Numbers, coincidence and providence

30th January 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Fr. Jerome LeDoux
Contributing Columnist

In the January 8, 2009 BCS Championship Game, victorious Florida quarterback Tim Tebow wore eye black with the inscription John 3:16, causing curious millions of football fans to Google the meaning of John 3:16. Three years later to the date, Tebow played his first playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers and passed for 316 yards.

That wasn’t all. In getting to his completion total of 316 yards, Tim fashioned 31.6 yards per completion. There was more. That Sunday night, the TV rating on CBS for the game’s fourth quarter topped out at 31.6! Finally, on third-and-16 (3/16), a Matt Prater field goal resulted from the second-quarter interception of a Ben Roeth­lisberger pass.

After all that, how do you figure that the Steelers finished the game with a time of possession of 31:06? Mind you, totally unaware of the metrics at play, no one athlete, no coach, no TV operative was counting numbers or striving to achieve a given total of any phase of the game or the clock or the TV viewers mesmerized by the proceedings.

To say the least, that was a whole heap of people, of times, of circumstances and of numbers converging on one little biblical reference. Can you spell the word “probabilities”?

Unfortunately, the magical spell was broken by a Patriot dismemberment of the Broncos.

Moving right along, it is mind-boggling that both Lincoln and Kennedy were elected president in ’60, were elected to the House of Representatives in ‘46, were runners-up for the party’s nomination for vice president in ‘56, and their respective vice presidents/suc­cessors were Southern Democrats named Johnson born in ’08.

Both presidents were concerned with the problems of Black Americans and made their views strongly known in ‘63. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Pro­clamation in 1862, which became law in 1863. In 1963, Kennedy presented his reports to Congress on Civil Rights, the same year as the famous March On Washington For Jobs and Freedom.

Further, both presidents were shot in the head, both were shot from behind in the presence of their wives, on a Friday, accompanied by another couple in which the male companion of the other couple was wounded by the assassin. Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre, while Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln automobile made by Ford. Booth ran from a theatre to a warehouse, Oswald ran from a warehouse to a theatre.

Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who told him not to go to the theatre. Kennedy had a secretary named Evelyn Lincoln who warned him not to go to Dallas.

John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald were killed before they could be put on trial.

Both presidents’ last names have seven letters, have five syllables in their full name (which counts Kennedy’s middle initial). There are six letters in each Johnson’s first name. Both assassins were born in the late ’30s, sympathized with anti-American organizations, were shot and killed within the calendar month before they could be tried, were killed in a state located immediately west of the state of their birth.

Both presidents had a son to die during their presidency.

Now for the number 1 associated with the 9/11 tragedy. New York City has 11 letters; Afghanistan has 11 letters; Ramsin Yuseb—the terrorist who threatened to destroy the Twin Towers in 1993—has 11 letters; George W. Bush has 11 letters.

Further, New York is the 11th state; the plane that crashed against the North Tower of the World Trade Center was flight number 11; flight 11 was carrying 92 passengers, or 9 + 2 = 11; flight 77 which hit the South Tower had 65 passengers, or 6+5=11.

The tragedy took place on September 11 – well known as 9/11 or, 9+1+1=11;

The date is the same as the U.S. Emergency Services telephone number 911, or 9+1+1=11.

The total number of victims inside all the hijacked planes was 254, or 2+5+4=11;

September 11 is day number 254 of the calendar year, or 2+5+4=11; the Madrid bombing took place on 3/11/2004, or 3+1+1+2+4 =11; the tragedy of Madrid happened 911 days after the Twin Towers incident.

Numerology is the study of purported divine, mystical or other special relationship between metrics/measurement and life. But, with Romans 8:28, we believe there are no accidents, no coincidence, but only Divine Providence for those who love God.

This article was originally published in the January 30, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper