Reflection
The leadership expected by Jesus is one that refuses to obey the games played in positions of power. We live in a world where the powerful get to define the course whether others agree or not. Those who call the powerful to reform are often silenced in one way or another. What happens when one refuses to do as power wishes? A look at Jesus gives us an idea of how much living as God wishes can ultimately cost. Keeping people under control and in oppression fits a purpose for those who hold power. Yet, all over our world we see people who for political or religious reasons rebel against the stranglehold the powerful have on their lives The Spirit working in people can be suppressed for a time but ultimately it rises again.
Prayer
Teach us, O Lord, to understand what it really means to follow you.
Action
How do I collaborate with “power”? How do I support those who have the courage to “speak the truth in love”?
Suggested Reading
Jesus summoned them and said,
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Matthew 20:17-28
Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
John 11:47-49
We are called to be a sign and witness that it is possible to pass beyond the walls of selfishness and personal and national interest, beyond the power of money which often decides the destiny of peoples, beyond ideological divisions that foster hatred; beyond all historical and cultural barriers and, above all, beyond indifference.
Pope Francis
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
Elie Wiesel
Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
Paulo Freire
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.
Frederick Douglass
The people who oppose your ideas are inevitably those who represent the established order that your ideas will upset.
Anthony J. D’Angelo
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.
Alice Walker
Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.
Mahatma Gandhi
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.
Robert F Kennedy