Heroes

I almost forgot – and profusely thanked the wife when she gave me a reminder.  Obviously, two days of clearing the house of junk during a general repainting had taken its toll on my memory.  Especially as the clutter included a mound of books, and I could not discard them without a peep into their contents, which at times engrossed me and stalled the progress of the work.

At any rate, the morning found us at the venue, in time for the invocation (done by Wonder Woman) and the national anthem (sung by Supergirl).  The program marked the end of the semester at our grandson’s kindergarten, and had as title, “Heroes, Unite!”  For this reason the children came as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Thor, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Hulk, Captain America, Thing, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Green Arrow, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo), Supergirl, Wolverine, and the rest of it.  Our grandson chose Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man.

I praised the concept – a most appealing one to the children, who spend hours watching TV shows depicting the superheroes of the American comic books, and troop to the cinema at the malls to watch such films as Spiderman, Batman, Ironman, Thor and Lara Croft.  In making the children identify themselves with their favorite heroes, even if only through cosplay, the kindergarten sought to impart to the little ones the inner qualities that make their idols powerful doers of good.

Basically, the heroes discover their superhuman abilities by accident, and get to test them when harm threatens the community.  After that comes a series of challenges and perils beyond the secular authorities to overcome, using only human effort and standard weapons, and calling for the heroes’ intervention.

If I rank the qualities that a superhero must have, and which validate his use of extraordinary powers, what will my list contain?

Courage, no doubt, and faith in his ability to accomplish the task.  And an adherence to a moral code, which the stories take for granted.  Not that they need to go into its ultimate source.  Enough that the audience accept that in every heart lodges a sense of right and wrong.

For me, this code finds summation in the two great commandments – love of God and love of neighbor.  Matthew writes that to unsettle Jesus the Pharisees put a question to him, “Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?”  Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and the first commandment.  The second resembles it.

You must love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.”

Clearly, unless he came out as, and showed the vulnerabilities of being, human, the superhero would fail to convince.  Iron Man has a mortal heart wound and must battle alcoholism and corporate infighting.  I think that, more than his unusual physical powers and fighting skills, a deep capacity for compassion distinguishes the superhero from the villain.

This explains why we find the real superhero in places where kind individuals make themselves available to minister to the needs of the sick and the poor and the disadvantaged.  To get over one’s squeamishness and disgust in the face of disease, squalor and rejection in order to serve humanity requires no less than supernatural powers – which come about only with God’s grace.

At the end of the program, after the child had taken off his mask, I asked him to come to me, and he did, all but flying.  By running into my arms, he turned into my hero.  And by hugging him tight I turned into his hero.