Today’s readings from Ezekiel and Matthew can be pretty well summed up by another familiar Bible verse, Luke 12:48: “To whom much has been given, much will be required.”

Perhaps you remember when it was Uncle Ben, saying it to Spiderman, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” But it’s the same thing.

None of us was bitten by a radioactive spider, or injected with a super-soldier-serum, or born an Amazon-Princess and given a magic lasso made from Aphrodite’s girdle.

Nope. For us, it’s way better than that.

We’ve been reborn through the living waters of baptism. In the sacrament of reconciliation, we are cleansed from our sins and given grace that strengthens us in the face of temptation. In the Eucharist, we are daily given God’s own body to eat. In confirmation, we were filled with the Holy Spirit, enabling us to profess our faith as strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ.

This is how we get our superpowers . . . through grace, freely given to us by God in the sacraments.

And because we have superpowers, it’s not good enough for us to just get by. We strive for excellence in all the little things we do. Superman helps everyone who comes across his path, from world leaders to kittens caught up trees, because he is Superman. As Christians, so do each of us.

Now, probably, our own day to day challenges seem mundane compared to those of most superheroes. But they are no less important. We have opportunities for heroism all around us. When we clean up yet another mess we did not make . . . heroic! When we laugh politely at that coworker’s joke, the fourth time she tells it . . . heroic! When we are just as sick as the rest of the family, but we get up and do the laundry . . . heroic!

God’s grace gives us both the ability and the responsibility to strive for greatness each and every day, no matter what the people around us are doing. WE have to be super because we are. It’s only just.

THIS is a job for . . . you.

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Kendra Tierney can be found blogging, homeschooling, and gestating Tierney baby number eight in Los Angeles, CA. You can find out more about her here.