Anne Marie Murphy was a real hero but what about Jesus?

I rarely write posts or comment on issues of religion because I believe it is fundamentally a personal issue. Whatever makes a person feel good or helps them deal with what goes bump in the night is their right just as it is a right to believe there is nothing to believe in at all. I also believe that people do heroic acts by acting in an unselfish way in protecting the lives of others. The word “hero” is one of the most misused word in America today.

People are often declared heroes for simply doing their jobs, which doesn’t fit the criteria. Being a hero means a person going beyond one’s job description and often knowingly putting their life at risk in a dangerous situation to save someone else.

This was most likely the case when Anne Marie Murphy drew the attention to herself and away from the children in her class allowing some of them to escape and trying to use her body to shield others. Ms Murphy paid for that act with her life and, by my definition, would qualify her as a hero.

Her commitment to not only teach her students, but also to protect them with her life shows the complete unselfishness required of heroes. However, I am not sure that her acts rose to the level of comparing her to the ‘person’ she worshiped though she has been compared to Him.

In New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan told mourners at the funeral of 52-year-old Anne Marie Murphy that the teacher “brought together a community, a nation, a world, now awed by her own life and death.”

Murphy’s father, Hugh McGowan, said authorities told him that she died trying to protect her young pupils. Her body was found covering a group of children’s bodies as if to shield them, McGowan said.

Dolan underscored her sacrifice.

“Like Jesus, Annie laid down her life for her friends,” Dolan said. “Like Jesus, Annie’s life and death brings light, truth, goodness and love to a world often shrouded in darkness, evil, selfishness and death.”

There is something about these statements that bothers me. If what the good Cardinal Timothy says is true, then there is apparently a fairly straight forward way for Christians to become equal to their Jesus. For example, just take a bullet for someone, which sounds eerily like a Muslim getting 72 virgins for being a suicide bomber.

I don’t think Ms Murphy was thinking about becoming a heavenly figure at the time she took the action she did. I doubt that Jesus was even in her mind. Why? Because the action she took was a reaction to the commitment she had to the children in her care.

Anne Marie Murphy showed herself to be brave and without thought of her own safety; a very human hero without hope of rising from the grave in three days. Her commitment has finality to it, unlike Jesus’ death.

Thanks to DAVID KLEPPER and The Associated Press for their contribution to this story.

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