True
Leaders
“[All]
religions start from mysticism. There is no other way to start. But I compare
this to a volcano that gushes forth…and then…the magma flows down the sides of
the mountain and cools off. And when it reaches the bottom, it’s just rocks.
You’d never guess that there was fire in it. So, after a couple of hundred
years or more, what was once alive is dead rock. Doctrine becomes doctrinaire.
Morals become moralistic. Ritual becomes ritualistic. What do we do with it? We
have to push through this crust and go to the fire that’s within it.”
Fr.
David Steindl-Rast
Picture
this: An ancient civilization has been defeated and occupied by a much more
aggressive and advanced warrior empire. The leaders of the occupied country, a
religious one, know that their only power lies in cooperating with the enemy—so
they do. They levy taxes and charge temple fees on their own people to raise
money for themselves and their captors.
Then, along comes this firebrand
young man, with his handful of ragtag followers, preaching, “You are the
light of the world! You are the salt of the earth! God loves you. You are the
children of the most-high God.” And he fires up the people with his stories
of God’s love and charity and shows them that they can share with others and
still have enough for themselves. He tells them that kindness works better than
hatred and murder, and that turning the other cheek is the best way to live in
peace. And the people listened and followed—they followed this man rather than
their own leaders.
As you might imagine,
that did not go over well in the occupied kingdom. They killed the young man,
and then began rounding up and eliminating his followers. But they couldn’t
stop the fire that his words and actions had stirred. People were excited and
they went out to all the world and told people about him until there was a huge
following on the earth of people who believed that the young man had been God
in disguise, a miraculous being who could save the world. They preached and
prayed and said that he would be back soon.
Somewhere along the way, the
fire died; the people got hungry again, and cold and poor again, and they began
to doubt the teachings of the institution that had grown up around the memory
of the young man. They quit giving their tithes and talents to the leaders,
which made them anxious indeed. So, the leaders found another man—one quite
different from the first, but still…a man. And he told them, “You have been
wronged. You should demand your rights; you should fight for yourselves and lay
claim to what is rightfully yours.” It felt like the same fire in the
belly, but it was the opposite message. Instead of the injunction to help each
other and share the wealth among you so that the first and last are the same,
the people were told, “Take what is yours. Don’t allow them to have
anything. Punish them if they get in your way. And then, come and bring it to
me, and I will lead you to all things divine.” And so, the people did. The
fire felt the same, but it ignited the wrong message. Instead of a giving,
loving way of being in the world, it supported hate and murderous rage. It set
the people against each other.
Once again, the religious
leaders joined the empire in suppressing their people. They made it harder for
all the people to vote and to have their voice heard, they made restrictive
laws and built large, harsh prisons to hold all the people who were rounded up
and carted away for expressing their disagreement. The cycle repeated and will
continue to repeat until the people come to understand that the fire has to be
one of universal love, universal trust, and compassion.
The only true leaders are
the ones who are big enough and fearless enough to lead in love, expressed through
their service to their fellowmen, and who are willing to devote their lives to
serving all their people and not just some of them.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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