Leadership of Service

29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

October 18, 2015

Mark 10:35-45

“Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; ⁴⁴ whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. (Mark 10:44)”

When we hear the word leader, often the image that comes to our mind is a CEO, a manager or a boss, or for us, active in the Church, a priest, a sister who runs a school, or fellow lay people who take care of the Church-based organizations. Basically it is about position in the company, parish, or ministry. Surely positional leadership gives us power and certain sense of control and efficiency, but it does not necessarily mean that people will follow us wholeheartedly. John Maxwell often stresses that the leadership is not about position. We may become the boss, and our employees need to obey our orders; otherwise, we can demote or fire them. We may become a priest, and our parishioners need to follow us; otherwise, we can ‘excommunicate’ them.

Now, the difficulty with positional leadership is that positions are limited and not for everyone. While some of us may reach the top posts, the rest of us, no matter how hard we work, remain at the bottom of the leadership ladder. The danger is when we are on the top, people just see our buttocks, and when we are on the bottom, the higher-ups see nothing but countless yet impersonal ‘minions’. Do we, as employees, follow the instruction of the boss with full zeal and rigor, or we just do our jobs as long as we will not get fired and earn something? In the Church’s context, as faithful, do we follow our leaders happily, or we just exert our utmost patience because we work not for our Church’s leaders but for the Lord?

It seems that this has been a perennial problem about the positional leadership, and Jesus knew very well. He said, “Those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.” This is also the problem of the disciples. James and John requested the seats of power, and the rest, felt outsmarted, got angry with the two. All of the disciples had still in their mind that being a leader means being at the summit and hold authority to control others. Emotional Peter may be infuriated, Simon the Zealot may believe he has the right political agenda, and Judas, the bursar, insisted he had the purse to run the show. Jesus had to calm the disciples and indeed, He taught them a new kind of leadership.  It is the leadership of service.

The good thing about this service is it has practically no rigid structure, the better thing is that everyone can be a leader, and the best thing is what we need to do is just to serve others. A father who works hard for his wife and children is a leader. A mother who gets up early in the morning, prepares breakfast, brings her children to school and still goes to work to earn a little, is a leader. A lay man who despite being very busy at work, still gives his time and honest effort for the Church and the poor, is a leader. Honest and people-oriented public officials are true leaders. In fact, the higher position we hold, the higher also dedication we ought to give in our service. No wonder that St. John Paul II fondly called himself as the servant of the servants of God.

Certainly it is not easy to serve. Often it has no material benefits and sometimes, we are not appreciated, but it is necessary that we become servants to each other. When we put aside our selfish tendencies and allow service for others to prevail, we are sure that we will see better individuals, strong families, empowered societies and the world.

Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP