For 4 July 2025, Independence Day (In the USA), based on Philippians 4:6-9
(Photo: Painting of Barlolomé de las Casas, Béria L. Rodríguez, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
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As a university student, I loved mathematics and literature, but I took no pleasure studying history. Having become interested in history only recently in the third age of my life, I recently finished a 600-page read of America, América: A New History of the New World by Yale University historian Greg Grandin. This sweeping analysis of the history of the western hemisphere begins with a fifty-page discussion of Bartolomé de las Casas, who in Hispaniola—present-day Haiti and Dominican Republic—heard the historic sermon in Advent 1511 by the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos condemning the island’s encomienda system of forced indigenous labor. When Las Casas heard this preaching and came under the influence of the Dominicans, he surrendered his encomienda and became a lifelong Dominican preacher in the Caribbean and Latin America. Greg Grandin says this fertile period of Dominican preaching and intellectual life bore fruit in the birth of international law and marks a standard against which the colonial development of Latin America and the manifest destiny of the United States of America can be understood and assessed.
On this United States Independence Day, Philippians 4 tells us that the peace of God surpasses all history and understanding of it. Wherever we are historically planted, Scripture invites us, as it did Bartolomé de las Casas, to whatever is true, accurate, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, and commendable. This call requires us as citizens to learn and thoughtfully relearn our history
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Gregory Heille, O.P.
Gregory Heille, O.P., is an Emeritus Professor of Preaching and Evangelization at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a friar of the Province of St. Albert the Great USA and has a particular interest in racial equity education.
4 Jul 2025
4 CommentsAn Invitation to Study History
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(Photo: Painting of Barlolomé de las Casas, Béria L. Rodríguez, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
————
As a university student, I loved mathematics and literature, but I took no pleasure studying history. Having become interested in history only recently in the third age of my life, I recently finished a 600-page read of America, América: A New History of the New World by Yale University historian Greg Grandin. This sweeping analysis of the history of the western hemisphere begins with a fifty-page discussion of Bartolomé de las Casas, who in Hispaniola—present-day Haiti and Dominican Republic—heard the historic sermon in Advent 1511 by the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos condemning the island’s encomienda system of forced indigenous labor. When Las Casas heard this preaching and came under the influence of the Dominicans, he surrendered his encomienda and became a lifelong Dominican preacher in the Caribbean and Latin America. Greg Grandin says this fertile period of Dominican preaching and intellectual life bore fruit in the birth of international law and marks a standard against which the colonial development of Latin America and the manifest destiny of the United States of America can be understood and assessed.
On this United States Independence Day, Philippians 4 tells us that the peace of God surpasses all history and understanding of it. Wherever we are historically planted, Scripture invites us, as it did Bartolomé de las Casas, to whatever is true, accurate, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, and commendable. This call requires us as citizens to learn and thoughtfully relearn our history
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Gregory Heille, O.P.
Gregory Heille, O.P., is an Emeritus Professor of Preaching and Evangelization at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a friar of the Province of St. Albert the Great USA and has a particular interest in racial equity education.