16th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2024

God spoke last Sunday through the Prophet Amos. This Sunday He is speaking to us through the Prophet Jeremiah.

The theme for the Sunday is leadership and sacrifice. In the first reading, judgement is rendered against the leaders of the people. God “scolds” and our challenge is an inability to tolerate “scolding”. What should have been an act of love, which is discipline, is now construed as the lack of love. Perhaps this intolerance is an indication of our damaged psyche or poor sense of the self. Just think 50 years ago when parents discipline their children. Admittedly, some forms of discipline were harsh and bordered on cruelty. But in many cases, discipline was not meant to be punitive. It was intended to be rehabilitative because there must be some agreed upon and accepted measure of what “good” is. From this perspective, God’s condemnation of the leaders came from the failure of leadership. Furthermore, He castigated them because He was concerned for the welfare of His people. God’s disappointment with the leaders revealed His commitment to the flock.

The same concern is expressed in the Psalms today. He is the Good Shepherd. He cares for the sheep and this concern in turn is reflected in the Gospel. When Christ saw crowd, His heart went out to them.

Just recently, the UK underwent an election wherein the ruling Conservative Party was effectively wiped out. Days before the election, some Conservative MPs allegedly placed bets to see who would retain their seats. The point here is that they already had an inkling that the party would lose its majority, so what was to prevent them from making some money on the way out. The reason for the Tory’s loss in the election and also for the turn towards the right amongst the populace of Europe is in a way not far from the experience of the people in the 1st Reading.

Those who have responsibilities over the welfare of the people have forgotten their duties. We hear people say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That same highway is also paved with bones of Popes and Bishops. There are Popes in hell but considering that there are officially only 266 Popes and that in comparison, there are thousands of Bishops for every Pope, one can safely surmise that there are more Bishops in hell than there are Popes. But then for every Bishop, there must be tens of thousands of priests, again one can conclude that there are more priests in hell than there are bishops.

The advice of Uncle Ben in Spider-Man ‘s Peter Parker rings true: “With great power comes great responsibility”. Since more has been given, more will be expected of Popes, Bishops and Priests. Leaders fall a lot. But we need to return to a better grasp of God’s chastisement of the world. Scripture speaks of God’s anger against the shepherds but think rather more of disappointment. It rhymes with our experiences. Betrayal is always a failure of faith. I had faith in you but you let me down. Thus, punishment is meant to be restorative rather than to be punitive. God allows shepherds to suffer in order to restore them to His trust.

This is where we need also to relearn what it means that leaders can and do fall. Temptations are always there for them. There is no leader who will not be tempted. Without excusing responsibility, we might want to bring in the notion of prayer. Meaning? Today we tend towards hyper-criticality. Whenever a leader falls short, the first reaction is to criticise.

Criticism can be constructive, that is, it is a form of calling to account for one’s behaviour and action. The current criticism brooks no acknowledgement of frailty or the reality of Original Sin. Instead, there is a denial of Original Sin as if leaders were born perfect. What about prayers? If temptation comes to us from Satan’s attempt to throw creation into a disarray, instead of criticising, we might want to fortify our desire and resolve with prayers. Thus, parents, leaders or anyone who has responsibility, they need our prayers more than our condemnations. Not that we should not criticise them when they roundly need it.

More than criticism, we may want to school ourselves on the idea of duty and sacrifice. No greater love a man has than to lay down his life for his friends. Christ showed that example Himself. He gave up His life so that we might be saved. But He went further than saving those He loved. On the Cross, He cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”. The impulse toward revenge is indeed a strong one for many of us. But Christ did not condemn those who condemned Him. Instead He prayed for them. True leadership is one which is sacrificial.

Good leaders are few and far in between. More so when we do not have a sense of heaven. Think about it. If Najib were a bit more fearful of God, he would not have stolen that much. Au contraire, he used religion as a tool to be a better thief because he knew not better. If only our culture and society have a greater sense of God and a reverence of Him, perhaps leaders will be better because they are aware of the need to be accountable to God. In that way, we have a grave duty to pray for our leaders and pray more for them. But most of all, it is indeed distressingly depressing when we feel that our leaders have let us down. The Gospel message is that Christ will never let us down, no matter what.

In the survey of our leaders and their shortcomings, we might just miss out a crucial truth. Perhaps parents must look at how they bring up their children. Leaders do not drop down from the skies. Countries and communities inherit them from families. Many of our families are failed families and from such poor soil springs the cadre of defective priests and leaders. It is worth a thought that our problem is not out there with poor leadership but also with lousy families.

As we face challenges ahead, we must continually turn to God placing our trust in His care for us. It is this assurance that makes room for peace in our hearts. Despite the troubling roads ahead, God will never forsake us.