I just want to say first of all that I am going to talk about Batman versus Superman—which I presume most of you, if not all of you, Grade 10ers, have already seen, right? But don’t worry. No spoilers for you who haven’t seen it yet. I just find it interesting that they kill Wonder Woman in the final scene. Just kidding. No, they really kill Superman. Just kidding…? Okay, here goes. Don’t you find it intriguing that Batman and Superman, with all their strength and goodness of heart—they have such sad, painful, even dark pasts? They both as children lose their parents in a tragedy. They’ve since been leading double lives as Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent. Surely, many people love them, but only their superhero personas, right? Because they have haters when they’re in their regular identities. And they’re supposed to be kindred spirits, aren’t they? Their life-stories are quite similar, they both draw from a deep well of pain. Yet, they fall into Luthor’s machinations, so they try to wipe each other out! But see, here’s what I think makes them real heroes. In my book, Batman and Superman are truly “meta-humans”, not so much for their otherworldly powers. Rather, how can they be so devoted to relieving the world’s pain and suffering while getting over their own past every day of their lives? Isn’t Bruce Wayne so unhappy all the time? And remember how Superman was inches away from giving up because of bad reviews from the very people he helped? But Mrs. Kent pulled him off the ledge. “Be the hero, son,” she said. Be the hero. And that’s what a hero is, at least in my book: to be the hero means to try and ease other people’s pain and suffering despite your own. Oh, here’s something even better: a hero is someone who transforms his pain and suffering by transforming other people’s pain and suffering. Now someone like Lex Luthor only whines about his pain. Because he can’t and won’t transform his pain, he takes it out on others. Genius, yes; hero, no. Loser!
I’d been riding jeeps this weekend to go home to my dad in Matina and back to Jacinto. I also walked the length of San Pedro St. and back to Bolton, then all of Claveria. The look of Davao has changed, but the feel is the same. Mother and child still sidle up to jeeps to ask for some loose change into their cup. En route to Matina, I saw a blind man and his blind wife ready to cross the street in Bankerohan, I had seen that when I was a child. Mercury Drug, as ever, elbow to elbow with customers. I could imagine the sick those medicines were gonna be for. In Bolton, a shirtless man who looked like he hadn’t bathed for months was talking to the voices in his head. Tired and hungry construction workers hung out on a sidewalk in Claveria. I’ve always wondered even as a child if laborers ever got to build decent houses for themselves like they do for the rich.
This was the Davao I’ve known since I was a kid, my Gotham, my Metropolis. The look has changed, but the feel is the same. The feel is this way: that my Gotham is in bad need of a Batman; my Metropolis, a Superman. If only one of them would fly over and transform the pain and suffering of at least the precious few that I had seen in the past days—the mother and child or the blind couple, or the mentally-ill, or the laborer, that’d be great. Because there’s just a lot of pain and suffering going on, fellow Ateneans, a lot that need to be transformed. But unfortunately, we know that there will never be a Batman even if we sent the brightest light against the darkest clouds to summon him to our Gotham. Neither will there be a Superman zooming over to our Metropolis. There will be no meta-humans to transform the pain and suffering of our people.
But there can be heroes! And they don’t have to be able to fly. They don’t need to thunder down the road in an unconquerable bat-mobile. No. There can be heroes who will do as simply as extend a hand and help feed the hungry mother and child. There can be heroes who can simply walk over and lead two blind people to cross the street. Yes, there can be heroes who will for once, tear themselves away from Facebook so they can face real people that society has unfriended. There can be heroes who will for once, forget Dota 2, and be a real-life Earthshaker or Axe or even Tiny, but this time for a poor child, a homeless lady, a tired laborer. There can be heroes who will for once ditch Counter-Strike, and lay down the imaginary weapons that deal imaginary death—so they can give life…by helping someone live even for just the day, in this reality where it counts. So never mind if a Superman will never fly over, or a Batman ever swing around. There can still be heroes—and they happen to be sitting in front of me today 433 of them.
You know what, dear graduates, after Matina life, you’ll see that you’ll be making more and more crucial decisions that will affect your life. What are you going to be? Ever thought that far yet? What do you want to be? Are you going to be a doctor? A nurse? Do you want to be an engineer, a pilot, or a “professional gamer”, samba ko; which looks nice on a profile but really means “jobless”. Are you going to a religious? A teacher? Whatever it is you want to be, and this is my point: be the hero. Be the hero by transforming the pain and suffering of others—yes, even if you have a share of pain and suffering yourself. You’ve made it this far as Ateneans, so it can’t be that bad, can it? It can’t be that bad! Do you come from an unhappy family? Be the hero. Whatever you’re gonna be, transform your pain by dedicating yourself to bringing unity around you. Are you still grieving because you were orphaned early in your life, by death of a parent or by their separation? Be the hero. Whatever you’re gonna be, transform that grief by relieving the loss of the abandoned around you. Have you always felt insecure because you’re a scholar? Be the hero. Whatever you’re gonna be, transform your insecurity by later helping to educate those who can’t put themselves through school. Transform your pain and suffering by transforming the pain and suffering of people around you. And while you’re at it, how about stopping other people from transmitting their pain by taking it out on others? We have enough suffering because of thieves wearing barongs, gunning for office, using the poor—and then plundering…not just money, plundering lives. Whatever you’re gonna be, be the hero and stop those Lex Luthors of this world.
If you become the hero, trust me, you will be in good company. You won’t be the first but you’ll be right on track with the greatest hero who spent his life transforming other people’s pain and suffering. If you know who I’m talking about—and it’s not Wonder Woman!—you know that this guy, he wasn’t able to finish the job. The job is still barely done, in fact. That’s why he put his Spirit with in people, his power, his light in them. If you do your part well, you’ll see that you have actually the power to heal and the power to enlighten. You’ll see that you have the power to forgive, and the power of anger that is just and reasonable. Because the Spirit is in all of us, we have power to transform pain and suffering, the power to be heroes! So be the hero. When I taught in this school for three years, I always told my students, “Don’t be wimps!” I was referring to the bullies, the “lazies”, the guys with high scores on the computer but loser scores in school. So I also say to you today, because the Spirit is in you, then be the hero, fellow Ateneans, please. Don’t be wimps. And if I may say so, get off virtual heroism and live in reality where there is no reset, no invisibility, no unlimited lives, no escape button, no control-alt-delete. Be the hero in the real world where it counts—because that’s what your Ateneo education is all about: it’s all about being in footsteps of the Greatest Hero in the world, who also happens to be a tragic hero.
“People are still good,” Batman finally says. “We break things, we tear them down, but we can rebuild. We can be better, we have to be.” And if you listen with your heart, you would hear the Greatest Hero in the world answering Batman, and he says: “I know. I know you can all be better. Why do you think I love you, and lived and died for all of you. Because I know you’re all worth it. I know.”
Congratulations, dear graduates. God bless you and your families. Good morning, everyone.
Fr. Arnel Aquino, SJ
Ateneo de Davao