Enabling Leadership

Today’s Gospel Text: Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, Matt 5:1-12

Reflection: What sort of an attitude is this; “seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain and when he sat his disciples came to him.”? (vs. 1)

Should he not have catered to the crowd and their needs, what sort of charity was Jesus practicing that he ignored the crowd and he goes up the high mountain away from their gaze?

I am sure that in our times if someone did that we would have criticized them for ignoring their need to meet God or to be ministered by him. 

Was this not a good opportunity for Jesus to preach to them the things of God and make God known to them?

But if we look at this from the leadership point of view, here was a moment for Jesus, at the very beginning of his ministry, to see the great task at hand and withdraw early in order to prepare a band of people to handle the great task at hand.  

His story is like that of the story of Moses who ministered all day long to his people until his father-in-law came with a better idea of appointing leaders and elders to do the work. (Ex. 18:13ff)

Jesus similarly withdraws in order to prepare his dedicated disciples for the great task at hand.

Leadership is meant for enabling others towards taking up the task that God wants of us. It is meant to raise up dedicated disciples after God’s own heart.

There is a great hunger and thirst for God’s word in the hearts of people and we have failed to cater to these needs of the people. These task is many places and situation is best fulfilled by the many break away groups. 

There is an overemphasis on the rite and the ritual that a few have realized the need to reach out at a level where sacraments empowered by the gospel could be used to bring about transformation in the hearts and minds of people.

The word of Jesus is the primary and it is the word that brings forth the sacrament into existence and it is this word that needs to be proclaimed in all its power.  The beatitudes are those words of Jesus that along with the sacramental presence of Jesus can bring hope to the millions.

Prayer:  Lord, prepare me to be an instrument; a dedicated disciple of your word and sacrament.

DD = Dedicated Discipleship:  Come grow in the Lord with us