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The
highest courage is to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity,
choosing right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over
popularity.
Travel the path of integrity without looking back, for THERE IS
NEVER A WRONG TIME TO DO THE RIGHT THING.
-
Bishop Soc Villegas
25 July 2007
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ON SERVANT
LEADERSHIP
(Part 12)
THE SCRIBES AND THE WIDOW
November
8, 2009
Today’s
gospel reading (Mk 12:38-44) teaches us about servant leadership.
It gives us a DON’T and a DO, with many ramifications on how we
serve God and others.
First, Jesus denounces the scribes, who look to trappings of
authority, and being acclaimed and recognized (v.38), who look to
prestige and being honored (v.39), but prey on those they serve,
while making a pretense of spirituality to cover up their wrong
acts (v.40).
So what are the things that a servant leading is NOT to do?
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Look
to the wrong P’s as one’s motivation for service: power,
position, prestige, perks and pay.
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Look
to being acclaimed, or even aspire for Church or secular
awards.
-
Be
unduly protective of one’s reputation.
-
Look
to always being affirmed or acknowledged in one’s service.
-
Take
undue advantage of those one serves (borrowing money, using
their time and resource for one’s personal benefit, and so
on).
-
Make
a pretense of one’s spirituality.
Second,
Jesus affirms the widow, who put in two small coins into the
temple treasury, versus the many rich people who put in large
sums. Jesus said that the “poor widow put in more than all the
other contributors to the treasury” (v.43). Why? “For they
have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her
poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”
(v.44).
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What
does this teach us about what a servant leader is to DO?
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Just
serve, knowing that everyone has something to offer in serving
God, no matter how seemingly menial according to worldly
values.
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Do
not be overly concerned about so-called performance, for it is
not what one is able to accomplish that is important, but what
one puts into the effort in his service. Know that it is up to
God to provide the fruit. We simply need to be available to
become His instruments.
-
Be
willing to make a sacrifice in serving, even giving out of
one’s poverty of resources, even depriving oneself of what
he can justifiably use up for himself.
-
Trust
that if one honors the Lord and His work, then the Lord will
be the one to take care of his needs. The Lord is never
outdone in generosity.
The
world extols leaders who are like the scribes, while ignoring or
putting down those who are nobodies in society like the poor
widow. Worldly leadership looks to high positions of power and
authority, while servant leadership looks to taking the lowest
place, to serve and not to be served, to being last while putting
others first.
For the true Christian, whether in service in the Church or in
secular society, there is only one way--that of Jesus, and that of
the poor widow.
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