The Trinity Game

I’ve found one. And it’s happening to
Tim Trinity
, if you can believe that. It’s like some cosmic practical joke.”
    “I think it’s a little early to be calling this a miracle.”
    “Really? I don’t think so. You saw what happened tonight. Not only isn’t it something you could know about in advance, it wouldn’t have even
happened
if Shooter hadn’t run into the highway. Which means it wouldn’t have happened if the camera hadn’t broken down or if you hadn’t set up in the median for a better angle or if…Bottom line,
our presence
there tonight caused that billboard to come down. Just think about that for a second. So many unforeseeable and seemingly random events had to occur in order for Trinity’s prediction to come true, there’s just no way to explain it without the hand of God. And we wouldn’t have been there tonight if I hadn’t called you about the refinery…” He shook his head. “I mean, how far do we want to follow this chain? You wouldn’t have been called about the refinery if my boss hadn’t assigned
me
to this case…and
that
wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been Tim Trinity’s nephew…and I wouldn’t have even been there for my boss to assign if I hadn’t become a priest.”
    Julia smiled. “And if you hadn’t left me, you wouldn’t have become a priest.”
    Damn…
    The pain of Daniel’s choice came back with full force, as if he were making it all over again. And with it, the guilt. He searched for something to say, but came up empty. Julia’s last link in the coincidence chain hung in the air between them like stale cigarette smoke.
    This time it was Daniel’s phone that vibrated. The call display said
Fr. Nick
. He let it go to voicemail. “I, uh, I still feel…well, I’m sorry about how that worked out, Julia.”
    “It was a long time ago. Wasn’t easy, but I got over you. Really, it’s OK.”
    Daniel’s heart sank.
But I never got over you
, he thought.
    Julia’s smile widened. “Anyway, here we are again. The Lord works in mysterious ways,” she teased.
    Daniel forced a smile, drank some beer. “I
know
what happened tonight is a miracle, Julia. There’s no other explanation. I don’t
want
to believe that God would work through a man like my uncle, but He is. I believe in God, absolutely. But I’m starting to think my religion doesn’t describe Him very well.”
    A man’s voice said, “Jesus, Julia,
there
you are.” It was Shooter, coming up fast. “We gotta get you back to the scene. We’re going live at the top of the hour.”

B ack in the quiet of his hotel room, Daniel sipped cognac and reviewed the day’s developments, sorting his responses into two categories: personal and professional.
    Start with the professional, he told himself. Put aside predictions of thunderstorms and football games, and focus on the oil refinery. Maybe the small stuff was just a way to get our attention, a way to ensure that we act on the major predictions when they arrive.
    One hundred lives could have been saved had the Church taken action. Had those lives been saved, this assessment wouldn’t even be necessary. They weren’t saved, but that didn’t fundamentally change anything; the public now knew, and the next important prediction would be acted upon.
    Professionally, the case was clear, and the billboard accident—which Trinity could neither have known about in advance, nor caused to happen—had sealed the deal. Professionally, Daniel concluded, the Trinity Anomaly was a miracle.
    Personally, things were more complicated.
    Twenty years earlier, the great and powerful Oz became a huckster jerking levers behind the curtain, Daniel’s life became a lie, and he ran away in search of a real miracle.
    Now he had one.
    Yes, it was happening to the huckster—and yes, that was a problem—but the larger point was
it was happening.
And that changed everything. Because if the priesthood is a call to faith, Daniel’s shameful secret was that he had never sincerely answered the call.
There can be no religion without faith.
And there can be no faith if we demand that God prove His existence.
    No, that’s not right. Not
existence
. Daniel had no trouble believing in God, creator of the universe. That God existed for Daniel. The proof he sought was not of God-the-creator but God-the-father.
    God who loves us, who cares what we do with the world, cares how we treat one another.
    Daniel had always known his ersatz faith made him less of a priest.