Possibly, just possibly, some of you do not know who 'Gazza' is. There was a time when I was in such a state of blissful ignorance. I remember going to a study day for school chaplains at London Colney in Hertfordshire where a distinguished priest of the Westminster Archdiocese told us that we had to live more closely with teenage culture; we had to relate the life of Jesus Christ to the life of 'Gazza'. Everybody else chuckled knowingly and I had to whisper in embarrassment to my neighbour: "Who on earth is Gazza?" I read that the Pope has recently had the same trouble in not recognising footballers at his audience - one football-hating journalist said cynically that this was the best reason he could think of for becoming a Catholic.

Well, now 'Gazza' seems to have got his come-uppance. A rather nasty part of me, I suppose, never very happy about bringing popular idols into the life of faith, was tempted to ring up that Westminster priest and say: "Where are your heroes now?" One reason why we like to bring heroes down is, of course, jealousy: after all, a 0.2per cent fit Gazza is going to be an infinitely better footballer than a 500per cent fit Father Sillince (if you can imagine such a thing).

Christianity has always had a wavering attitude towards its heroes The most obvious heroes are the martyrs, but they spurned the earthly qualities with which they had been endowed in order to make the ultimate profession of faith. What about people who just use their earthly qualities supremely well? Are they giving glory lo God? Or are they vessels of pride and self-advertisement? Even in the case of people who seem to reveal admirable spiritual qualities there is something in us which likes to play the devil's advocate and bring them down: Padre Pio and Mother Teresa are recent examples.

As Christians we have to be very careful about presenting as heroes the idols of the moment, for today's idol is tomorrow's fallen statue. Psalm 48 speaks chillingly of this: "Then do not fear when a man grows rich, when the glory of his house increases. He takes nothing with him when he dies; his glory does not follow him below".