What is Your Role in Salvation History?

I’ve been on a heightened journey of Faith over the past few years. I’ve experienced an epiphany which has lead me to dive in and explore my Catholic faith with a new zeal and fervor that I really have never experienced and been inspired to do before. It truly is an amazing trek, and the more I learn and study, the more I realize just how incredible and eternally huge and wonderful this Catholic Faith of ours is.

I have to say that as I study the story of our salvation history, there is one thing that really pops out at me, and causes me much reflection. It is how God uses some of the most unlikely people to fulfill his promises and to bring his Grace and Salvation to all of us. As I read the stories of Abraham, Jacob, Jonah, Ester, Ruth, and Moses (among the many others), I have begun feeling a kinship with these characters. They have become very relatable to me, and real. When I then realize that these great Saints are my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, and people to emulate and hopefully aid in my own individual salvation story, my mind becomes overwhelmed with the immensity and awesomeness of that. What a glorious gift I, we have been given.

I look around at our modern and American culture and society. I can now realize and relate to how similar we are to the Old Testament stories and peoples of the ancient world. We have the same sins, the same vices, and the same enemies. All the same threats are present today, the very same ones that destroyed and decimated our ancestors and benefactors of Faith. We really are experiencing nothing new, except that the venue of vice, sin and ugliness is packaged differently, but at the root, all the same sin and vice that existed at the dawn of creation.

I ponder who the great and charismatic leaders of our present salvation story are and will be. Some are pretty obvious. People like Pope Saint John Paul II, and Saint Theresa of Calcutta are no brainers. I wonder about our current world leaders, how do they figure into this story?

One thing that I am very much beginning to realize is that the God Fearing leaders of our current age are the ones who seem to be the most vilified and detested. Donald Trump comes to mind when my thoughts lean this way. I wonder how someone who is presented as so abhorred, came to win an election. Then I think about St. Paul, and can’t help but marvel at how there really could not be people more unlikely to be used by God in this story of our salvation. I look at current events and the hatred that seems to be leveled at our president and can’t help but realize that there could be a truly remarkable transformation occurring within him. I mean, if God could use Saint Paul in the ways he did, why not Donald Trump? The holiest men in history have been the most hated and misunderstood.

The hatred and anger leveled against Trump convinces me even more. The Devil will use the power of death and hatred to combat the light and love of God. Satan will use unlikely people as well, people who are credible and seemingly trustworthy. I am not talking about the Hollywood elite, but of the religious and intellectually esteemed. Any of us can be pawns for Satan’s uses. When I see stories about witch’s spells and the types of vulgarity displayed at “Women’s Marches” and rallies, it all seems to come together and falls into place. Hopefully with prayer and contemplation comes some understanding and wisdom of just how things work beyond the temporal and material.

I won’t lose my hope or my peace. No matter what lies ahead for this world and God’s people, I know that we are just continuing the story begun with Genesis, the story of our Salvation. God is in control, and my Faith lies in him. I pray that my behavior and hope will never be diminished by worldly cares and worries but only enlightened with Grace, Peace and the Father’s love. My own salvation and Heavenly future demands that of me.

I submit myself to my Father’s will and ask for a role in this Story of his, no matter how small and insignificant others may find the part. I hope that I can live up to the examples of St. Paul and King David, and blaze a trail for all the others on this journy to Paradise. We all know who the main character of this drama is, the most vilified and detested character of his own time here on Earth - Jesus, the True Super Star.