You can get a real insight into who a person is by asking who their heroes are. For some people, those heroes are very material: they are known and celebrated for their successes in sports, entertainment, politics, finance, or business. They tend to be very ambitious, very wrapped up in themselves, and very aware of who and what they appear to be to others. For me these are the living dead, and there is a certain odor of decay about them, a certain foulness that "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten" ("Macbeth," V). They live only by and for perishable food, and they perish with it. For other people, their heroes live beyond the material. These heroes are forgetful of self, generous, absolutely trustworthy, and living on a hidden strength that is nonetheless right out in the open: they trust in God, and God alone, for their life, their satisfaction, their joy, and their holiness. These people have given their hearts away, and Jesus has given them his own Sacred Heart to live and love with as well as the same food that he lives on, doing his Father's gracious will. These heroes are all around us, often parents or uncles and aunts, the grandparents who have achieved wisdom with their years, the teachers who have shown love both in their firmness and in their concern. Who are my heroes? Who do I want to be like if and when I ever grow up? And do I live by perishable food, or do I seek the food that the Son of Man gives me?
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