Servant Leaders
I
n the 1960's the little St Clement's College in Iloilo had a fine
basketball team. However, I remember watching one game when they were
down 20 points in 15 minutes. Then Paking, the coach, turned up. He
watched intently for a few minutes till he could see the strengths
and weakness of both teams. He then called a time out and had a huddle.
When the game restarted you would not believe that it was the same
players and they shot ahead to victory.
During
these weeks most of our Sunday Gospels are from St. John, and I believe
he is a bit like Paking in his ability to spot the key issues in the
life of Christ. Of course, John had plenty of time to reflect in the
light of the Holy Spirit. All of the Gospels were written backwards
in the sense that it was only after the resurrection of Jesus that
people really accepted that there was something special about Jesus
and began to tell and listen to the stories of his life. Then the
stories were written down by Mark, Matthew and Luke. These, called
the Synoptic Gospels, are straightforward and concrete. Jesus' teaching
is interspersed with plenty of action. In John, written down close
to the year 100 A.D., there are longer discourses and less action.
More abstract themes occur, for example - life, light, glory, truth
- it is a more spiritual Gospel. He sees especially the mystery of
God becoming human. But if we are to pick out the core of his teaching
on Jesus it may be his portrayal of him as a gentle servant leader.
In John there is no account of the giving of the Eucharist at the
Last Supper. Instead he had Jesus washing the feet of the disciples,
a truly explosive and challenging sign for his disciples and for the
people of his time, for whom the washing of feet was done only by
a slave.
In
John there is only one parable of Jesus recorded: "I am the gate
of the sheepfold." Again the theme is servant leadership and
there is a challenge for the people of his time and for us. A shepherd
has to be a non-threatening kind of leader that does not bully his
flock. The sheep follow as he gently leads the way. The shepherd must
be a good judge of the weather - he must be able to read the signs
of the times - so as to guide wisely. The shepherd knows the sheep
by name and a true leader must have a personal interest in the people
he serves. He must be always looking for better pastures for his sheep.
They and their protection, and their growth and welfare must be his
priority.
This
idea of leadership is also found in the parable of the yeast in the
dough. The true leader is "like yeast which a woman took and
kneaded into three measures of flour. Eventually the mass of dough
began to rise." Here we have an image of leadership where the
growth of the other is the objective, where the latent energies in
the other are released, where the beauty of the other is appreciated.
In this process the leader is learning from the ones served. He or
she learns that leadership is not an exercise of power by the leader
but rather of empowerment of those being led.
The
worldly desire for power, possessions and prestige are enemies of
true servant leadership. This is notoriously found in politics and
business but is no less present in the family and in the Church. Many
parents are not good shepherds because they are looking only for their
own glory through their children. They use their authority to dominate
rather than to facilitate. They use fear rather than love to bully
their households.
Clergy
and religious people can also fail to be servant leaders. Sometimes
we can be worse than the "politicians" that we condemn because
we cover our ambition with a lie of humility. We can use the respect
that the people give us to get away with conduct that is not tolerated
in secular society. We can jump the queue; we can give figures that
are dishonest, to justify our projects we can call people to 'discuss'
a project that we have already decided on; we can use people shamelessly.
People let us get away with it because of who we are. They capitulate
to our being over-bearing. We are the ones that suffer - our egos
are inflated by our pillage of the kingdom. If we are full of our
own egos our work will be merely projections of our own selves. A
ministry which ends in one's being acclaimed as a success is often
a sign of one's having failed. Five hundred years before Christ the
Chinese Philosopher Lao Tse saw this:
A
leader is best
when people barely know he exists:
Not so good
when people obey and acclaim him;
Worse when people despise him.
But of a good leader
who talks little,
when his work is done,
his aim fulfilled,
they will say
"We did it ourselves."
This
was the leadership of Christ Himself. He achieved nothing. His life
ended in utter failure. Yet he empowered a Church that will endure
to the end of time.
To
be his servant leaders, facilitators of the growth of the seed that
is already planted in our people, we have to be in constant struggle
with the big obstacle, both corporately and personally, that stands
in the way of his reign. That obstacle is the ego. Leadership in the
family, the church or the community demands self restraining love.
It demands that one must ever strive to be what the other needs one
to be. It demands the poverty of holding on to nothing for oneself
that the other may grow. And the best training that I know to be in
this kind of ministry or apostolate is to say the mantra everyday,
twice a day, for twenty to thirty minutes each time.
Taken
from Sundays
into Silence - A Pathway to Life. Copyright © 1998 by Claretian
Publications
