I have to admit that I am a sucker for super hero movies. It's really not my fault...I am a product of a childhood loaded with G.I. Joe, Transformers, Superman, Space Ghost and the oft-forgotten Captain Caveman.
After taking in Thor and X-Men First Class in the past few weeks, I have come to realize just how much the "super" mentality has pervaded my generation. As I told our graduating Seniors at our Baccalaureate Mass a few weeks ago, at a certain point every super hero movie says to us, "You are not enough." No matter how smart we are or how talented we might be, unless we have a magic hammer or a mutant gene, we are not enough.
And yet there is something within us, at least many of us, that is attracted to this idea of being "super" in some way. Maybe we've overcome the desire to fly or have heat beams shoot out of our eyes, but there is likely still something in us that wants to be greater than we are now. The beautiful thing is that this is offered to us by Jesus, not in a super hero way, but in a human way. Christ takes us beyond ourselves into something larger. He exalts our humanity by taking our weakness and using it as an instrument for the sake of others.
As if this even needed to be said, priests are not super heroes. We are men who have been called by God to serve in an exceptional way. There are no super human powers that we possess. There is only Christ and our humanity. If we lack either of these priesthood is not possible.
There is no doubt that we are all called to something greater, something, perhaps, that is even beyond our own capacity. But, with Christ, we are enough. We have everything that we need to excel at being the people whom God has made us to be: not super heroes, but the crown of God's creation, with the full desire of our humanity.
Comment: I am posting this from my parish priest because I think it is well said. I think Fr. Alex makes a really superb statement here about the world and its expectations, and how that bleeds over into a child's sense that he cannot compete and he cannot be that "super hero." I always tell my students that super heroes don't exist, and they don't exist for a very real reason. That reason is that WE are to be those heroes and do what they do without all the so called power. All the power we need is the love given to us by our personhood and the example of love and care given to us by our parents and those who love us. Well said, Fr. Alex!
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