The term servant-leadership, coined and popularized by Robert Greenleaf, is a take-off from one of the main characters of Herman Hesse’s novel, “Journey to the East,” the servant, Leo.
The novel is the story of men on a mythical journey. Leo is the servant of the group that does the menial jobs, but through his spirit and songs he also sustains the group on the journey.
Leo’s role and presence in the group are so central, yet unnoticed until he disappears. No sooner has Leo disappeared than the group falls into disarray. The men end up abandoning the journey.
Years later, the narrator finds Leo. It turns out that Leo is the titular head of the exclusive order that sponsored the journey.
Greenleaf develops his by-now classic leadership paradigm of the servant-leader. He points out that Leo is servant first; that is his core. His servant nature is the “real person,” the “real Leo.”
The great leader is a servant first.
This Sunday’s Gospel focuses on humility. The parable told by Christ is a “reaction” to the people who were jockeying for position at the dinner hosted by “one of the leading Pharisees.”
I would like to suggest a reflection on humility, truth and leadership—rather appropriate, considering what we went through the past week, the “Million People March” and the subsequent surrender of Napoles. The saga is far from over.
The term “servant-leader” seemed like an oxymoron 35 years ago when Greenleaf first came out with it. The same can be said of the humble leader.
Yet when we reflect on it, these are the same things Christ exhorted us to emulate over 2,000 years ago.
It is the virtue of humility talked about by St. Thomas Aquinas. It means not just a humble estimation of one’s self, but also a submission to God’s will. It is overcoming pride through humility, thus removing an obstacle to God’s grace—the obstacle of the ego.
It takes tremendous humility to stand before the truth and allow it to unfold. As a prosecutor in the impeachment trial of the Chief Justice last year put it, “Puro palusot” (all alibi, excuses).
There was a joke in the seminary about the first sign of human sinfulness or concupiscence—“palusot” or the blaming game. When God confronted Adam, Adam blamed Eve. Then Eve blamed the serpent.
I would like to think that as a nation and as a people we are at a crossroads now, given the pork barrel scam issue.
We are faced with the choice to stand humbly before the truth.
The great inequality
Three years ago, we embraced the truth—if we stamp out corruption we lessen poverty. I would like to think this is still the truth we are fighting for.
The big problem is corruption, but the bigger problem is the poverty of many of our people; the great inequality, which is getting greater, between the few who are rich and the great majority who are poor.
The truth is what we seek. As the Inquirer headline quoted the President, “Hunt for truth begins.”
Let us not allow the “peripheral” though important issues to cloud the main issue. Let us not mistake the trees for the forest.
As we begin our journey to an important truth, we must stand humbly before the truth and one another.
A simple example of this humility—barring any political angle—is how the Makati jail warden admitted his team’s inability to protect Napoles. This admission takes courage, considering that the entire country is focused on this issue. It takes great humility to admit.
Earlier in the week, a group lambasted some quarters for their inability to find and apprehend Napoles. When the surrender and apprehension took place, the same group was again quick to lambast the same people for going out of their way, giving “special treatment” to Napoles when she was taken in custody. This is what we can call “the convenient truth”; the truth we can distort for our own ends and gains.
Humility is truth. The two are intrinsically related. It can be said that the two are one and the same.
Christ says in today’s Gospel, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
This is the final truth that our faith leads us to—our final destination is “exaltation” in God’s presence in His kingdom. Christ lays out the clear and only road map—to humble our self here and now.
A final reflection on leadership and humility: recent research in leadership studies shows that humility is a leadership quality that enhances the effectiveness of a leader. The data reveal that with humility comes a deeper sense of self-awareness and self-understanding.
This leads to a greater sense of openness and what they call “perspective-taking.”
Christ is the alpha and the omega and has inspired many through centuries to live and die for the inspiration he gave us. He is unequaled.
Humility is truth. We hunger for truth now. But let us remember that Christ did say we must humble our self. It is the only way to the truth.
