Coincidences
Sermon
Life Injections
Connecting Scripture to the Human Experience
... the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep...
Doctor Bernie Siegel claims that coincidences are God's way of remaining anonymous.
__________
I have spent nine years here at the hospital. In the course of those nine years I've witnessed and experienced many strange things. I've watched events occur that made me stop and think and wonder. I've found myself doing something or I've found others doing something that made me scratch my head. I've come across many coincidences that made me wonder if indeed they were coincidences.
Probably the most common have centered on people who are dying. Families are called when their loved one slips into a coma and they literally camp out in the room, sitting and praying and holding hands, waiting for the moment of death to come. What happens often is that the family steps out of the room for a cup of coffee or just out in the hallway for a little air, and it is at that time when no one is around that the loved one dies. It is almost as though the person chose that moment so that he or she might spare the family the grief of witnessing the death.
I've also witnessed experiences of an opposite nature. A father was brought into the emergency room entering what would be the final stage of a very rapid illness. The father was given a room on the third floor and the son called on his brother to come home, explaining the gravity of the situation. The brother lived in Chicago. When I was called to the bedside 24 hours later, he was in a coma, his breaths were shallow. I suspected it would be a matter of minutes before his breathing would stop. I was wrong. He hung in for three more hours. He knew that the absent son was driving to the hospital from Chicago. Just as though he were waiting for him to get there, he took his last breath five minutes after that son arrived in the room.
A vivid memory from St. Ambrose, where I was last stationed, centered on one of the most beautiful men in the parish. His name was Paul Crowley. He worked many years for Mobil Refinery. He was the man in charge of the upkeep and the rebuilding of the parish boiler. Just as he was nearing retirement, he was stricken with cancer. He lived for three years following the diagnosis. At the end of the third year it became evident that it was a losing battle. Concerned very much for his wife's welfare, he wanted desperately to hang on long enough to qualify her for his pension. That would mean that he had to live up to a certain date. He fell into coma three days short of that date and then somehow managed to beat death until twenty minutes after midnight on the day when his wife would legally qualify for his retirement benefits.
Just last week, we had a patient in our hospice room who hung on till 2:00 a.m. the day of her fiftieth wedding anniversary.
In all these cases, those who were dying and in a coma, and allegedly unaware of anything happening around them, somehow managed to control the time of their death, holding it off so that a particularly loving goal might be reached. Surely, this does not happen all the time. There are countless examples of just the opposite happening, and the persons involved are just as loving and just as connected with their families as the ones I've mentioned. But the stories I have told do occur. The question is: Are we to write them off as a coincidence or is there a power at work here that supersedes our own?
Another incident that occurred at the hospital involved a different phenomenon. A woman called me, sounding very frantic. She wanted me to stop and see her husband because she had a terrible feeling that something had gone wrong. When I got to the husband's room, I was shocked to discover that he was dead. It must have happened just about the time that I received the call because the nurses reported that they had been in the room a few minutes earlier and at that time he was fine.
A friend of mine reported a true story of how a fishing boat was run down in the darkness of the night by an ocean liner. Simultaneously, many miles away, the fisherman's wife awakened from a deep sleep with a loud shriek, calling out the name of her husband. She tried to go back to sleep but she found herself too agitated. In the morning she discovered that her husband had gone down with the boat right around the time she awakened from her sleep.
I hope this doesn't sound like a tabloid sermon. I hope you don't take this sermon to be an affirmation of the paranormal. I'm merely raising things that have happened which cause one to wonder if indeed they were coincidences or if, in fact, there's a power at work which supersedes our own.
Take a few cases that have marked the annals of history. On October 7, 1849, Edgar Allen Poe passed away, while on the same day James Whitcomb Riley, another American author and poet, was born. On October 9, 1845, a noted and prominent Catholic church leader, Redan, put off his clerical collar and left the church, while on that selfsame day John Henry Newman entered it. On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born on one side of the Atlantic while Charles Darwin was born on the other side. On the same day in 1616, Shakespeare and Cervantes, two of history's most brilliant authors, passed away. On the day when a French mob tore the cross from Notre Dame and renounced Christianity, William Carey landed in India and claimed a new continent for Christ.
