20210805 LOSING OUR COOL IN LEADERSHIP
05 August, 2021, Thursday, 18th Week, Ordinary Time
First reading | Numbers 20:1-13 © |
Moses makes water flow from the rock at Meribah
The sons of Israel, the whole community, arrived in the first month at the desert of Zin. The people settled at Kadesh. It was there that Miriam died and was buried.
There was no water for the community, and they were all united against Moses and Aaron. The people challenged Moses: ‘We would rather have died,’ they said ‘as our brothers died before the Lord! Why did you bring the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, only to let us die here, ourselves and our cattle? Why did you lead us out of Egypt, only to bring us to this wretched place? It is a place unfit for sowing, it has no figs, no vines, no pomegranates, and there is not even water to drink!’
Leaving the assembly, Moses and Aaron went to the door of the Tent of Meeting. They threw themselves face downward on the ground, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘Take the branch and call the community together, you and your brother Aaron. Then, in full view of them, order this rock to give water. You will make water flow for them out of the rock, and provide drink for the community and their cattle.’
Moses took up the branch from before the Lord, as he had directed him. Then Moses and Aaron called the assembly together in front of the rock and addressed them, ‘Listen now, you rebels. Shall we make water gush from this rock for you?’ And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the branch; water gushed in abundance, and the community drank and their cattle too.
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe that I could proclaim my holiness in the eyes of the sons of Israel, you shall not lead this assembly into the land I am giving them.’
These are the waters of Meribah, where the sons of Israel challenged the Lord and he proclaimed his holiness.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 94(95):1-2,6-9 © |
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Gospel Acclamation | Ps144:13 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord is faithful in all his words
and loving in all his deeds.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt16:18 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
You are Peter,
and on this rock I will build my Church.
And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 16:13-23 © |
You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’ Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
From that time Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord;’ he said ‘this must not happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’
LOSING OUR COOL IN LEADERSHIP
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Num 20:1-13; Ps 95:1-2, 6-9; Mt 16:13-23]
Leaders often have to work under extreme stress, trying to meet the demands of those under their charge and often under time, logistic and manpower constraints. As a consequence, many lose their cool and hit out at those who are deemed to be slow on the uptake and to cooperate, when they make mistakes, and when they seem to be unreasonable in their demands. This was certainly the case with Moses in today’s first reading. He lost his temper when the people cried out to him that there was no water for the community. They blamed Moses and Aaron for their woes. They challenged Moses, “We would rather have died as our brothers died before the Lord! Why did you bring the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, only to let us die here, ourselves and our cattle? Why did you lead us out of Egypt, only to bring us to this wretched place? It is a place unfit for sowing, it has no figs, no vines, no pomegranates, and there is not even water to drink!”
Moses was exasperated. He could not tolerate the unreasonable expectations of his people. They were ingrates. He had sacrificed his peace at Midian to lead them out of slavery from the Egyptians. He worked hard for the demanding people who often exaggerated their situation, comparing it with their time in Egypt. They seemed to have forgotten so easily how they were oppressed by the Egyptians, nor did they remember how God delivered them with His mighty hand through signs and wonders He worked, through the plagues, making the ground dry for the Israelites to pass through the Red Sea, accompanying them with the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day, and fed them with water, meat and manna in the desert. And what was most disappointing was that they never learnt. After almost forty years in the desert, they were repeating exacting what their forefathers did when they arrived at Marah and complained that there was no water (Ex 15:22-25), or at the Desert of Sin, where they lamented there was no meat and bread. (Ex 16)
Of course, the complaints of the people were further accentuated by the death of Miriam, the sister of Moses. He was still in bereavement. In spite of the fact that she had challenged his leadership, he still did not forget how she had contributed to the work of liberating the sons of Israel. She was the one who looked after him when he was born and protected him from being killed by the Egyptians. Moses was certainly sad that his own sibling had departed from him. Indeed, quite often as leaders, we do not only have to manage the affairs of the organization or the community we are leading, but we have our personal and domestic issues to contend with. And yet in public, we have to put on a brave front, act normally and not impose our pain or sadness on others but quietly carry the burden in our hearts. Indeed, in public life, we need to appear confident, positive and proactive, even when our personal life is taking a toll on us, whether due to our health, our family squabbles or relationships.
