Fulton Sheen, Superman and Christmas

One day, as Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was walking down the street a small boy saw him and loudly told his mother “Look, Mom! It’s Superman!” Sheen wore his ferriola, a cape very similar to that worn by Superman.

Sheen recounted this incident on a number of occasions. He wrote about man’s fascination with superheroes in a collection of articles written for various periodicals titled On Being Human.

What interests us about Superman & Batman?

The superhuman, the alien and the seemingly supernatural engross our culture like no other time in history.

The popularity of such programs reveals our subconscious sense of human inadequacy, and also our need for a power beyond the human.

These words could have been written yesterday! People over sixty years later are still fascinated with superheroes. One needs only to look at the milieu of movies and TV shows produced by DC and Marvel.

The inadequacy that man feels is due to his fallen human nature because of Original Sin. On a purely human level sin imprisons man and temptations afflict him. He often does not strive toward goodness.

Grace is necessary for one to avoid sinning, avoid temptations, and strive for goodness. But God gives grace; it is above nature. Only the Incarnation can reconcile this disparity.

Sheen continues: “Given this credulousness, why should we find it hard to believe that Christmas is the visitation of the Super-Man Who comes from a higher source of life, and Who does things that man cannot do by himself?”

At the Incarnation, God takes on a human nature. He comes into the world to Redeem it from Sin and Death by His Cross and Resurrection. Like Superman, Christ comes into this world from another. Like Superman, He fights evil and strives for justice and peace.

Fulton Sheen Superman Christmas

For Sheen, superheroes are merely a reflection of the Superhero or the Super-Man, Jesus Christ.

While many qualities of superheroes can reflect those of Christ, Sheen notes that Christ is different from all other superheroes for a couple of reasons. 

First, the Superman comes in power; God comes in weakness-the weakness of a Babe in a cradle, Whose tiny hands cannot reach the huge heads of the cattle.

The modern mind is much more ready to accept a Superman who emits electrical power from his fingertips than it is to accept a Super-Man or God Who appears in the feebleness of an Infant.

Such a view was even that of the Jewish people during Christ’s life. They were expecting a Messiah who would be a King, a great Warrior, a Conquerer who would destroy the enemies of the Chosen People.

Christ was and did all of this but in an unexpected way. He destroyed the enemies of Sin and Death by a sign of contradiction: the Cross. He showed His power by working miracles and not by destroying armies.

Christ does not use His power as Superman would on a merely physical level. He applies His power to the more important spiritual dimension of the world.

The second difference between Christ and superheroes is that Superman makes no demands on us morally. Superman requires no change of life, no reformation of morals, no self-discipline; he leaves our ego as he finds it.

The Superman works on the outside; the God-Man on the inside. The Superman leaves hearts and souls as they are; the God-Man demands a revolution of spirit.

We want the benefits of being saved without having to change our way of life. We want the grace of Christ without His Cross. Superheros come and save us physically but often they do not save us spiritually.

As our Blessed Lord said in Mark 8:36, “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” For Sheen, the real Super-Man is Christ Who comes not to save us on a temporal level but on a spiritual one.

Christ as the Super-Man takes upon Himself the sins of the world in order to redeem man and win salvation for all humanity. 

Jesus Christ came to redeem all of humanity. He will not, however, save us without our cooperation. This is why there must be a demand made of us morally: so that we can cooperate with God’s grace and attain salvation.

Will we cooperate with the Super Man, with the grace Christ has won for us this Christmas to work toward our own salvation, or will we simply turn to the superheroes who save us from physical evil and not spiritual evil?

Fulton Sheen Superman Christmas