On July 4, 1826, the people of the United States were celebrating the Jubilee of the Declaration of Independence. Two of the great Independence presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, were still living. Adams was 91, Jefferson was 83. It was decided to make the Jubilee a festival in honor of the two veterans. From the Atlantic to the Pacific on the 4th of July, the names of Adams and Jefferson were toasted and acclaimed. The irony of it was that both died on that auspicious day. Adams passed away at sunset muttering, "Oh, well, Jefferson still lives." Unbeknown to him his old comrade had passed away several hours earlier. The Jubilee of Independence, the death of Adams, and the death of Jefferson all took place on the same day.
A boy's parents have left for a few hours and, in the absence of companions, he finds the time hanging heavily on his hands. He wanders into his father's library and pokes about among the books. He comes up with one that at least starts with a story. He suspects that there may be some philosophizing, sermonizing, or moralizing later on, but he tells himself that he can easily abandon it at that time. He scampers off to the loft in the stable next door, throws himself on the hay, and plunges into the book. He gets so captivated by the book that he can't put it down. He reads on and on and as he does, he feels the pull of the Holy Spirit. He's reading about people who have dedicated themselves to God and he gets the sense that he should do the same. At that moment, he falls upon his knees and, lifting up his heart and mind to God, he makes a decision to do what he has to do to pursue that goal.
That's one side of the story of Hudson Taylor, known as the apostle of the Chinese missions. The story has another side. When his mother returned, Taylor felt that he must confide to her what had just happened in the loft. But before he could even start the story, she interrupted him and told him that she already knew what he was going to say. Taken aback, Hudson Taylor asked how she could possibly know. The mother said that she had an hour to spare earlier in the afternoon, and she could think of nothing except him. So she decided to pray that he do something special with his life, that he go into the ministry. "What you're about to tell me," she said, "is that my prayers have been answered." On comparing notes, the two of them discovered that the hour the mother spent in prayer was the same hour the boy had spent in the loft.
This doesn't happen all the time. The stories occur only sporadically. They take place only every once in a while. And the truth is that a good majority of the time things go on that are not connected with any prayer or deadline. Deaths take place which fail to follow any script. People come and people go and there is no pattern or connection between their coming and their going, their birth or their death. The stories I've told are not a testimony for the paranormal gleaned from past issues of the National Enquirer. They are actual historical occurrences which have caused me to wonder whether they were mere coincidences or whether there is a higher power at work that supersedes our own.
Matthew Fox, the Dominican theologian, says that the moon is just the right distance from the earth for tides to happen. If the moon were just a little bit closer or a little bit farther, the tides wouldn't happen and thus the ocean would have been stagnant and thus no life could have emerged from the ocean. Fox said that the sun is not only the right distance from the earth, but there's also an ozone layer that lets in just the right amount of sunshine and keeps out just the right amount of radiation. If that weren't so, none of us would be healthy. Fox continues that the universe began as a large fireball some nineteen billion years ago. For 750,000 years the fireball expanded. We know now that if the fireball had expanded one millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a second faster or slower over those 750,000 years, you or I could not be here today. The earth would not have evolved in the way that it did. We also know that if the temperature of the fireball during those 750,000 years had been one degree colder or warmer, you or I would not be here today. Matthew Fox said we can call all that a coincidence or we can call all that the reality of God's unconditional and incredible love for us.
Jesus in our Gospel today alludes to the sheep and shepherd relationship of God and his people. In essence, he made it clear that God doesn't consider us trash but considers us special. God is not distant but near. The driving force of the universe is not hate but love. So maybe, just maybe, what passes for a coincidence might actually be a sample of the power of that love. Maybe, just maybe, what passes for a coincidence might actually be an example of God's loving touch in the running of the world. Perhaps Dr. Bernie Siegel had it right when he called coincidences God's way of remaining anonymous.
Recently, I was winding up the day and had just pushed the elevator button to take me to the second floor where my room had been located. I was going to change clothes and attend a party. As I got on the elevator, something made me think of a young man who was a patient whom I had seen the day before last. I knew this young man from a previous admission. As the door opened to the second floor, I decided not to get off and pushed instead the button for the floor on which the young man was located. When I entered the room, it was as though God had sent me. The young man asked to go to confession and proceeded to unleash a huge burden that he had carried for a long time. It was a deeply moving experience for both of us.
The irony was that he was going to be discharged in the morning and had I not stopped that night, the wonderful exchange of grace would have never taken place. Was it a coincidence that I thought of that young man at that time? Or was it the example of a power greater than my own? I'll put my money on the fact that it was God letting me know that the Shepherd was on the premises.
