Knowledge of the present only gets one so far. That is why Moses implored the Israelites to study history. “Ask now of the days of old, before your time” (Dt 4:32). Moses wanted the Israelites to understand their lives as part of a larger story. In other words, the world does not revolve around ourselves, although it often seems that way. There are forces at work that are bigger than we know. For example: God’s providence.
God’s providence is the mysterious plan by which all of creation is governed. If we wish to understand what God’s providence has in store for the third millennium, A.D., it really helps to understand what God has been doing with his creation for the last several millennia of recorded history. This is one of the great insights of the fathers of the Church. Tertullian, for example, who died circa 240 A.D., fought strenuously to preserve the Old Testament within the Christian canon of sacred scripture.
“Did anything so great ever happen before” (Dt 4:32)? The devotee of Ignatian spirituality must put into practice the insights of Tertullian and Moses. Ignatian Christocentrism, rightly practiced, promotes rather than hinders praying with the Old Testament. As St. Ignatius observed (SpEx 303), Christ, himself, rebuked his followers for not understanding what the prophets had spoken about him. We must take care to avoid letting that rebuke fall on us as well.