Jesus Evangelizer of the Poor – Hero or Knight?
Until recently, I would have said he was the hero. Now I raise this question because I read the following earlier this week.
“The mature savior, prophet, or warrior is not “the hero”, but “the knight”. And this is the difference: The hero operates off his own agenda, whereas the knight is under someone else’s agenda. The knight lays his or her sword at the foot of the King or Queen. The knight, like Jesus, “does nothing on his own”.” (The Hero Complex)
I have always thought of Jesus as a hero. This passage let me realize just how much I am still in the crowd on Palm Sunday praising the one they saw as their Messiah. He was the hero who would deliver them from the subjugation to a foreign power rather than the knight who shows them what it means to be about “my Father’s business.”
So many of his first followers thought of him as “hero”. But notice how, almost as a mantra, he keeps saying: I do nothing on my own. I am perfectly obedient to my Father. “I must be about my Father’s business!
Jesus was never a hero, a “lone-ranger” doing his own thing. He was the paradigm of the “knight”, the humble foot-soldier who did the bidding of the One who sent him.
Jesus was never a hero, a “lone-ranger” doing his own thing. He was the paradigm of the “knight”, the humble foot-soldier who did the bidding of the One who sent him..
Yet I am also aware of his spending 40 days in the desert preparing himself for the “hero’s journey” that would lead to his death… and resurrection. His suffering, death, and resurrection can also be viewed as the culmination of the “hero’s journey” of transformation.
I come away with the thought that, once again, the operative word should be Jesus, the Evangelizer of the Poor, was both knight, doing the will of one greater than he, AND whose suffering and death was the culmination of his hero’s journey to transformation and resurrection.. His knight’s mission from the Trinity is what inspired him
Other Knights, Evangelizers of the Poor
I think we forget that this is characteristic of other evangelizers of the poor. As knights, they were about the business of the One they served. They also had to undergo the trials of the hero’s journey.
St. Vincent
Clearly Vincent was a knight serving his hero, Jesus the Evangelizer of the Poor. Yet, sometimes we look at Vincent without a sense of his journey and struggles. We see only how much he did but not his sense of mission and why he did it.
Pope Francis
There is no doubt that Pope Francis is a modern-day Evangelizer of the Poor. He keeps his eye firmly fixed on this mission… being and bringing “good news” to those on the margins…even if it risks upsetting those who think that they are at the center.
Lesson for the followers of Christ the Evangelizer of the Poor
We are first and foremost knights doing the will of the one who sent us.
We each have our own “hero‘s journey.”
We are also engaged in our own journey of transformation
Questions for Knights of the Trinity
- When you are feeling zealous or righteous about an Evangelizer of the Poor, reflect on whether you are doing God’s, your own, or someone else’s will.
- Do we think we can be knights of the one who sent us without going about the difficult journey of our own inner conversion and transformation?
Listen to this article below
I don’t know why but this reflection rose this thought. I have a relative who is Down. If I wanted to become a “saint”, a “hero”, overnight, I could have done so by accepting to take this relative of mine to live with me and my husband: I would have the praise of people around me me until this relative’s, or my own, death. The fact is that this relative needs 24 hour attention since it seems to me that there is “more” than Down. The commitment to live for her would have been totally, and only, on my shoulders, knowing how my husband and I are. I prayed a lot and decided not on the basis of the “hero” treatment I would have had, not on the possibility of becoming a “saint” overnight, but on “what” my relative needed most: a well regulated life with constant attention by professionals. I helped find a good place for her. I am in the shade, no praise for me at age 71, but my relative began “to blossom” again at 53 years of age. Hero or knight? Good question, indeed!
Gabriella,
Knowing a bit of the “back story” of this I know how difficult this question was for you. Thank you for sharing. Be at peace!
At the outset, let me ask you to pardon me for thinking that what interests me interests you also. Now to my points.
“When you are feeling zealous or righteous about an Evangelizer of the Poor, reflect on whether you are doing God’s, your own, or someone else’s will.”
This suggestion reminds of the temptation today, no less than yesterday, to which religious thinkers have alerted us (among them Karl Adam, Thomas E. Clarke, SJ—if I remember correctly—in an article in Jesus Issue of Commonweal, second half of the 1960s, and Jaroslav Pelikan) to make Jesus what we want him to be, a classical hero, an existentialist or even an anti-hero.
As for the Lone Ranger, re-runs of which I’ve been watching lately, he had Tonto with him, of course. And I’m surprised to discover, in Wikipedia on him:
(1) That among the strict code of conduct he lived by was: “That sooner or later… somewhere … somehow … we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.”
(2) Whenever he was forced to use guns, he never shot to kill, but instead tried to disarm his opponent as painlessly as possible.
(3) He rarely referred to himself as the Lone Ranger.
(4) Adversaries were rarely other than American, to avoid criticism from minority groups.
(5) The Lone Ranger never drank or smoked; and saloon scenes were usually shown as cafes, with waiters and food instead of bartenders and liquor.
(6) Criminals were never shown in enviable positions of wealth or power, and they were never successful or glamorous.
Interesting points, Father, but Ross makes some good points also. As even the best analogies do, they start to fall apart at some point. In the end, after the “Knight” dies, he becomes a “Hero” to those left behind. So, since we’re nearly two thousand years removed from the fact of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the “Hero” analogy for Jesus seems the more common experience.
On the other hand, Vincent and Francis as “Knights” is a good image for me. I like to think that their “shining” example has a lot to do with their ability to stay true to their mission. They both have had their adversaries who question their motivations, but most of us find them to be on a clearer and more faith-filled path.
Would that we too could find that kind of mission and remain faithful to it!