Cal Ripken, Carlo Acutis, Pier Georgio Frassati, and Heroes in Our Lives

When I was growing up as a child in 1980s Baltimore, it was easy to pick our heroes. We had a winning baseball team in town, and my siblings and I knew all the players. On a sweltering summer evening, we would sit in the living room and listen to the Orioles games.

As I got older, many of the players played less often and retired. But Cal Ripken was always there, always a favorite, playing every game.

I don’t know when I realized that he was building a consecutive game streak. But once I did, we were all rooting for him to succeed not just as a batter and a fielder but as a leader who showed up every day, giving everything he could for his team and our town.

As we marked the 30^th anniversary of Cal breaking the streak this weekend, lots of those decades-old emotions came back—joy in his achievement, pride in what he did for the Orioles and for Baltimore, and awe that he was able to reach that point. And he didn’t stop. He kept going to game 2,632 before he took a day off.

I don’t know Cal Ripken. I’ve met him exactly once for about 30 seconds at a book signing at Borders. My brother and I waited in line for hours that night, inching our way around and through the building just for that moment—and for a double-exposed photo with my baseball hero.

It was worth it.

I was thinking of all of that this weekend, as I saw photos and videos from the game. Day after day, Cal showed up, gave everything he could, and did it with a commitment to the game and his team, a passion for the sport, incredible talent, and always a ready smile for his fans.

Cal showed us what was possible. His approach to baseball will always be a source of inspiration. And somewhere deep down, I will always think of him as a hero who consistently showed up and shared of his God-given talents.

In a world that can be challenging and even disappointing, we need heroes. We long for examples of people who are overcoming obstacles, finding solutions for problems, grappling with hard stuff and winning.

What a gift that this weekend, Pope Leo canonized two new saints—St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati. Carlo and Pier Giorgio had a sense of being the people that God created them to be. They were true to themselves and true to God. They aspired for greatness—not personal greatness, but greatness in giving to the world and giving to God. They loved Jesus and longed to be closer to him.

They are heroes—examples of how we can live, and inspiration for us to realize that you have to make the most of whatever time you are given.

Whether God gives us the breath to make it through one game or 2,131, he has a role for us on earth that is ours—and ours alone. He knows we can contribute in a particular way that will have a special impact that someone else cannot. And he invites us to take the field every day with hope and with joy.

“Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces,” Pope Leo said in his homily. “They encourage us with their words: ‘Not I, but God,’ as Carlo used to say. And Pier Giorgio: ‘If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end.’ This is the simple but winning formula of their holiness. It is also the type of witness we are called to follow, in order to enjoy life to the full and meet the Lord in the feast of heaven.”

Whether we’re playing baseball and inspiring children like Cal Ripken, climbing mountains and helping the poor like St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, or playing video games and building a website about the Eucharist like St. Carlo Acutis, God extends a simple—but powerful—invitation to us.

Life your life for God and make it a masterpiece.

Thank you to those who offer inspiring, holy lives of how we might do that as we travel toward heaven.

St. Carlo Acutis, pray for us! St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, pray for us!

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