The Importance of Our Heroes

Our heroes form our most elevated desires. Heroes with physical beauty or great natural talent but lacking virtue disorder our desires. In our current age, these are the kind of figures we treat as heroes. We, then, value fame, influence, and sex appeal without humility, generosity, or chastity. We put the cart before the horse. These “heroes” teach us to desire an unattainable, unfulfilling, superficial self.

The trends of our teenagers illustrate our disordered desires. They are receiving more plastic surgeries, buying luxury clothing and makeup, and spending more time on social media platforms. In his bestselling book “The Anxious Generation,” psychologist Jonathan Haidt outlines the effects: increased anxiety and depression, distorted self-image, and addictions. These effects are part of what Haidt describes as the “great rewiring of childhood.”

As a solution, Haidt proposes that parents and schools ban phones until late teens, and children return to unstructured play and independent learning. Others are getting on board: 14 attorney generals from across the country sued TikTok earlier this month, alleging that the platform has “addicted” young people and harmed their mental health. While these practical and legal measures are a good start, I would argue that to strip away young people’s online reality means stripping away not just addiction, but their heroes. Our minds necessarily cling to some lofty ideal. For many, these are the celebrities or thought-leaders they follow online.

We are in a desert of true heroism and must replace our current idols with virtuous heroes. Two types of heroes can most effectively inspire our right desires, thoroughly entertain us, and fulfill the innate need for an ideal to aspire towards: literary heroes and saints. Literary heroes, such as King Arthur, Beowulf, Aragorn, and Don Quixote illustrate valiant ideals that have survived generations of Western people. The ancient myths, Greek, Roman, Norse, and Celtic, are rich worlds full of divine humans that spark a flame in our hearts.

In October, we the Church celebrate the feasts of a multitude of mythical heroes who truly existed, worked real miracles, and transcended the bounds of humanity by their faith in Jesus Christ. St. Therese of Lisieux, whose prayers for a convict she read in the newspaper converted him just before he was executed; St. Francis of Assisi, who received the wounds of Christ on his body; Blessed Carlo Acutis, who rejoiced in his sufferings from cancer at age 15; St. Teresa of Avila, who experienced mystical visions and levitation during prayer; and Bl. Jerzy Popiełuszko, who was martyred for bravely speaking out against communism. For Catholics, the cycle of feasts allows one to constantly saturate his imagination with such heroic examples, and inspire the same qualities in himself. In a culture bereft of true heroes, Catholics are privileged to have an endless feed of them.

God became man that we might become like God. We ought to read about and be formed by the examples of those who have undergone this mythical transformation. Then we too, by striving towards great virtue through a relationship with Jesus, may ourselves become the heroic, mythical creatures we are called to be.