He Still Loves You.

His eyes flickered with deep hatred and each word he spoke hit me like a stone.

I prayed that God would help this man, but alas, the man’s free will was being used for the wrong thing.

Michael stomped into his room and slammed the door.

I followed, as that was my job as his Guardian Angel.

Michael sat on his bed and held his head in his hands and cried softly.

I felt utter pity for this man. He had nothing to follow, nothing to believe in and he felt a lack of purpose. He turned to anger often and he complained about every little thing, but he was hurt on the inside.

I needed to help him, it was my job to protect him.

He was eighteen years old and yet his life had fallen apart.

He had grown up Catholic, but had drifted after his father died.

Everyday, he ignored God and that’s what stung the most, him pretending that God didn’t exist.

As angels, all we want is for people to turn to God. When God’s wishes are fulfilled, we are all happy. This man was not fulfilling God’s wishes, so we were weeping for this young man.

I knew that he had a prayer card to Saint Thomas Aquinas in his closet and I wanted him to pray to the great saint.

I prayed to the Holy Spirit and guided the boy to the closet. He couldn’t see me, but God works in marvellous ways and I do have the ability to inspire people to do certain things.

Michael got off of his bed and walked into his closet. His hand brushed over the books which rested in his bookshelf. He reached behind a book and pulled out a prayer card to Saint Thomas Aquinas.

I thanked God.

He read the prayer out loud and I watched as the tears continued to stream, heavier now.

Something had hit him.

He wiped his tears and sat down at his desk. He opened his laptop and looked up Saint Thomas Aquinas.

He carefully read the biography of the saint.

He clicked on an article that read “5 ways of Saint Thomas Aquinas- Proving that God Must Exist″.

He read the first paragraph out loud.

His voice rough, still shaky from the crying. “The first way of Saint Thomas Aquinas is the argument of motion. The argument states that anything in motion must have been put in motion. To elaborate, when things move, they move from potential motion to actual motion, but only something in actual motion can move something in potential motion to actual motion. If this is confusing, let’s use an analogy. If Bob is holding a ball above the floor, the ball is in potential motion, because it has the potential to be thrown and be set in motion. As soon as Bob throws that ball, it is in actual motion. Bob could only throw the ball because he is in actual motion. The ball could not have been in potential motion and actual motion, in other words, it could not have set itself in motion. Meaning that everything needs something that moved it, but we cannot go on for infinity this way. There must have been a First Mover, Someone who did not need to be set in motion, this Being must be greater and must be God.″

Michael leaned back in his chair and exhaled softly.

He abruptly shot up and continued reading.

“The second way of Saint Thomas Aquinas is the Argument of Efficent Causes. This argument states that everything has a cause and an effect. For example, you being born is the effect of your parents conceiving a child, which is the cause and them being born is the effect of other people conceiving a child and we can trace back to the very first set of parents this way, but when thinking of those first set of parents, we must recognize that they could not have been their own cause and effect, because, everything needs a cause and effect. Humans’ existence, cows’ existence, even the sound of music needs a cause, which is someone playing an instrument or singing, but if we take away that cause, there is no effect. The first set of parents could not have been their own cause, meaning something else must have been their cause. Something that did not need to be the effect of something else, cause It’s a Greater Being, that Being is God.″

Michael’s eyes scanned the screen furiously.

“The third way is the Argument of Possibilty and Necessity. To understand this argument, we should look at an analogy. Let’s say that Sandy wants to make a cake, it is possible for her to make a cake, but to make a cake, butter, milk, flour, etc. are all necessary. Looking at milk for an example; it is possible for milk to exist, but it necessary to have a cow. That cow is possible, but it is necessary to have another cow, so that cow can exist and all the way back to the very first cow. Each cow was possible and yet necessary for another cow’s existence. But about about the very first cow? It was possible and yet it has nothing before it. That means that there must have been a Something that was possible and necessary, did not rely on another’s existence for their own existence. We know that that Something is not the cow! That Something is a Greater Being, God.″

Michael breathed heavily.

“The fourth way of Saint Thomas Aquinas is the Argument of Degrees of Perfection. We all know that there is good, better and best, but how do we even have those? We would need Something to compare our goodness off of and Something that gave us our goodness. For where does goodness come from? And how do we know if we are truly good? There must be a perfect Being, one which naturally gives us goodness when He creates us, this Being is, of course, God.″

Michael’s eyes were filled with tears now, either from the bright light of the screen or cause he was starting to realize.

“The fifth way is the Argument of Design. Let’s jump right into an analogy. Let’s say that Gillian is shooting an arrow. The arrow’s target is a board fifty feet away. Gillian shoots the arrow and it perfectly hits the board. How did the arrow reach its target? Well, of course we know that the arrow does not have intelligence, so could not have reached the target by itself. No, it was because Gillian shot the arrow, cause Gillian has intelligence. So now we know that nothing with intelligence can reach a target and therefore, be intelligent. It’s quite impossible. But what about something like the planets? How do they orbit perfectly and so intelligently if they have absolutely no intelligence? There must be Something which directs those planets to their targets, this Being must be the most Intelligent. This Being must be God.″

Michael closed his laptop and laid in his bed. He cried softly.

He got up and prayed the Saint Thomas Aquinas prayer.

He left the room and walked out of the door and down the street.

He look a right. He was running now.

A few minutes later, he stopped in front of a beautiful building, with a cross sitting on top, a Church.

I immediately felt the presence of Christ from the Eucharist sitting in the tabernacle on the altar.

We went inside and I went straight to the altar to greet and praise the Lord.

I rejoiced.

I thanked Him for helping Michael.

I knew that there was something else to be done.

I left the altar and went to the back of the Church.

Michael, sitting in a pew near the front, saw a man standing in front of him, a priest.

“Michael..″ The man softly looked into Michael’s eys and smiled kindly.

“Father, hello.″ Michael’s voice still shook.

“As Catholics, it is our duty to repent when we sin, when we turn away from God. It’s not too late, Michael. Repent and go to the Eucharist. You’ve received First Communion, Confirmation, Baptism; fulfill those promises you made.″

The priest leaned in close to Michael and said. “He still loves you, He never stopped.″

The priest turned and left and I returned to the altar, for I was the priest. Angels could appear as someone else, for times like this.

Michael held his head in his hands and sobbed. He knew that God still loved Him, but it felt genuine to hear it from someone else.

Four years later, we all welcomed Michael into Heaven. He died a martyr and we all rejoiced for His choice of God over evil. He died young, but it was an utterly happy death.