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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 the Houston Catholic Worker newspaper)

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-forgranted 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-

erty, so that Germany was forced to surrender. This is in contradiction to a Gospel understanding 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 the Christian 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 Churchill, or from the numberless bombs dropped from planes or the millions of bullets shot from machine 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 legions of Rome. From the point of view of salvation history, this is absurd, not to mention idolatrous. 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 newspapers, history books or television news programs. The working out of the good news of salvation history can be seen only with the eyes of faith, and it is not where the world tells us to look.

Marc Tumeinski