Did you ever know that you're my hero. . .

There was a day when Butler's Lives of the Saints and Foxe's Book of Martyrs was standard reading material.  Yes, it was a long ago and probably coincided more with a parochial school than not.  Yes, some of that material might have been a tad exaggerated and not all factual.  So what?  There was a day when the sanctoral cycle was observed in more depth and the lives of God's people of old more appreciated than we generally do today.  We knew then what we seem to have forgotten today.  Those names were not merely famous but actual heroes at a time when a kid's heroes began in in their home and led them into the Church.  Now, well, not so much.

Kids still need heroes and still have them but they are less likely to be family members and those within the pale of Christianity than the kind you meet on movie sets or whose voices are on your playlists or whose jersey's are your favorite numbers.  Most of those, however, are terrible heroes.  They have lived scandalous or self-indulgent lives and are chosen more for preference or awareness or success in financial terms than those who have struggled to live a holy, upright, and godly life.  That is just plain too bad.

I will admit that the first page of my heroes growing up were likely known better to me than the world.  My parents, grandparents, and other relatives represented an ideal world in which virtue and goodness counted more than a dollar sign or material success.  From that you could add a second page of well-known people in careers that exemplified risk and devotion to a cause greater than themselves -- from astronauts to service men to teachers.  They lived out a calling which expected a life for the sake of others more than for self.  Then there were some of the usual types of famous folk though even there goodness was more important than a fat wallet.  Some of those folks who impressed me most were responsible for my career choice as pastor and my wife's as nurse.  Thanks be to God!  They were well represented in our lives by virtues of our names -- chosen from the sound of family members, the virtuous, and saints (both Biblical and not).  While that did not result in my first name, it certainly did my middle name!

Nowadays names are chosen for popularity and because mom or dad likes them or to sound different (or spelled different) but not so much for the sake of attaching an heroic figure's example to the child in your arms.  That says something.  We do not look to the family or the church or the Bible for names that inspire.  Our kids are living witnesses to the things we value and that includes a name.  We want them to be happy and successful and to enjoy the good things life can offer even more than we want them to be good or holy or faithful.  They must have learned the lesson since faith is not a given even when it is passed on in a Christian household.  But saints contribute far more than a name.

Saints tell us of those who persevered in times of test, trouble, trial, and temptation.  We need to know their stories.  God does not reward those who have a righteousness of their own but He sent forth His Son to save and redeem the sinners and clothe them with an alien righteousness not their own.  That means that those kinds of religious heroes shine with the borrowed light of Christ and tell the story not of their own personal accomplishment but of God's creative and redemptive mercy.  They do not simply inspire us to be better but direct us to the mercy that is our rescue and to the virtue that we grow into by the Holy Spirit.  They are not stories of people who won big on the world stage but who endured because they knew their names were written in the Book of Life and this counted more than anything else to shape their person and personality.  

We all need heroes.  We need Biblical heroes and those across the span of the ages who wore their baptismal clothing well and did not wear the name of Jesus casually but intentionally.  If you want to help your children, tell them the Biblical stories of how God rescued people from their sin and restored them to Himself in mercy and kept them to everlasting life.  If you want to help your children, tell them the stories of the saints who won not by might or cunning but by holding to the faith once delivered to them no matter how the world saw them or treated them.  When the day comes, I hope to have the opportunity to tell those within my extended family, the Scriptures, and the saints of the Church whose witness was profound to me and encouraged my own perseverance in the faith.  I hope we all tell those stories to our children and grandchildren so that they will know who to tap on the shoulder of heaven and say well done, good and faithful servant and thanks for being my hero so I might be numbered with the saints.  The Holy Spirit works through means and sometimes the means is the flesh and blood of such men and women of faith.  Thanks be to God!