Doctor Bernie Siegel claims that coincidences are God's way of remaining anonymous.
__________
I have spent nine years here at the hospital. In the course of those nine years I've witnessed and experienced many strange things. I've watched events occur that made me stop and think and wonder. I've found myself doing something or I've found others doing something that made me scratch my head. I've come across many coincidences that made me wonder if indeed they were coincidences.
Probably the most common have centered on people who are dying. Families are called when their loved one slips into a coma and they literally camp out in the room, sitting and praying and holding hands, waiting for the moment of death to come. What happens often is that the family steps out of the room for a cup of coffee or just out in the hallway for a little air, and it is at that time when no one is around that the loved one dies. It is almost as though the person chose that moment so that he or she might spare the family the grief of witnessing the death.
I've also witnessed experiences of an opposite nature. A father was brought into the emergency room entering what would be the final stage of a very rapid illness. The father was given a room on the third floor and the son called on his brother to come home, explaining the gravity of the situation. The brother lived in Chicago. When I was called to the bedside 24 hours later, he was in a coma, his breaths were shallow. I suspected it would be a matter of minutes before his breathing would stop. I was wrong. He hung in for three more hours. He knew that the absent son was driving to the hospital from Chicago. Just as though he were waiting for him to get there, he took his last breath five minutes after that son arrived in the room.
A vivid memory from St. Ambrose, where I was last stationed, centered on one of the most beautiful men in the parish. His name was Paul Crowley. He worked many years for Mobil Refinery. He was the man in charge of the upkeep and the rebuilding of the parish boiler. Just as he was nearing retirement, he was stricken with cancer. He lived for three years following the diagnosis. At the end of the third year it became evident that it was a losing battle. Concerned very much for his wife's welfare, he wanted desperately to hang on long enough to qualify her for his pension. That would mean that he had to live up to a certain date. He fell into coma three days short of that date and then somehow managed to beat death until twenty minutes after midnight on the day when his wife would legally qualify for his retirement benefits.
Just last week, we had a patient in our hospice room who hung on till 2:00 a.m. the day of her fiftieth wedding anniversary.
In all these cases, those who were dying and in a coma, and allegedly unaware of anything happening around them, somehow managed to control the time of their death, holding it off so that a particularly loving goal might be reached. Surely, this does not happen all the time. There are countless examples of just the opposite happening, and the persons involved are just as loving and just as connected with their families as the ones I've mentioned. But the stories I have told do occur. The question is: Are we to write them off as a coincidence or is there a power at work here that supersedes our own?
Another incident that occurred at the hospital involved a different phenomenon. A woman called me, sounding very frantic. She wanted me to stop and see her husband because she had a terrible feeling that something had gone wrong. When I got to the husband's room, I was shocked to discover that he was dead. It must have happened just about the time that I received the call because the nurses reported that they had been in the room a few minutes earlier and at that time he was fine.
A friend of mine reported a true story of how a fishing boat was run down in the darkness of the night by an ocean liner. Simultaneously, many miles away, the fisherman's wife awakened from a deep sleep with a loud shriek, calling out the name of her husband. She tried to go back to sleep but she found herself too agitated. In the morning she discovered that her husband had gone down with the boat right around the time she awakened from her sleep.
I hope this doesn't sound like a tabloid sermon. I hope you don't take this sermon to be an affirmation of the paranormal. I'm merely raising things that have happened which cause one to wonder if indeed they were coincidences or if, in fact, there's a power at work which supersedes our own.
Take a few cases that have marked the annals of history. On October 7, 1849, Edgar Allen Poe passed away, while on the same day James Whitcomb Riley, another American author and poet, was born. On October 9, 1845, a noted and prominent Catholic church leader, Redan, put off his clerical collar and left the church, while on that selfsame day John Henry Newman entered it. On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born on one side of the Atlantic while Charles Darwin was born on the other side. On the same day in 1616, Shakespeare and Cervantes, two of history's most brilliant authors, passed away. On the day when a French mob tore the cross from Notre Dame and renounced Christianity, William Carey landed in India and claimed a new continent for Christ.
