How Christians Are Like Superman

There is a scene in the movie "Superman Returns" that I find truly inspirational. In the movie, Lex Luthor is intent on killing Superman once and for all. He destroys Superman’s hideaway and lures him there to kill him. At one point Luthor takes a jagged piece of kryptonite and plunges it into Superman’s back. Immediately Superman begins to grow weak and staggers backward over a cliff into the water below. He is sinking fast. Lois Lane and her family are on a hovercraft searching for Superman. They see him below the surface of the water and Lois gets out and pulls Superman onto the craft. He is almost dead. Things look nearly hopeless.

Soon, Lois sees the jagged piece of kryptonite sticking out of Superman’s back and with much pain for our weakening hero pulls it out and tosses it into the sea. Superman struggles to his feet and goes out the open hatch. The next scene shows him flying up to the sun to reenergize and heal. This scene was just amazing. Weak and barely able to fly Superman makes it to the sun where a great transformation occurs. We see his back get straighter; his muscles expand, after a few minutes with the sun even his knuckles seemed to have grown muscles. Superman is revived…re-invigorated…healed. Superman is sun-powered. S-u-n-powered.

Our kryptonite is the excesses and temptations of the world. But, through Jesus Christ, we are re-energized…. re-invigorated… healed! As Catholic Christians, we have no need to fly up to the sun, we find Jesus right where we are: in each other, in Holy Scripture, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in the Sacrifice of the Mass, and at our source and summit: The Eucharist. And, we are re-energized...re-invigorated...healed!

Just as Superman is sun-powered, so too are we: S-O-N-powered!