By DONALD DeMARCO
On the day before Christmas (2016) I received an email from a person I do not know. His message consisted of a single sentence: “What do you believe is the greatest proof for God from Philosophy?”
I was tempted to answer with a single word: “Providence.” Philosophically, this conforms to Aquinas’ fifth proof for God’s existence, the Argument from Design. However, since I was asked what I thought is the best proof, I decided to answer him by combining Aquinas’ argument from design with my own personal experiences of God’s Providence. The following examples strongly support the contention that God is providential and cooperates with us in our daily lives. And since God is with us, He surely must exist.
First: My flight from Bradley Airport in Hartford, Conn., to Toronto was delayed by a storm just long enough so that I missed my connecting flight from Toronto to Calgary. While I sat in the departure lounge awaiting my new flight, I met a friend who lives in Vancouver. He was astonished to meet me not only because we almost never meet but because on the previous day, while in Miami, he had an inspiration that I should write a book on moral virtues and illustrate them with memorable stories from life and literature.
I was equally astonished since on that very day I had received a letter from a woman in upstate New York urging me to write the same book. I had brought her letter along with me for good luck.
We boarded a plane that was two hours late getting in from Paris. Our seating assignments, as it so happened, were next to each other. During the five-hour flight, we discussed what virtues should go into the book and how they should be exemplified. After completing my round of talks, the priest who drove me to the Vancouver airport was none other than the godfather of one of my friend’s children.
I proceeded to write the book with complete confidence that God was with me and that it would be published. The Heart of Virtue became a best-seller for Ignatius Press and was translated into Korean. One of my students in Ontario contacted a young woman in Illinois through a dating service and asked her what book was her favorite. My book was the favorite of both of them. Discovering that they had much in common contributed to their falling in love.
My wife and I were invited to their wedding and enjoyed hearing the groom relate from the dais how The Heart of Virtue played an important role in their relationship. There were many other remarkable events tied to the publication of this book. Nonetheless, the myriad of coincidences that occurred before and after the book’s publication cannot be explained by mere chance.
Second: During the era of Stalin’s “Planned Starvation” in the Ukraine, a stout-hearted grandfather would tell members of his family to get up and “rouse the lion in your soul.” I was touched by this gesture of hope and heroism and incorporated it in a poem. One of the grandchildren from this Ukrainian family is Michael Medved, a well-known movie critic and staunch promoter of family values. I was subsequently invited to give a presentation at an international conference on the family where Medved was the principal speaker.
I brought along my poem in the hope of giving it to him. He was not easy to find, however, and after the first day’s activities concluded, I decided to retire to my room.
My journey to slumber land, however, was interrupted by the sound of three friends calling out to me. They were excited and told me about the ringing words that were part of Medved’s presentation: “Rouse the lion in your soul.”
One of my friends bid me to look over my shoulder. I obliged and found myself looking directly into the eyes of none other than Michael Medved himself. “I think I am experiencing a miraculous event,” I said to him. “I have no problem with miracles,” he said. I gave him a copy of my poem. On the following day, another chance meeting gave me the opportunity to have him sign a copy of his book, The Golden Turkey Awards. He graciously obliged — “For Dr. DeMarco — Fine Scholar — Fine Poet — and kindred spirit.”
Third: I was about to give a presentation in Portsmouth, N.H. The lady I was conversing with was struck by the fact that I lived in Canada. “I know only one person in all of Canada,” she said. It turned out that this one person lived in the town adjacent to mine and had been assigned to introduce me for my talk two weeks later.
Fourth: At a conference just outside of Pittsburgh, a married couple identified themselves to me as residents of Salina, Kans. “I know just one person from your city,” I said. Not only did they know this person, but had recently attended her wedding. I picked up a book of mine that was nearby, Chambers of the Heart, which contained a poem I had written for her. It was a poem that, as she had informed me by letter, helped dissuade her from taking her life.
Fifth: My wife and I were in a gift shop in Cape Cod. I was looking for a suitable gift for our soon-to-be hostess in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I picked out a porcelain music box adorned with an elegant bluejay. Our friend loved the color blue and was fond of Toronto’s Blue Jays. I turned the key and listened to the mechanical unwinding of True Love, the song that Bing Crosby crooned to Grace Kelly in High Society.
I was concerned that the song conveyed too personal a message and asked God for a sign that this was, indeed, the right gift. The sign was answered forthwith in the form of the store radio playing that very same tune. Not only that, but the saleslady walked past me while cheerfully humming it. I purchased the gift and it turned out to be the perfect present.
Coincidences may be God’s way of remaining anonymous. But it is also God’s way of expressing His providential care.
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(Dr. Donald DeMarco is a senior fellow of Human Life International. He is professor emeritus at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario, an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College in Cromwell, Conn., and a regular columnist for St. Austin Review. His latest works, How to Remain Sane in a World That Is Going Mad; Poetry That Enters the Mind and Warms the Heart; and How to Flourish in a Fallen World are available through Amazon.com. Some of his recent writings may be found at Human Life International’s Truth and Charity Forum. He is the 2015 Catholic Civil Rights League recipient of the prestigious Exner Award.)
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