20190814
GRACEFUL
EXIT
14 AUGUST, 2019,
Wednesday, 19th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Red.
These are the readings
for the feria
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First reading
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Deuteronomy 34:1-12 ©
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Moses dies and is buried
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Leaving the plains of Moab, Moses went up
Mount Nebo, the peak of Pisgah opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the
whole land; Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and
Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the
stretch of the Valley of Jericho, city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. The Lord
said to him, ‘This is the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
saying: I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your own
eyes, but you shall not cross into it.’ There in the land of Moab, Moses the
servant of the Lord died as the Lord decreed; he buried him in the valley, in
the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but to this day no one has ever found his
grave. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye undimmed,
his vigour unimpaired. The sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab
for thirty days. The days of weeping for the mourning rites of Moses came to an
end. Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid
his hands on him. It was he that the sons of Israel obeyed, carrying out the
order that the Lord had given to Moses.
Since
then, never has there been such a prophet in Israel as Moses, the man the Lord
knew face to face. What signs and wonders the Lord caused him to perform in the
land of Egypt against Pharaoh and all his servants and his whole land! How
mighty the hand and great the fear that Moses wielded in the sight of all
Israel!
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 65(66):1-3,5,16-17 ©
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Blessed be God, who gave
life to my soul.
Cry out with joy to God all the earth,
O sing to the glory of his
name.
O render him glorious praise.
Say to God: ‘How tremendous
your deeds!’
Blessed be God, who gave
life to my soul.
Come and see the works of God,
tremendous his deeds among
men.
Come and hear, all who fear God.
I will tell what he did for my
soul:
to him I cried aloud,
with high praise ready on my
tongue.
Blessed be God, who gave
life to my soul.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps110:7,8
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Your precepts, O Lord, are all of them
sure;
they stand firm for ever and ever.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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2Co5:19
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Alleluia, alleluia!
God in Christ was reconciling the world to
himself,
and he has entrusted to us the news that
they are reconciled.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 18:15-20 ©
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If your brother listens to you, you have won back
your brother
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Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your
brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your
two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does
not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three
witnesses is required to sustain any charge. But if he refuses to listen to
these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the
community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.
‘I
tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in
heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.
‘I
tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at
all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three
meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’
GRACEFUL EXIT
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Dt 34:1-12; Ps 66:1-3, 5, 16-17; Mt 18:15-20 ]
A time will come when
leaders need to make an exit because they are too old and weak to lead or
because they have made some wrong judgements. In the case of Moses, he had been a great
leader of Israel. He led them out of Egypt and journeyed with the
rebellious and unruly people, forming them slowly in faith, in loyalty to the
Covenant and building up their military prowess to deal with their
enemies. Indeed, the scripture sings high praises of Moses. “Since
then, never has there been such a prophet in Israel as Moses, the man who knew
the Lord face to face. What signs and wonders the Lord caused him to
perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh and all his servants and his whole
land! How mighty the hand and great the fear that Moses wielded in the sight of
all Israel!”
Yet in spite of his
greatness as a leader, he had his limitations. God did not allow Moses to
lead the people into the Promised Land. The joy of entering the Promised Land would not
be his lot. Instead, the Lord showed him the future of the land of
Israel. “The Lord said to him, ‘This is the land I swore to give to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your descendants. I have let
you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross into it.'” He would
instead die in the land of Moab and be buried there as decreed. Moses had
to be contented that his task and mission was simply to prepare the people to
go into the Promised Land.
Most of all, his task
was to prepare his successor, Joshua. He would be the one to complete the work that
Moses had begun in one sense, but it was also done in continuity with the plan
of God beginning with Abraham. Moses was ready and generous enough to let
go when he knew his days were numbered. He was not resentful of God for
not being given the honour of leading the people into the Promised Land.
He was contented with the role that God had for him in the establishment of the
People of God. He was free to retire gracefully and allow Joshua to take
over the reins of leadership. He did not keep anything from Joshua.
On the contrary, he gave him all his support for we read, “Joshua son of Nun
was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on
him. It was he that the sons of Israel obeyed, carrying out the order
that the Lord had given to Moses.”
