8th Wednesday of the year

“Jesus summoned them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.” (Mk 10:42)

We are so used to reading this passage that we hardly realise how revolutionary it can be for people who hear it for the first time. While everyone recognizes the value of service, most people naturally look at ruling as a more desirable thing to possess.

Leadership can be both dominion or service. Dominion, in the sense of becoming a lord (dominus) over the other does not make much sense. A fight for more dominion brings only suspicion and brings antagonism. It also brings anxiety since power is a difficult thing to hold on to, when it is desired by so many.

Once we have discovered that there’s only one Lord (dominus), it is an absolute injustice to try to become a lord to the other. Discovering that there is only one Lord equals to discovering that we are all servants, and therefore, equal in dignity. Human rights can only be guaranteed with that assurance in mind. Only where we are all equal in dignity, can we have peace and harmony.

Evidently, only when we are all servants, leadership becomes a kind of service and not a kind of dominion.