What Superman can teach us about loving and caring for the poor

Catholic Social Teaching is the Church’s instruction manual on how to live a Christ-centered life. It guides us in being the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the leaven which helps our society grow toward bringing about the Kingdom of God. In this seven-part series, we’ll examine the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching through comic books – their stories, their heroes, and their ideals. We’ll look at how our favorite superheroes embody these principles of living a more Christian life.

The Superheroes’ Guide to Catholic Social Teaching – Part 1, Part 2

Theme 3: Option for the Poor and Vulnerable; or Being Clark Kent

Most of our favorite comic book superheroes started out as normal human beings. Their origin stories usually involve an ordinary guy (or gal) going about their ordinary business, when something extraordinary happens. Maybe it’s an accident – a radioactive spider bite; a gamma-ray irradiation; something that should have killed them but instead gave them super powers.

Maybe they take some initiative, coming into super-heroics through discipline, training, and technology. Or maybe a Cosmic Ring chooses them as the closest and most convenient person worthy of wielding its phenomenal power. Or else they just happen to be in the right place at the right time when a weird blue alien is trying to get rid of said Cosmic Power Ring.

But however it happens, superheroes are usually regular folks who have great power thrust upon them.

Superman, as the archetype of the modern superhero, laid the foundation for this trend even though he himself was something completely different. This strange visitor from another planet, with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, never was an ordinary human. He just did his best to act like one.

In his letter to the Philippians, Saint Paul says of Jesus that “he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness, and found in human appearance.” And Superman does much the same thing. Of course he’s not divine as Jesus is, but he is the most powerful being on the planet. So the fact that he spends most of his day in the persona of a mild-mannered everyman shows a remarkable humility.

Superman lives and works among us, alongside the people he so often fights to protect. It might, in some ways, be a whole lot simpler for him if he retreated to his Fortress of Solitude, emerging only when the survival of the planet depended on him. But he doesn’t do that.

His best pal is the geeky young cub photographer for the Daily Planet. The love of his life is their star reporter. Being Clark Kent keeps Superman grounded in our world, so that it’s not just the Earth or Humanity, in the abstract, he protects. It’s Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. It’s his friends, his family, his neighbors, the community he makes himself a part of.

In one of the deleted scenes from Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, Peter Parker advises Miles Morales, “you can’t think about saving the whole world. You have to think about saving one person, Miles. You just think about someone you love.” It’s at the heart of every great superhero. So while Clark Kent gets to know and love the weak, powerless, ordinary humans of Metropolis, Superman does everything in his power to protect them.

The Church’s Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable is kind of like that. Maybe I can’t bounce bullets off my chest or fly at super-speed around the Earth to turn back time, but I do have a lot of advantages that other people just don’t have. The Preferential Option is a challenge to engage with those people, not only to learn about their struggles but to care about them – to love them, and to fight for them.

Jesus told his followers, “if you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor.” It’s not enough to simply give what you don’t need or to be generous with surplus wealth; living the Christian ideal means renouncing material possessions to live in solidarity with the poorest and the most vulnerable.

It’s what Jesus himself did. Not only did he empty himself to become flesh, but even as a human he sought out the poor, the downtrodden, the dregs of society. Religious leaders of his day were constantly scolding him for fraternizing with sinners. But Jesus told them, these are my people – the ones who most need salvation and healing. Christ saves his people by becoming one of them.

Many saints and holy people throughout history have followed this example. Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi and Saint Teresa of Calcutta, for example, left behind lives of wealth and comfort to live in poverty and service. Dorothy Day, in Depression-era New York City, opened her home to the needy and spent the rest of her life giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, shelter to the homeless. The Church’s Preferential Option for the Poor is more than just giving to charity; it is a radical commitment to working among, living among, and loving the most vulnerable and desperate of God’s people.

And it is something we do not for worldly acclaim or glory, but because it is what God expects of us – because it’s the right thing to do. In the Gospels we’re reminded that, when doing good, we should not be like the hypocrites who blow trumpets in the street and look for applause. We should be more like Superman. When he is finished saving the day he doesn’t wait around for praise, honor, and glory. He flies away, puts on a suit and tie and thick glasses, and lets himself blend in with the rest of humanity.