Selfless Leadership

If you line up all the dictators and tyrants of history, you find them boring because they are so much the same. But, if you look at the saints, you find an amazing and endearing variety of virtue and holiness.
I heard something like this recently in a podcast I was listening to and I marvelled at the truth contained in it. Goodness is like a beautiful diamond that sparkles and shines from every which way you look at it. Evil is just blackness and darkness.
Doesn't Our Lord call us, by His example and also by His words, to pursue goodness, holiness and truth; to pursue Him who is all those things. In following Him, there is not personal glory but the glory of God; not power but selfless surrender.

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Music by TheNonVisibles from Pixabay

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SPEAKER_00 0:22

It's a generally held opinion that Queen Elizabeth II has been a great monarch for Britain and the Commonwealth. She is the longest reigning monarch in British history, not something that she takes great delight in, because it's only because her father died young and she acceded to the throne at such a young age. Her commitment and perseverance, we are told, comes from her firm religious understanding of the role she has. For her she was consecrated to God in service of her people at her coronation. She is a living reminder of the Christian understanding of governing and ruling. True leadership is service, not personal glory. And Christ not only taught that, but gave us an example that we might all follow. With that in mind, let's reflect upon the sacred scripture readings for today's holy mass. The reading from the Book of Wisdom is a prophecy of the Lord's own passion. His enemies complain that the virtuous one annoys them, opposes their way of life, and has challenged their authority, reproached them for breaking the law of Moses, and for being false to their upbringing. And we hear chilling words that foreshadow how they will mock him as he hangs on the cross. Today's gospel and the Psalm give us the reverse side, if you like, of the first reading. In both the Gospel and the Psalm we hear of Jesus' sufferings from his point of view. Though his enemies surround him, he offers himself freely in sacrifice, trusting that God will sustain him. But the apostles don't understand this second announcement of Christ's passion. Despite the fact that our Lord has been instructing them throughout the time they have been walking through Galilee, they begin arguing over issues of succession, over who among them is the greatest, who will be chosen to lead after Christ is killed. Just to digress for a moment, this can make us more aware of the significant and enormous change that the coming of the Holy Spirit brought about in the apostles. The infusion of divine grace on that day of Pentecost made those human minds capable of receiving in full Christ's teaching. As Jesus said the Holy Spirit would remind them of all that He had taught them, remind them so that they could understand fully. At the point where we are in the Gospel of Saint Mark, they have heard the words, but they have not penetrated the message that our Lord gives. So to further help them, because he is always patient with them, even if sometimes sharp and direct with them, he sits down and he calls the twelve to him, and says that if any of them desire to be first, to be the leader, he must be the last and the servant of all the others. Then to give a concrete example of what he means, he presents a little child to them. Note the lovely detail that Jesus puts his arms around the little boy and addresses the apostles. Imagine them for a moment looking at the boy and hearing those words. Before them they see a child who is powerless and dependent on others, the very opposite of what their minds have been focused on. They hear their divine teacher telling them that this is what they must be like. Perhaps connections of understanding are beginning to be made, and maybe they begin to comprehend what Christ has been saying about Himself. All would be made clear though after the resurrection and with the infusion of the Holy Spirit. Then they would be ready to overtake the might and power of the Roman Empire with this message of lowly greatness and humble service. The power of Rome will eventually crumble, but the power of the cross would go on through the ages. Doesn't Saint James bring this to bear so well on human interaction? Human interaction that's played out in our families, in our parishes, among friends, wherever people exist alongside each other. Jealousy, ambition and disharmony can be found, says Saint James, wherever the wisdom that comes down from above is not present. I wonder was Saint James remembering those conversations on the roads around Galilee many years before when he wrote those words. Just like our Lord turned things upside down, inside out, as he showed the apostles a little boy as the example of the inner dispositions of Christian leadership, so Saint James would say to us that when we see that others have or achieve more than we do, then our response must first be to be thankful to God for what He has given to that other person, at the same time to pray that I might use more gratefully the gifts that He has given to me. We need the gift of divine grace that comes from the sacraments, from prayer, from good works, so that our lives might be marked by a desire for humility, not for glory, a desire for contentment, not for envy, a desire to lead, but also a desire to serve. May Our Lady of Sorrows pray for us.