"The real story of human history—the story of the saints—has never been told. All our histories are about what the rich and powerful were doing because we don't really believe 'He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away' (Luke 1:51-53). We get glimpses of the real story (the biggest interruption in the monotonous narrative of power struggle being the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord, of course). But the real story will not be known till That Day, when we discover who the real heroes of history were, what the real story of history was, and how much we owe all those obscure saints for saving our bacon from our own self-destructive lunacy so many times throughout history by their courageous imitation of Christ. There will be a lot of surprises. And yet we will also see that we shouldn’t have been surprised because the whole story is really all summarized in the story of Christ, played out again and again in the lives of his saints, ever ancient and ever new."
—Mark Shea, "The Real Story of History"
Image: Fra Angelico, "The Last Judgment," detail known as "Dance of the Saints"
