Choosing Heroes with Care
Fr. George Smiga
July 10 - 11, 2010
Luke 10: 25 - 37
I am really not that much of a sports fan. But I do live in Northern Ohio, So I have been unable this week (as I expect you have been unable) to avoid the furor over “The Decision.” The decision of which I speak, of course, is the decision of Lebron James to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and play for the Miami Heat. Everybody has an opinion on the decision: why Lebron left, why he should have stayed, and how you should feel about it. But all this media frenzy has led me to reflect on the role of heroes in our society and in our lives. How does the example of others either add to or detract from who we are?
We all need role models. We need people we can look to and say, “I want to be like that.” We need to be able to see in the life, actions, and decisions of others the way to discover what is really important and valuable in our lives.
Jesus knew this truth. When the lawyer in today’s Gospel asked him, “Who is my neighbor,” he did not give a short answer. Instead he told a story, because he wanted to point to a person, a person who could serve as the role model for the lawyer and in whose actions the lawyer could see what it meant to be a neighbor. Jesus points to a Samaritan, to a man who despite the hostility between Jews and Samaritans nevertheless set aside his prejudice and convenience to show mercy to the Jew who had fallen in with the robbers. Jesus sets this man up as a role model for the lawyer so that he could see generosity, sacrifice, and mercy and understand how to act. Jesus’ strategy is clear. At the end of the parable he says “Go, and do likewise.” He wants the lawyer to follow the Samaritan’s example, to be like him.
We all need people to look up to. We all need role models to follow. We need heroes to show us the way. The trick is which heroes will we choose? There is an inclination in our society to set up sports figures as role models for ourselves and our children. This is understandable. Sports figures are very talented people. They are usually very financially successful. They live in a world of glamour and adulation. But are these people who we really want to choose to serve as examples to our families?
Mr. James admission on national television this week that what guided his life is, “What would make Lebron James happy,” is disappointing in this respect. Mr. James certainly has the right to be happy. He is a free agent, and he can play wherever he chooses to play. But revealing that your core value is making yourself happy hardly qualifies you as a hero. I think we would be better served to look elsewhere to find role models who can lead us in the right direction.
I think those role models are close at hand. For some of us we might be fortunate enough to have a mother, father or spouse who can be our hero. We might be able to see in that person’s love and sacrifice the secret of what really brings joy into life. How about the single mom who lives down the street, who works two part-time jobs and spends her evenings helping her three daughters with their math homework? I think she could show me something about how to live. How about the young man who just graduated from college and has decided to spend two years teaching reading to children in Appalachia? I think there is something in his life that I could look up to and imitate. How about the 88 year old woman with crippling arthritis in the nursing home who lives each day in pain but never complains? She is always positive and lifts the spirits of anyone who visits her because she greets them with a warm smile and the question “How are you today?” That woman is a hero for me.
There are heroes all around us. We are surrounded by role models we can follow, people we can look up to and discover in their lives what really matters. Most of them will never throw a touchdown pass or sink a crucial basket in the NBA playoffs. But, like the Good Samaritan, they show us that it is through generosity, sacrifice, and mercy that we find eternal life. We need their example because there are times we become discouraged and lost. It is by looking to their witness that we can say to ourselves, “If that person can live in that way, so can I.”
The simple truth is this: We do not find our way to God simply on our own efforts. We need the example to others to show the way. We will not be successful without heroes. We just need to be careful about which heroes we pick.
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