Friday,
December 28, 2018
Holy Innocents, Martyrs
1st Reading: 1 Jn 1:5—2:2
Gospel: Matthew 2:13-18
After the wise men had left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you for Herod will soon be looking for the child in order to kill him.”
Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. In this way, what the Lord had said through the prophet was fulfilled: I called my son out of Egypt.
When Herod found out that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighborhood who were two years old or under. This was done in line with what he had learned from the wise men about the time when the star appeared. (…)
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
A classic story tells of a mad man who set his house on fire to kill one pesky mouse. Herod did something very close to that. To make sure the child Jesus was dead he ordered the killing of all boys in Bethlehem aged two years old or under. The age bracket was broad enough to make sure the baby Jesus was included in the carnage. His madness sprang from his misunderstanding that Jesus was a political savior. Selfishness plus little knowledge is a very dangerous formula because it respects no one, not even infants.
Herod’s story is a showcase of how powerless the powerful is. A mere infant can threaten it, as in the case of Herod. It also shows us how powerful the powerless can be. The baby Jesus who was not even born in a decent hospital was too powerless to do any harm to anybody, let alone to a very powerful king like Herod. Yet Herod was pushed to his wit’s end in defense of his throne.
In the hand of the selfish, power is a deadly tool. In the hand of the servant, however, power can save. In the case of Jesus, it saved the world. Robert K. Greenleaf encapsulated this concept for the business community in his most celebrated concept of servant leadership. This oxymoron springs from his theory that good leadership begins with one’s sincere desire to serve.
Larry Spears, staunch follower of Greenleaf, identified the following qualities of a servant leader, namely, listening, empathy, ability to heal broken hearts, awareness, power of persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to help others grow, and building communities.
Power in the hands of a servant leader is unstoppable. Nothing prevails over it, not even the instinctive all-out destructive strategy of a mad king like Herod. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email:[email protected].
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