You Shall Listen April 20

Prayer
Jesus, help us to get to know you and recognize you in our midst whether you are guiding us directly or guiding us through others who are our companions on this journey.

Through those others, our Cursillo teams, group reunions, Ultreya gatherings and more, help us to have a close encounter with you. Let us see and smell, hear and feel, taste and touch the evidence of your work in our humble lives.

Whether you perform big signs like getting the crippled to walk or small signs like getting the flowers to bloom, Jesus, keep us awake and alert to your presence so we may enjoy the peace and refreshment that you give to us. Through this awareness, make us keenly knowledgeable about the actions you challenge us to undertake – turning from our evil ways and doing good for those around us. Amen.

Study “You shall listen.”
http://www.usccb.org/nab/042006.shtml

Evidence -- Sight. Hearing. Touch. Taste. Smell.

The God of Mark, the God of Mike, the God of Tom, the God of Randy, the God of Bill, the God of Jim, the God of Jim J., the God of Regis, wants you to be refreshed through all of your senses.

The God of Socky, the God of Cecelia, the God of Caryl, the God of Mimi, the God of Tuck, the God of Christy, the God of Marilyn, the God of Evelyn, the God of Mary Lou, the God of Janine, the God of Hilda and the God of Kat wants you to be close to Him through these direct experiences.

Our God, the God guiding the teams preparing for spring and fall Cursillo weekends, makes His divine presence known to us in many ways and through all of our senses. By faith in His name, we are all witnesses as we learn in today’s Daily Scriptures. The focus today is on walking and listening…curing and touching...seeing and believing.

In addition, we hear once again of Jesus as servant leader – a far different role than the predominant model of elected (political) leaders, appointed (business) leaders, or military leaders.
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. He or she is sharply different from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. For such it will be a later choice to serve – after leadership is established. The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.

The difference manifest itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived?” [1]

Today, we see Jesus work through the disciples in Acts to perform another sign for the people and we see Jesus work directly with the disciples in the Gospel according to Luke.
Jesus worked to make sure our highest need was met…our need for love of the Father, our need for redemption from sin…our need for cures from afflictions…and our need for the evidence that would help us to believe and have faith. Our world is increasingly “glutted with information but starved for meaning.”[2] However, think of how much richer all our institutions would be if there were more servant-leaders amongst us.
Sometimes, Jesus takes both approaches with us. Sometimes he works directly. At other times he works through others. But always he works as a servant-leader assuring our needs are always placed above His needs.
Action
It is ironic that in a week focused on Jesus and his servant-leader model, we also are witnessing such shifts in the national political leadership. If only our leaders (from either party) would truly strive to model Jesus in their words and works, then some of the divisions that we experience in society, culture and politics might be minimized.
In this Easter week, think of when you act as a leader. Is it at work or at school? Is it in your household or in your broader extended family? When you do, are you a servant-leader or do you model your leadership style on someone else?
Consider the characteristics of a servant leader and work to incorporate these in your servant-leadership style:
Listening
Empathy
Healing
Awareness
Persuasion
Conceptualization
Foresight
Stewardship
Commitment to the growth of people
Building community

[1] Taken from the Servant As Leader published by Robert Greenleaf in 1970.
[2] from "Servant-Leadership and Philanthropic Institutions" Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, Essay No. 4, 2000 (co-authored by Larry C. Spears with John C. Burkhardt)