Philosphy

The Hero and Saint

Most of us are content to see ourselves as ordinary people -- unique in ways, talented in others, but still among the ranks of ordinary mortals. How should "ordinary" people respond when others need our help, whether the situation is a crisis, or something less? Do we have a responsibility, an obligation, to go that extra mile, to act above and beyond the call of duty? Or should we leave the braver responses to those who are somehow different than we are: better somehow, "heroes," or "saints?" Traditional approaches to ethics have suggested there is a sharp distinction between ordinary people and those called heroes and saints; between duties and acts of going beyond the expected. By shifting the way we regard ourselves in relationship to those we admire from afar -- we ask ourselves to emulate the challenges we actively seek in the acquisition of virtue as seen in the lives of heroes and saints, to learn from them, a dynamic aspect of ethical behavior that goes beyond the mere avoidance of wrongdoing. This allows us to grow morally, and spiritually. It is then that the individual develops a deeper altruistic sense of self -- a state that allows us to respond as the heroes of our own lives, and therefore in the lives of others, when times and circumstance demand that of us.

Our world loves heroes, indeed idolizes them and puts them up on pedestals they are bound to fall off of. Conversely, humor, joy, and an intense love for God and man are qualities that characterize saints. Karl Marx could not have been more wrong when he said, "It is easy to become a saint if one does not want to be a human." The truth is that in order to be a saint, one must be fully human. (DeMarco) To start with, there is a significant difference between the kind of story that is told about heroes and the kind of story that is told about saints. The hero always makes a decisive intervention at a moment when things are looking like they could go wrong. The hero steps up...