Graceful retirement is
what is required of us as well. How many of us have the magnanimity of
Moses who was ready to let go of his power and authority? Many of us unfortunately do not
know when to retire and how to retire. We do not make the exit in
time and often overstay the tenure of our office. We think that we
know best and we are indispensable to the organization, failing to realize that
we are often outdated and have become irrelevant to the current generation of
people. Yet we cling on to our power, our office and position for fear
that we might disappear from public life and recognition. This explains
why some hold positions in the Church or organizations for years and years,
unwilling to allow the younger ones to take over from them. Instead
of becoming a help, we often become a hindrance to the dynamism and growth of
the Church and the organizations. We stifle the initiative and passion of
the younger generation who want to make a difference in our
organizations. By the time we are forced out of office because of death
or ill-health, the young people would have left the Church to join some other
organizations elsewhere.
But it is not enough to
step down from our offices. We must do so graciously by preparing and
giving the younger generation the opportunity to learn, make mistakes and find
their own ways of making things work.
How many of us have the graciousness of Moses to pass on our wisdom, our
experience and our knowledge to the next generation of leaders? Some of
us are afraid to pass on our skills to the younger ones for fear that we would
be made redundant once they know what to do. Back in our mind, we want
the future generation to be always dependent on us so that we feel we are
indispensable. This is a problem of insecurity and selfishness.
Again, there is the other temptation of the older generation to impose their
set and proven ways which worked for their generation then on the next
generation. Although we have made our own mistakes in the process of
leading our people through trial and error, we would not allow the new leaders to
learn through their mistakes and experiments. We are overprotective
of the organization and the systems that had been put in place, as if they are
carved in stone.
This calls for the
courage as well to offer fraternal correction. This is what the gospel is asking of
us. “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your brother does something wrong,
go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens
to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or
two others with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to
sustain any charge. But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to
the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.” Although the
gospel is speaking about real offences and scandalous sins in the community
committed by individuals and affecting the rest of the community, we could also
apply this principle to the formation of our leaders as well.
Leaders must be patient
and forgiving in helping the next echelon of leaders to mature. Fraternal
correction is given not just for the sake of those who are hurt by the mistakes
of others but it is given primarily for the sake of the person himself. Very often, we correct a person’s mistake
so that they will not make our life difficult anymore. We correct the
errant person more for our peace and happiness rather than the sinner or the
offender. This should not be the attitude of offering fraternal correction.
Our intention must be primarily for the good and growth of the person, not so
much to penalize, destroy or humiliate the person. That is why fraternal
correction must be done privately with the person in the first instance before
we bring in others to mediate and to help the person to see where he or she
needs to grow. Our goal is to win over our brother or sister so
that he or she will become a better leader than us! Otherwise, his folly
or lack of awareness will not only destroy the community but himself. To
keep silent in the face of mistakes committed by those under us, especially the
younger generation who would be the next echelon of leaders, is even worse than
the mistakes that they made in ignorance or in pride.
Today, we are called to
be like Moses, courageous and generous in passing on the baton to Joshua and
entrusted to him the future of Israel.
We too must be ready to pass on our baton when we find new leaders to replace
us. This is why, the moment we are placed in leadership position, we must
be on the lookout for our possible successors. We should take pains to
groom them for leadership positions so that when the time is opportune, we can
stand aside and let them take over the reins of leadership. A leader,
regardless how good he is in leading the people, is a bad leader if he fails to
prepare new leaders to take over from him. He is selfish and is more
concerned with his security than with the service to the people. What we
must ensure is the continuity and growth of the organization, especially when
we are no longer around. Part of good leadership is to form new leaders
after us.
So we must pray for good
leaders who are generous to hand on their leadership and to ensure a smooth,
orderly, planned and peaceful transition so that our people will not be left
with a vacuum in leadership. This is what the Lord asks of us in
helping to build the community. “I
tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in
heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.
I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at
all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or
three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.” We need to have
selfless leaders who care for those after them than for their own security.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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