On July 4, 1826, the people of the United States were celebrating the Jubilee of the Declaration of Independence. Two of the great Independence presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, were still living. Adams was 91, Jefferson was 83. It was decided to make the Jubilee a festival in honor of the two veterans. From the Atlantic to the Pacific on the 4th of July, the names of Adams and Jefferson were toasted and acclaimed. The irony of it was that both died on that auspicious day. Adams passed away at sunset muttering, "Oh, well, Jefferson still lives." Unbeknown to him his old comrade had passed away several hours earlier. The Jubilee of Independence, the death of Adams, and the death of Jefferson all took place on the same day.
A boy's parents have left for a few hours and, in the absence of companions, he finds the time hanging heavily on his hands. He wanders into his father's library and pokes about among the books. He comes up with one that at least starts with a story. He suspects that there may be some philosophizing, sermonizing, or moralizing later on, but he tells himself that he can easily abandon it at that time. He scampers off to the loft in the stable next door, throws himself on the hay, and plunges into the book. He gets so captivated by the book that he can't put it down. He reads on and on and as he does, he feels the pull of the Holy Spirit. He's reading about people who have dedicated themselves to God and he gets the sense that he should do the same. At that moment, he falls upon his knees and, lifting up his heart and mind to God, he makes a decision to do what he has to do to pursue that goal.
That's one side of the story of Hudson Taylor, known as the apostle of the Chinese missions. The story has another side. When his mother returned, Taylor felt that he must confide to her what had just happened in the loft. But before he could even start the story, she interrupted him and told him that she already knew what he was going to say. Taken aback, Hudson Taylor asked how she could possibly know. The mother said that she had an hour to spare earlier in the afternoon, and she could think of nothing except him. So she decided to pray that he do something special with his life, that he go into the ministry. "What you're about to tell me," she said, "is that my prayers have been answered." On comparing notes, the two of them discovered that the hour the mother spent in prayer was the same hour the boy had spent in the loft.
This doesn't happen all the time. The stories occur only sporadically. They take place only every once in a while. And the truth is that a good majority of the time things go on that are not connected with any prayer or deadline. Deaths take place which fail to follow any script. People come and people go and there is no pattern or connection between their coming and their going, their birth or their death. The stories I've told are not a testimony for the paranormal gleaned from past issues of the National Enquirer. They are actual historical occurrences which have caused me to wonder whether they were mere coincidences or whether there is a higher power at work that supersedes our own.
Matthew Fox, the Dominican theologian, says that the moon is just the right distance from the earth for tides to happen. If the moon were just a little bit closer or a little bit farther, the tides wouldn't happen and thus the ocean would have been stagnant and thus no life could have emerged from the ocean. Fox said that the sun is not only the right distance from the earth, but there's also an ozone layer that lets in just the right amount of sunshine and keeps out just the right amount of radiation. If that weren't so, none of us would be healthy. Fox continues that the universe began as a large fireball some nineteen billion years ago. For 750,000 years the fireball expanded. We know now that if the fireball had expanded one millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a second faster or slower over those 750,000 years, you or I could not be here today. The earth would not have evolved in the way that it did. We also know that if the temperature of the fireball during those 750,000 years had been one degree colder or warmer, you or I would not be here today. Matthew Fox said we can call all that a coincidence or we can call all that the reality of God's unconditional and incredible love for us.
Jesus in our Gospel today alludes to the sheep and shepherd relationship of God and his people. In essence, he made it clear that God doesn't consider us trash but considers us special. God is not distant but near. The driving force of the universe is not hate but love. So maybe, just maybe, what passes for a coincidence might actually be a sample of the power of that love. Maybe, just maybe, what passes for a coincidence might actually be an example of God's loving touch in the running of the world. Perhaps Dr. Bernie Siegel had it right when he called coincidences God's way of remaining anonymous.
Recently, I was winding up the day and had just pushed the elevator button to take me to the second floor where my room had been located. I was going to change clothes and attend a party. As I got on the elevator, something made me think of a young man who was a patient whom I had seen the day before last. I knew this young man from a previous admission. As the door opened to the second floor, I decided not to get off and pushed instead the button for the floor on which the young man was located. When I entered the room, it was as though God had sent me. The young man asked to go to confession and proceeded to unleash a huge burden that he had carried for a long time. It was a deeply moving experience for both of us.
The irony was that he was going to be discharged in the morning and had I not stopped that night, the wonderful exchange of grace would have never taken place. Was it a coincidence that I thought of that young man at that time? Or was it the example of a power greater than my own? I'll put my money on the fact that it was God letting me know that the Shepherd was on the premises.
