Decennoval Goal

            On July 13 I was watching the final of the World Cup soccer tournament with a number of Bahá’ís after a Nineteen-Day Feast in Stouffville, Ontario.  Near the end of regulation time, the German team took Miroslav Klose out and substituted Mario Götze.  It was a notable moment mostly because of Klose’s stellar career, but what caught my attention immediately was that Götze’s jersey number was 19.  Surely this was prophetic!  All I said at the time was “Are you kidding me?” but what I meant was that since the number 19 is a magical and mystical number in the Bahá’í Faith, this player was fated to score the winning goal in this tight game which was still scoreless.  Regulation time ended in a scoreless tie, as did the first overtime period.  But eight minutes into the second overtime Götze did in fact score the championship goal in spectacular fashion, becoming an instant household name over much of this planet of ours.  In retrospect should have been more explicit in my comment when he was put in the game, for without witnesses I cannot prove what had been in my mind.

            What’s up with the number nineteen?  In fact it was Bahá’u’lláh’s forerunner, The Báb, who interpreted a passage in the Qur’án that 19 equals one unit in the eyes of God.  (Numerology was a going concern at that time, especially in that part of the world.  It has since shriveled down to a mere curiosity in the general eyes of men.)  He therefore used 19 in many ways to signalize the uniqueness of this Revelation, not the least of which was the solar calendar He created, consisting of 19 months of 19 days each.  In fact, the Universal House of Justice had just announced on Mercy 17, 171 B.E. (July 10, 2014), the final touches to some ambiguities to it.  Has anyone told Götze?  I’m sure he would like to know. 

psst: (I called it first!!!)