It's good to have heroes and it's natural, especially how far we have come culturally over the past 50 years, to look to sports and entertainment for heroes. Currently there is much being made over Derek Jeter, and as an athlete and beyond, deservedly so. Down here in these parts, there is no bigger hero than Drew Brees, and again, deservedly so. Yet both Jeter and Brees dismiss the idea of hero worship. Jeter even said just the other night, I'm doing my job. And as the crowd continued to heap praise on Jeter, he quietly walked to the spot on the baseball diamond where he played shortstop, bent down in prayer, complete with the beautiful sign of the cross, the way Christians should always begin and end prayer! As a young boy my heroes were indeed from the New Orleans Saints, especially Archie Manning and Danny Abramowicz. Both remain heroes to me, because they talk now about faith. The other night thousands upon thousands of moms and more brought their little 8-15 year old daughters to the Superdome to scream and faint over something called One Direction. Not sure what that is but it must be something like whatever boy band my wife brought my Elizabeth to see in the dome too. Years ago our rock n roll heroes were the Beatles and Elvis and many more. Heroes. Do we really understand heroes?
Yes, I want to tell you about heroes. For me my hero is Jesus Christ but I don't always think of Him as a hero because in my personal relationship with Him, I know he is more than hero; he is my Lord & Savior! The incarnate Word of God, sent to earth to be like us in all things except sin, lived and died heroically. His death on a cross remains and always will be the greatest act of love ever and his resurrection is the greatest hope anyone can ever have. Jesus indeed is my hero and there are many others whose lives of faith are heroic. The examples of the saints & martyrs and so many faithful men and women through the ages, the parish priest or the faithful bishops, like a Philip Hannan; these too are my heroes!
It's a shame we place ball players and rock stars and TV personalities ahead of servants. Now this is not a knock against these people because in my examples above, they deserve some recognition for their accomplishments and who they are as people. The reason it's a shame is because we gave them so much more of our time and effort and admiration than we do to servants: police, fireman, members of our armed forces, teachers, doctors and nurses, volunteers, hospice workers, child care providers and I could go on and on.
This weekend, as you prepare for your next round of favorite football games and other forms of entertainment, can we sincerely ask ourselves: do I give the same effort to Jesus Christ and my faith life and do I think about and support those servant and servant leaders like I do my rock star hero or my sport hero?
Hero worship should be reserved for God alone; having heroes from our culture and sports is ok too, as long as we recognize who real heroes are!
Needs to be said!
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