Resurrection. So Thomas went out into the desert and Jesus appeared to him there. Thomas doubted he was real. He asked him “Are you really Jesus?” And Jesus said “Touch the wounds on my hands if you don’t believe.” And Thomas touched his hands, but he still doubted. So Jesus told him “Touch the nails in my heels if you don’t believe.” And Thomas touched them, but he still doubted. So Jesus told him “Touch the wound in my chest if you still don’t believe.” And Thomas touched his chest and felt his heart beating, and he was shocked. “How can this be?” he asked Jesus. And Jesus said, “Thomas, you still doubt? That’s why you will be a Saint.””

And I said to Gabriel “I’m no saint, I just need to know why.”

Be curious. Be persistent. Don’t give up.