Anyone at the consistory for new cardinals at the Vatican Nov. 20 who is remotely familiar with the work of the Yeshua Catholic International Leadership Institute might have thought they were attending a Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus Encounter.
That’s because Pope Benedict XVI selected as the Gospel for the prayer service St. Mark’s account of the disciples competing for a place of honor with Jesus. Jesus tells them: "Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all." (Mk 10:43-44)
Pope Benedict told the new cardinals, including Americans Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington and Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Vatican's supreme court, that Jesus' "style of living became the basis of new relationships within the Christian community and of a new way of exercising authority."
Pope Benedict said that from Jesus' perspective, authority means humble service — and that’s a message that continues to be valid in the church today — "especially for those who have the task of guiding the people of God."
The pope noted that the disciples persisted in their "expectations and plans for greatness, authority and honor in the eyes of the world" while Jesus patiently labored to teach them another way. "It is not the logic of domination, of power according to human criteria, but the logic of bowing down to wash feet, the logic of service, the logic of the cross, which is at the basis of every exercise of authority," he said.
To which we can only add, Amen.
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