Do you believe in 'coincidence'?

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Coincidence is a funny thing. Let us know yours.

Sometimes it occurs in a very meaningful way. Other times, you can’t make sense of it and ask only: why?

We all experience it. You may have met your spouse through a “coincidence.” Or landed the job of a lifetime that way.

There are major, life-changing coincidences, and then there are those little things, like going down a highway to church on a Sunday and finding yourself behind a jeep with a kayak atop and then eight hours later using another road and finding yourself behind the same vehicle — the same jeep, the same kayak, heading in a different direction (west instead of south). Or going to Italy and running into a cousin.

What are the “odds”?

And since the odds so often seem to weigh heavily against something being just an occurrence: when that happens, we wonder why? What’s the mission or the message? What is the meaning? Perhaps simply to pray for that person in front of us a second time?

The jeep could be what they call “happenstance.” Throw the dice, and every so often they will come up snake eyes, or whatever they call it. Peculiar things happen in the flow of life. There are certain cycles and crossroads. Granted.

But often you find yourself scratching your head. What if you never answer the phone after five but one day hearing it ringing decide to pick it up and it ends up being someone you marry? Or that the same person, after getting off the phone, opens Scripture to the passage that says, “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (having to do with marriage) and in fact they end up married? Doesn’t it seem like angels are behind it? Doesn’t it seem, while we’re on the subject, like angels must coordinate many aspects of life?

There are heavy-duty “coincidences.” You may have heard how both John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln shared a number of peculiar things (and some not so peculiar) in common. You can find one such list here. An analysis of it here.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both wives lost their children while living in the White House. Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both successors were named Johnson. Both Johnsons were born in ‘08. John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald were both assassinated before their trials. Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theater. Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln, made by Ford.

Now, that last one is a bit of a stretch; we can go too far with such things.

But how often do we see them in our lives?

Call it synchronicity: mysteries of the cosmos.

9/11 — the greatest police and fire emergency in modern history — is composed of the same numeric configuration as the emergency (911) phone number.

The universe, a philosopher named Haldane once said, is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine. Perhaps there is no such thing as coincidence and everything is woven in a way we can’t see. In fact, that’s the belief here.

There are those who refer to “Godincidence.”

For example, in our mailbag, after famous nun Mother Angelica died, was this: “Last night, my husband and I were driving back from Boston and received an email about the passing of Mother Angelica and we began praying the Divine Mercy chaplet for the soul of Mother Angelica and this truck just appeared before us.”