KCP - Catholic Diocese of Broome

Recently in Broome , we were privileged to have the opportunity to listen to Fr Michael Fallon, scripture scholar, lecturer, writer and educator. His public lecture at Notre Dame University, Broome Campus, was focused on the uniquely Catholic contribution to the Christian faith tradition. What it all came down to, if I understood him correctly, was the focus, which we must have personally and continue to encourage in others, on the person of Jesus.
In taking our cue from the Prologue of John's Gospel, Fr Michael emphasized the significance of the person of Jesus as our yard stick; what did Jesus in his uniquely divine humanity and humanly expressed divinity come to show us? It can be summed up in the words that John puts on the lips of Jesus himself: 'I have come that they might have life and have it in abundance (10:10)...Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father (14:9)'
So, what Jesus came to bring was abundant life. Anything that does not lead to life, to the full flowering of genuine humanity and of the 'more than human' in the rest of creation, cannot be from God. We only need to look carefully at how Jesus lived his life to know how all this can come about, not just in some hoped-for 'heaven' of the future, but in this life, here and now.
Jesus was about inclusion not exclusion. He was about going out of his own comfort zone in order to invite others to share with him in his mission to bring the good news to anyone who wanted to hear it. Jesus was about removing unnecessary barriers to this participation in the fullness of life. Competition was not part of Jesus' manner of acting; he discouraged it amongst his disciples. His way of influencing was through personal example and teaching through parables that forced the hearers to draw their own conclusions. He was not on about the exercise of power, but about persuasion through the authority that comes from personal integrity.
All of this can be summed up for me in the term 'servant leadership'. This involves a choice about the manner of one's leadership. One writer said that managers are concerned to 'do things right' while leaders are concerned to 'do the right thing'. One person who has written about this kind of leadership is Margaret Wheatley. She was asked just after the events of September 11, 2001, whether servant-leadership had anything to offer the world. Here are a few of her comments:
o We have to shift away from this secretive, command and control, 'we know what's best'.
o Servant leadership is to 'have faith in people...Give people resources, give them a sense of direction, give them a sense of their own power and just have tremendous faith that they'll figure it out. We need to move from the leader as hero, to the leader as host.'
o Lead through the power of your relationships.
Jesus knew and lived all of this. How long will it take the rest of us who aspire to any form of leadership to follow his example?
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