But it is important that as leaders we do not take our frustrations out on those who are not responsible for our pains. This would be selfish and unreasonable. The target of anger and the source of anger must be the same, otherwise, we would be guilty of abuse. This was what Moses failed to distinguish, although we can understand and appreciate his limitations. To lose one of his generals makes it more burdensome to carry the aspirations of his people. He was left with Aaron, and soon his brother too would be taken away by the Lord. (Num 20:22-28) As a consequence, Moses lost control of his temper and displayed unprofessional leadership by lashing out on the people even though they had done wrong by complaining against him and Aaron as if they were the ones responsible for their plight.
One must also distinguish between righteous anger and unholy anger. In the gospel, Jesus was also angry with the religious leaders who were stubborn. He even drove the merchants out of the Temple. God too was angry when the people turned away from Him and worshipped the Golden Calf. How many times, God wanted to destroy the people! But all these are anthropomorphic demonstrations that God’s holiness and sins are totally incompatible. God’s justice also demands reparation and punishment, otherwise, sins would not be taken seriously. But God’s anger was not directed at His people because He was frustrated or could not control His temper. Rather, it was deliberate, so as to awaken the conscience of the people so that they would repent. The moment, they repented, God would withdraw His punishment.
In the case of Moses, when he came down from Mount Sinai and saw the people worshipping the golden calf, he was incensed because of their betrayal of God, not of himself. It was not a personal anger on his part but more outrage at the people’s infidelity to God. And so his breaking of the tablets was intended to sensitize the conscience of the people and to move them to repentance. (Ex 32:19f) But in today’s case, God wanted him to show the people compassion and mercy. God did not ask Moses to reprimand the people but to provide them with water. Instead, he was angry at them and summoned the people before him, calling them “rebels”. He was judgmental. He made himself a judge over them.
In truth, Moses was the rebel. God simply commanded him, “Take the branch and call the community together, you and your brother Aaron. Then, in full view of them, order this rock to give water. You will make water flow for them out of the rock, and provide drink for the community and their cattle.” But Moses disobeyed God. He “took up the branch from before the Lord, as he had directed him. Then Moses and Aaron called the assembly together in front of the rock and addressed them, ‘Listen now, you rebels. Shall we make water gush from this rock for you?’ And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the branch; water gushed in abundance, and the community drank and their cattle too.” Instead of speaking to the rock, he struck the rock in anger and made it seem as if he was the one that caused the water to be made available to them.
Instead of giving glory to God and letting the people know that it was God who provided the water, he did not display the holiness of God as a leader should. As a consequence, he and Aaron were punished. The Lord said to them, “Because you did not believe that I could proclaim my holiness in the eyes of the sons of Israel, you shall not lead this assembly into the land I am giving them.” Just like all those before him who were disobedient and therefore forfeited their privilege to enter the Promised Land, so too were Moses and Aaron because both rebelled against the Lord’s command and took matters into their own hands.
In the gospel, Jesus showed us how a leader should exercise patience. He had been preparing His apostles for the passion ahead of Him. But before He could undertake the last journey, He needed to find where they stood with regard to His identity. He gently led them to answer for themselves who He really was and not just what others thought of Him, as none of the great prophets before Him could fit into the identity and mission of our Lord. When Peter managed to give the right answer to His identity, Jesus made it clear that it was by the grace of God and not his own efforts. Coming to understand Jesus’ identity and faith in Him itself is a grace of God and not our human effort. That is why we must be patient when those under us are behaving childishly, are unreasonable, ignorant or slow to understand and cooperate.
Even Peter who had the right answer, did not have the right understanding. He too needed time to come to understand the real meaning of his confession of our Lord. Jesus had to correct his notion of a triumphant and political Messiah. Rather, the way to the kingdom is always through the cross and the passion. The way of power is the way of the Evil One. Hence, Jesus ordered Peter to get behind Him and follow His way instead of the devil’s.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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