Tuesday,October 01, 2013
26th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Zec 8: 20-23 Gospel: Lk 9:51-56
As the time drew near when Jesus would be taken up to heaven, he made up his mind to go to Jerusalem. He had sent ahead of him some messengers who entered a Samaritan village to prepare lodging for him. But the people would not receive him because he was on his way to Jerusalem. Seeing this, James and John, his disciples said, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to reduce them to ashes?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in
the Assimilated Life
Experience)
One day, the then Archbishop of Cebu, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal was late for his appointment because his driver reported late for duty that day. I was serving the diocese as his deacon then. I thought he would flare up. But all he did was take a deep breath and with a deep sigh he told me, “Look at me, I am angry, and that’s because I have power over my driver; had it been another person’s driver fetching me, surely I’d be more restrained”. When one is in power, the Cardinal explained, it is easier to forget that all persons are created equal.
“How does your Eminence resist this temptation?” I politely asked. “Servant leadership”, he answered. “By servant leadership a person in authority strengthens the service dimension of his power. Service keeps his feet firmly rooted on the ground. For a person in power to remain humble, he must serve; to keep him serving, he must be humble”.
What Cardinal Vidal told me that day was a program of a lifetime. The way Jesus put his foot down at the suggestion of James and John to bring down fire to reduce an unresponsive town to ashes, it appears that arrogant ministers irk him. It was arrogant of them to assume powers they did not have. By this naked pretention they exposed their lust for power. This was not their first epiphany. They had approached Jesus earlier to shamelessly ask for special seats in heaven.
As God’s minister I exercise power to some degrees because there are certain aspects of service I cannot exercise without it. Such power comes with the same temptations influential people face. Only by tucking up my sleeves in readiness for service will power not intoxicate me. Such intoxication can be addictive. “Once tasted always wanted” is not only spoken of cannabis. Without dedication to humble service I will only work to become more powerful, and regardless of whether I have become so, behave like my imagined level of power is for real. Call it megalomania or by any other name, but definitely this is not a servant-leader’s game. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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