Political leadership can often be about personalities, power and prestige. Christian leadership, by contrast, should be about service and sacrifice. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.
Readings for Friday of the 7th week of Easter can be found here.
It is looking increasingly likely that there will soon be an election for the leadership of the Labour Party, which will in turn determine who will be our Prime Minister for the next few years. There is often the suspicion that such elections are nothing more than a political beauty contest. It’s not so much about a change of policy, but a change of personality. Additionally, we might suspect – if we were being cynical! – that such elections serve merely as a vehicle for one person or another to realise their ambition of claiming the top job.
In our readings today we hear about the calling and ultimate destiny of two key leaders of the early Church, Peter and Paul. The leadership to which they are called is quite different from the personality-obsessed and power-obsessed kind that seems to be a feature of modern politics. Paul is still in custody, this time under the Roman governor Festus. Paul accepts his fate as a prisoner, and bears witness to the resurrection. We also learn that Paul has appealed to the Emperor and so is to be sent to Rome, the place of his eventual martyrdom. In the following chapter of Acts, King Agrippa comments that they could have freed Paul if he hadn’t made this appeal to Caesar. Yet Paul knew where his calling lay – it wasn’t in power or prestige, but in spreading the Gospel and dying for the faith. In the Gospel we read of Peter’s commission from Jesus. This is very much about the service of God’s people: “Feed my lambs … tend my sheep … feed my sheep”. As with Paul, we learn that Peter’s life will end in a martyr’s death.
Pope Francis once said that pastors should have the “smell of the sheep”. That is, they should be close to the people, serving the poor, not concerning themselves with power and status. That’s not a bad principle for all Christians to adopt, as we seek to follow the example of Peter and Paul, and of course Jesus himself, who came not to be served but to serve.
Mass today is in St Saviour’s at 10am.
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