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(This article was posted on the Catholic Peace Fellowship website

http://www.catholicpeacefellowship.org/ in the summer of 2006 and published in the

September/October 2006 issue of theHouston Catholic Workernewspaper)

Reading History With A Gospel Mind

Salvation history is filled with people and deeds that do not appear in any history book. Secular

historians focus on generals, statesmen, treaties, and battles; salvation history on the other hand

emphasizes illiterate shepherds, virgin teenagers, the birth of children, and the sharing of meals.

The world would have us believe that the most significant events are shaped by the decisions and

actions of those with power and money. Christians know a deeper truth: God shapes history. So

often, He works His eternity- and world-shaping events through the simple faith acts of the poor

and lowly, those with little money or worldly power. For example, in the Gospel according to St.

Matthew (1:2 - 16), the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah is full of lowly, unknown women and

men, not mighty rulers or world-conquerors. Our Lord Himself tells us that the blessed in His

Kingdom are the poor, sorrowful, hungry, and despised (Mt 5:3 - 11; Lk 6:20 - 22).

We see this truth of the working of salvation history woven through the books of the Old and

New Testaments: Isaac marrying Rebekah; Ruth caring for Naomi; Tobit burying the dead; the

widow feeding Elijah; the boy sharing the loaves and fishes; the woman anointing Jesus; the slave

Onesimus helping St. Paul; and so on. Ordinary acts of faithful people. Without Scripture, we

would know nothing of these men and women or what they did. Yet these are the kind of pivotal

people and events which make up the history of mans salvation. Nothing in the worlds eyes,

yet giants in salvation history.

The worlds explanation of history and current events however claims the opposite of the

Christian revelation. Everybody just knows that history is made by the wealthy and powerful,

those who figure largely on the worlds stage. Everybody just knows that the course of world

events is shaped by prime ministers and corporation presidents. As an example, the taken-for-

granted explanation is that peace came to Europe in the 1940s when the armies of several

countries slaughtered enough German soldiers and civilians, and destroyed enough German prop-

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erty, so that Germany was forced to surrender. This is in contradiction to a Gospel understand-

ing of how salvation history is fulfilled. If we accept the Gospel, then surely it is more truthful to

say that any peace which existed in Europe during that time came, for example, through theChristian witness of the Austrian peasant Franz Jagerstatter who refused to serve in the military

and was executed by the Nazis, or through the countless rosaries prayed by unknown men,

women and children; rather than from the political and military efforts of Eisenhower or Chur-

chill, or from the numberless bombs dropped from planes or the millions of bullets shot from ma-

chine guns.

Scripture teaches us that true peace and reconciliation came from the birth of Jesus, the Prince

of Peace; born in a humble dwelling in a poor city located in a remote country that probably

many Romans of Jesus time never even heard of. Yet countless history books repeat the myth

that the so-called Pax Romana brought peace to the known world through the conquering le-

gions of Rome. From the point of view of salvation history, this is absurd, not to mention idola-

trous.

This Gospel viewpoint seems to go against common sense, but the Christian revelation has

always been a stumbling block (1 Cor 1:23). Sadly, even most Christians today blithely accept

the worlds claims of power, control and influence over world affairs. The deeper divine reality of

Gods providence though, enfleshed in the world through the often ordinary acts of the poor,

humble and sorrowful, far outweighs what we can see, touch or explain. Christians must not be

misled nor naive. The actions of God and the realities of His Kingdom are not the stuff of news-

papers, history books or television news programs. The working out of the good news of salva-

tion history can be seen only with the eyes of faith, and it is not where the world tells us to look.

Marc Tumeinski

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