OCTOBER 20 / 21, 2018
4:30 PM (SAT), 9:00 AM, 5:30 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
Barbara Kellerman is a professor of public leadership at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University; and was one of the founders of the International Leadership Association. Forbes ranked her among the top 50 business thinkers, and she is considered one of the top 15 best minds on leadership.
Her recent works have focused on the role of what she calls “followership,” as well as bad leadership, and the waning of traditional models of leadership.
She enumerates seven categories of “bad” leaders: (1) incompetent, (2) rigid, (3) intemperate, (4) callous, (5) corrupt, (6) insular, and (7) evil. While enumerating five types of followers: (1) isolates, (2) bystanders, (3) participants, (4) activists, and (4) diehards – categorized by their levels of engagement and participation.
Dr. Kellerman has indicated that there is a lot a person can learn about being a good leader by being a good follower.
Today is the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Our first reading is from the 53rd Chapter of Isaiah – one of the “Suffering Servant Songs.” Christians have considered this to be the Person of Jesus Christ as evidenced in its being referenced in the Gospels of Matthew and John, the Acts of the Apostles, and St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans.
The “Servant” is Jesus, and His offering to God is His Life, Passion, and Death.
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews portrays Our Lord’s self-offering into the role of High Priest, encouraging Christians (ourselves included) to approach the Throne of Almighty God through Christ Jesus, in order “to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.”
The short Gospel reading from St. Mark is part of an optional longer reading, where first James and John are looking for prime seating in the Kingdom – that is, they want to sit at Jesus’s left and right. He, however, calls them to a higher purpose – to share in His “cup” and in His “baptism.” And indeed, James was the first Apostle to suffer martyrdom in Jerusalem, and John lived a life of suffering in exile.
We see in succession how last week the man who approached Jesus “went away sad, for he had many possessions.” Instead of bringing him happiness, the things he owned ended up owning him … and holding him back from following Jesus.
And today, the disciples are lobbying and jockeying for power … focusing on defective, worldly models of leadership … instead of focusing on following Christ – who is right there, in front of them.
Jesus’s call to follow Him requires us to re-evaluate how, who, and what we are following. And in choosing to follow Christ, we must follow His example of service to God’s Most Holy Will. We must follow Him, and Him alone, so that we can share in His power … and can reign with Him in the Glory of the Kingdom.
When we hear the word “authority,” we should recognize our own need to surrender to God who is the “Author” of life and the “Author” of all things. Further reading in the Book of Hebrews, would bring us to reflect on our own self-surrender to Christ Jesus, who is called the Author “and Perfecter of our faith,” and how that should influence us in our daily life as followers of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – let us pray to let go of worldly ideas of power, possession, and prestige – and surrender everything to God through Christ Jesus in the grace and mercy of the Holy Spirit. May we serve as Jesus served – through a complete self-gift and through a complete self-offering to God… in every thought, word, and deed.
