Unsung Hero Open Thread
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Driving home from downtown today, I saw a heavy set man in a wheelchair, obviously handicapped, struggling to wheel himself backwards up a steep hill. I was not going in his direction, but as I was making a turn, my grandson and I said a prayer for him. There were able-bodied men walking on the sidewalk with no offers of assistance. My grandson and I were appalled.
Your clip above reminded me of this paragraph from Pope Benedict’s DEUS CARITAS EST:
b) Love—caritas—will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love. Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such. There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable.[20] The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. The Church is one of those living forces: she is alive with the love enkindled by the Spirit of Christ. This love does not simply offer people material help, but refreshment and care for their souls, something which often is even more necessary than material support. In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live “by bread alone” (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3)—a conviction that demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human.
Every hero is an unsung hero in that a true hero doesn’t see himself as a hero.
This is at least the second or third time I’ve seen a Thai TV commercial that was, in essence, a short film with a profoundly Christian message — coming from a nation that is over 90% Buddhist. Here’s one from a mobile phone company, titled “Giving is the Best Communication”:
Wow. Speechless for “more intelligent” description. Wow.
This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Even as ye have done it unto the least of these…”
.
This is the preferrential option for the poor.
.
This is true social justice – to be the hero that God has commanded and demanded that we be.
One of my unsung heroes is Dieudonne Nzapalainga, Archbishop of Bangui in the Central African Republic
Thank you, Ginny: “There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love.” The principle of separation of church and state in one sentence. A saver.
Mary,
Thank you for acknowledging the brilliance of Pope Benedict. I always read your posts and enjoy them.
May almighty God bless you, Ginny.