Postscript
That archangel
Patrick Marnham
The news that the Archangel Gabriel ha'sj after an absence of some two thousagp, years, reappeared on earth is causing e° sumsteation in Bavaria. aye eems that motorists in that state h fig been offering a lift to a beautiful Y1,
who has thumbed them down. 0116 time he introduces himself as the Arch
and announces that the end of the 0 nigh. Their initial scepticism hasrof dispelled by his habit of disappearing `rod the passenger seat without any warning -
while the car is still in motion. 4.,,r the
There is sufficient public alarm Bavarian police to have sought guicialiwn- ilc this matter from the Bavarian Cash „,s, hierarchy. According to the biS1161.i5 whoever this beautiful young man is, riTr not the Archangel Gabriel 'because it is conceivable that an Archangel would return to earth in the guise of an hitchhiker Ole Until 1 read this dictat I was on the Unconvinced by the Archangel story. But there is something about bishops which br- ings out one's argumentative side. How on earth do the bishops of Bavaria know what Gabriel thinks of hitchhikers? How else do they think he would get around? Pesumably, like royalty, he carries no
sh. And if he started flapping from tree
to this would heighten public alarm and tract attention from his important message. Biologists would insist on dissec- Ling him. What better way to disguise the hump inwade by the wings than a back pack? Christ nlself after the resurrection was mistaken for a gardener and made his way to Em- !nails on foot, a mere hiker, too unassum- ing even to thumb a lift. The fact is that the isho
, Ps of Bavaria cannot conceive that the
Ar Znangel Garbriel would hitchhike 1.71 anse they could not imagine themselves u,- such a position. But just because they ..cluld not be seen dead with a backpack .. not mean that this is a prejudice thwlidespread in heaven. Perhaps the moral of u_s story is not that the motorists of .,_`'gvaria are credulous but that the bishops ;_qr not going to occupy that high position 1_1 Paradise which they sometimes give the Inlpression of expecting. The curious thing is that when 50,000 throes[ hairy bores march under banners virPtigh Bavaria saying that the end of the 11°,rid is nigh due to the impending nuclear thocaust, the bishops take them entirely seriously. oTheY ar telev prophets of our ti me. O ne pl them may even be awarded the Nobel takes But when this charming Archangel _ es the trouble to descend several millions 'I miles and, without chanting a single il- ate slogan or causing a single traffic satin the does not even require the car to 2P before alighting from it), delivers ex- cltistlY the same message the bishops, deny Avery existence. l, Part from anything else, the Archangel eu'arnriel has a one hundred per cent ac- 4,,..aeY rating on previous terrestrial pro- ,uneernents. The impressionable young rar‘! who he last addressed did indeed find , Qur with God and bore a child just as 14eclicted. Furthermore the only person I ,ve ever met who slightly md an 1 eci'llgel was a hitchhiker, though hem
e was call- 4ik not Gabriel and was in New Delhi gr er than Bavaria. He had no toes, which Nay
aith well be a tell tale sign of angels, ho(Igh his own explanation was that they lin', ,been removed in . Addenbrooke's b.,.'13, 'ral, Cambridge, after a lorry had -Zned them.
is the Only thing wrong with Gabriel's plan Noge difficulty of getting a large audience. liftt And motorists give hitchhikers a t ,,Fknd there is no chance of him getting pr,cngland. Once after a car crash in on"lice I found myself the only pedestrian 1 on a Townsend Thoresen car ferry set down ettc,he quay in Dover. Six hundred cars his Past me, very slowly. None stopped. Is is no land for archangels.
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