Saints, Heroes, Role Models

I remember Charles Barkley saying emphatically star athletes are not role models. They are athletes and that only. He insisted that kids should look to their parents for role models.

With young people in confirmation class, I would ask for names of movies they had seen about the lives of real people. Usually, it was a very short list. Some had seen Gandhi. Several had seen movies in school about Martin Luther King. Most had seen a Jesus movie in church. But that was usually about it.

Last weekend,my wife and I attended the ordination to the priesthood of the son of long time friends. One of the aspects of the service of ordination and the mass the following day that struck me were the prayers for the saints. Those prayers began with the apostles and ranged through 10 or 12 names of the martyrs of the 1st and second century. We did hear the name of St.Francis and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Sisters of her order were in attendance. But no other names from the present except the Pope and the Archbishop.

We all ponder this question of who are the saints, the heroes, the people who offer us spiritual inspiration.

Who are those people for us?

Clearly, that list cannot end with Christians martyred for their faith 1900 years ago. How do we as parents, as people, as church folk share with others those real life people who have been an inspiration to us? How do we remember and honor those whose lives inspire and challenge and bless us and who are clearly part of that mighty cloud of witnesses who surround and support us.