Superman, Spiderman, Batman, .... They are known as superheroes, men who possess extraordinary strength and character. Even if they are regarded as such, still they are like us. They are also human beings because they behave, think, and live like the way we do. Superman, for instance, works as an office clerk: Spiderman, on the other hand, wants to be great in photography. Each of them was called to carry that special power to be used to defend the oppressed and fight the evil forces aiming to destroy mankind. Some of them were unaware of it and hardly understood why it happened to them. Others showed resistance and felt uncertainties. Though they could have refused and ran away but it seemed inevitable. In the long run, they could do nothing but accept it. Ordinary as they regarded themselves, yet, they embraced with all their might, their calling, their fate, whether it is a curse or a gift. In effect, they opted to live an ordinary life, as ordinary persons but did their work extraordinarily. They encountered more difficulties in revealing their real self than their super self. Indeed, this takes an extraordinary effort to comply and traverse two diverged roads.
Next, they chose to be
celibates although they do fall in love. Celibacy is not an escape from married
life but a self-dedication in serving others. Anyway, loving someone does not
always mean marrying the person. They were never alone. A lot of people love
them even without their knowledge. Many admire them for their great deeds.
People are longing for their presence. Both the young and the old, man or
woman, are excited and amazed to see them. Even if they do not have their
beloved with them, still they have these people who love them.
In their context, to have
diversity of power is not a reason of having conflict with others who have
superpowers too. Neither superiority complex nor inferiority complex is
experienced within the group. Did Superman do something to outmaneuver either
Spiderman or Batman so that he will be regarded as the greatest? No, he didn't
and the others also never did it. They've respected each other's gift and
mission. What preoccupied them is their desire to serve and to do their work
well. Moreover, they were given different gifts, wherein each has corresponding
responsibility. In addition to that, they sprang from different eras and they
used their power to support one another and not to compete with each other.
Superheroes last forever.
Their immortality relies on the works they have done. I have first known them
when I was still a child. They were there in the past, evident in the present,
and definitely will be remembered in the future. People from all walks of life
and from many generations still have them in their hearts. Their legacy is still
cherished and admired, and such makes them immortals. For sure superheroes are
not real. In the Philippine setting, we also have the like of Captain Barbel
and Darna just to mention a few. They are comic characters. They only exist in
the imagination or fictional for that matter. Nevertheless, one thing is
certain. They can inspire us to do exemplary things, to do an ordinary work in
an extraordinary way.
In the real world,
somehow we find superheroes existing in the persona of PRIESTS by these
indicators similar to that of Superman and the like. First, priests are
ordinary persons but they do their work extraordinarily with the grace of God
who calls them to be His ministers despite of being sinners like the rest of
mankind.
Priests live a celibate
life. Some may have fallen in love but they have sacrificed themselves for the
sake of service to others. They are never alone because the whole clergy and
Christian community are there. If not so, definitely Christ is with them.
Priesthood is not in
conflict with other offices that hold power too. Priests cooperate with other
sectors to promote the common good.
Priests last forever. “You
will be a priest forever.” To use the words of Karl Rahner in his writing entitled,
“A Priest Forever”, “The priest is a man
taken from among men. He is not made from another kind of clay that the rest of
us. He continues to share the lot of men after the hand of God has rested on
him in the form of the bishop’s hand. As human messengers of the everlasting
God, they say, ‘Do not be scandalized at us. We know we carry God’s treasure in
vessels of clay; we know that our own shadow keeps darkening God’s light, which
we ought to bring to you. Be merciful toward us; don’t judge us; feel sympathy
with us weaklings, on whose shoulders God has loaded more grace than what we
carry. From it learn that God has no horror of human beings. Blessed will you
be then, those of you who have not been scandalized at the priest.” May God
bless us all.
