Remembering Corey Comperatore

Today’s news cycle is being dominated by former President Donald Trump’s announcement of J. D. Vance as his running mate, the first night of the Republican National Convention, the dismissal of Mr. Trump’s classified documents case, and President Biden’s interview with NBC’s Lester Holt last night. However, I want to focus this morning on a story I don’t want us to miss before it fades from the headlines.

Corey Comperatore was an engineer, a former chief of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company in Pennsylvania, and a lifelong volunteer firefighter. He was also a husband and the father of two daughters.

When shots rang out last Saturday at a rally for former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, one of Corey’s daughters later described how her father reacted. “He shielded my body from the bullet that came at us,” she wrote in a social media post. “He loved his family. He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us.”

Corey Comperatore died defending those he loved. His daughter called him a “real-life superhero.”

“We are all on our last cruise”

Donald Trump’s near assassination illustrates John F. Kennedy’s prophetic statement: “If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill a president of the United States, he can do it. All he must be prepared to do is give his life for the president’s.” If the person presumably better protected than anyone in our country can be in mortal danger, so are we all.

Recent celebrity deaths include sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, actress Shannen Doherty, and fitness guru Richard Simmons. Russian Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed on this day in 1918; John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, and her sister perished in a plane crash on this day in 1999. Shark attacks and the rising threat of bird flu are in the news as well.

An American Airlines flight parked at its gate at San Francisco International Airport was evacuated recently because of smoke in the cabin. Metaphorically, we’re all on that flight. Robert Louis Stevenson made a similar point: “Old and young, we are all on our last cruise.”

According to Jesus, none of us knows when our time will come: “Always be ready, because you don’t know the day or the hour the Son of Man will come” (Matthew 25:13 NCV). However, while we cannot know the hour of our death, we can prepare for it. We can decide today that we will respond as Corey Comperatore did: with sacrificial courage and selfless love.

How can we do this?

“No more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man”

Aristotle taught: “Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”

One person said of Corey Comperatore’s sacrifice: “He was a firefighter. Why am I not surprised his instinct was to put his own body in harm’s way?” I have been privileged to pastor several firefighters over the years and can testify personally to the truth of this statement.

Kurt Vonnegut agreed: “I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine.” Think about it—when everyone else runs from the conflagration, firefighters run to it as quickly as they can get there, knowing they may not return.

The Greek historian Thucydides was right: “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.”

Stated succinctly: If we live for others today, we’re more likely to be willing to die for them tomorrow.

How can we do this?

“If we live, we live to the Lord”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro testified that Corey Comperatore went to church every Sunday. This is unsurprising: A longtime friend called him “a great man who loved his family fiercely and did the same with God.”

As a result, Corey found in his Lord the strength to follow his example: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Followers of Jesus know these facts to be true:

“Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world” (1 Timothy 6:6–7).
“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
“If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).

As a result, we are free to “set your mind and heart to seek the Lᴏʀᴅ your God” (1 Chronicles 22:19). We are free to live—and to die—for his glory and the common good. We are free to serve others whether or not we are served, to love them whether or not we are loved, and to live each day for our eternal reward and theirs.

St. Augustine observed:

We do not seek, nor should we seek, our own glory even among those whose approval we desire. What we should seek is their salvation, so that if we walk as we should they will not go astray in following us. . . .

If then you are good, praise is due to him who made you so; it is no credit to you, for if you were left to yourself, you could only be wicked. . . . And so, my brothers, our concern should be not only to live as we ought, but also to do so in the sight of men; not only to have a good conscience but also, so far as we can in our weakness, so far as we can govern our frailty, to do nothing which might lead our weak brother into thinking evil of us.

Otherwise, as we feed on the good pasture and drink the pure water, we may trample on God’s meadow, and weaker sheep will have to feed on trampled grass and drink from troubled waters.

The philosopher Andrew Bernstein was therefore right:

“The hero is the man who lets no obstacle prevent him from pursuing the values he has chosen.”

Will you be a hero today?

Tuesday news to know:

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“We can walk without fear, full of hope and courage and strength to do his will, waiting for the endless good which he is always giving as fast as he can get us able to take it in.” —George Macdonald