Sunday Thoughts: Hypocrisy and Servant Leadership Do Not Go Together

I listened to an hour-long talk last night in our parish about Servant Leadership. It is a popular topic that stems from this passage in the Bible...

To me, the core message of the talk was... "HUMILITY is the key to effective servant leadership". The speaker spent no less than 10 minutes emphasizing that point.


It reminded me of this passage...

"If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him." (John 13: 14-16 NAB)

My 14-year old son, who was seated beside me, looked at me and asked, "Daddy, what is humility?"

I said, "Ahmmmm, humility is... well... being true to yourself without being arrogant." I think I heard that answer somewhere and I repeated it to my son.

If you're Juan, you don't go around telling people that you're Pedro. On the other hand, you don't go around flaunting to people that you're Juan.

In fact, it's not about telling people at all about who you are, or who you're not. In fact, it's not about telling or showing off at all!

(Replace Juan with your name and Pedro with any celebrity you idolize. Then perhaps the analogy becomes clearer.)

Humility is primarily about BEING, whether people notice it or not.

Secondly, it's about TRUTH or beingness with no duplicity.

Thirdly, it's about speaking truth about yourself plainly, neither demeaning nor elevating yourself, but with the intention of enlightening the listener.

All these characteristics we see in a little child. Perhaps that's why Jesus said,

“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me." (Matthew 18:3-4 NAB)

There's a very common joke about never ever letting your child tell a caller at home that you're not around. He might just say, "Daddy said he's not around. Can you call in an hour?"

A leader who exercises the virtue of HUMILITY has the key to effective servant leadership:

• He does not seek to give what he does not have, rather he draws from within himself, in terms of time, talent and treasure, what he needs to serve others;
• He does not seek to impress nor entertain, rather he dwells on truth and walks on truth, whether that pleases people or not;
• He does not seek to elevate himself, rather he seeks to elevate others.

This is why hypocrisy and servant leadership do not and cannot go together, at all. Hypocrisy seeks appearances. Servant Leadership seeks beingness. Hypocrisy is about lies. Servant Leadership is about truth. Hypocrisy seeks to intimidate. Servant Leadership seeks to raise people up.

That's a bit difficult to accept in a culture where being "konyo" or "sosi" or having or wearing the latest trends is made the norm; while wearing clothes you like to wear is to be called "badoy" or "weird" or "promdi".

That's a bit difficult to accept in a society where "ningas kugon", "kaplastikan" and being politically correct is rewarded profusely, while those who show their true passions and emotions are labeled as "mavericks" or "**tards".

That's a bit difficult to accept in a society that prefers comfortable lies over inconvenient truths.

Servant leaders are scarce. When you see one in your midst, keep him. You just won't know when another one like him will drop by.