Leaders are to be nurtured!

WORD 2day: Monday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 16, 2021: Judges 2: 11-19; Matthew 19:16-22

An interesting part of the book of Judges we have today to reflect on - it gives us a pattern of Israel's relationship with the Lord, how short of memory and how terribly ungrateful they were. But the Lord does not react as humans do. Though God's people go away from him, the Lord draws them close and raises new leaders to guide them on. At the right time, the right type of leaders arise because they arise in the eyes of the Lord. It is not leadership that is vied for, plotted towards and grabbed with influences, but intended and willed by God!

May be a point to lament about today - lack of such leaderships, in all spheres, be it the so-called secular or the supposed-to-be spiritual. Corruption, deception and malice which cropped up every now and then in the past to punctuate history with sadness and helplessness, has now become the order of the day. And ironically, we look for and rejoice in one or two who come up, once in a blue moon, to be 'true' selfless leaders and sadly, even that lasts not very long -either they are absorbed into the mainstream corruption or they just disappear out of sight, like shooting stars.

The reason: radical commitment to the truth and intimate relationships with the Divine are scoffed at. As Jesus challenged the the young man in the Gospel today, our young generation has to be challenged with not just words and concepts, but with life, experience and witness. True Godly leaders do not appear from nowhere; they are nurtured, grown and raised in our households! 

Apart from lamenting our times, is it not high time to appraise our lifestyle and start living for truth in communion with the Lord, so that an all new generation of persons of God can be awaited with hope!