A leader must always remember that:
a. Honour: Honour is better than honours- Abraham Lincoln
b. Integrity: Integrity is the integration of one’s life around one’s core values – William D. Lawrence
c. Vision: Vision requires hindsight, insight and foresightWilliam H. Tailor
d. Humility: Humility is the fairest and rarest of Christian graces- John Scott
e. Simplicity: We must simplify, simplify, simplify – Henry David Thoreau
Let us always remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the model of leadership as He says to us always in His words:
1. I have come not to be served but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many (Matt 20: 28).
2. He who wishes to follow me, must pick up his cross and follow (Matt 16:24)
3. Do unto others just as you would have them do unto you (Matt 7:12).
4. I did not come to do my will but the will of him who sent me (Jn. 6:38)
Having perused some of the qualities of a leader and the words of Jesus who is the perfect leader (cf. Jn. 13: 13), let us now venture into the community of the apostles as their quests for position and authority gave birth to theme of our gathering; CAN YOU DRINK THE CUP THAT I MUST DRINK? In the words ascribed to Pope Benedict XVI in his book Jesus, The Apostles, And The Early Church, he said: …Through the Apostles, we come to Jesus Himself. The Church begins to establish herself when some fishermen of Galilee meet Jesus, allowing themselves to be won over by his gaze, his voice, his warm and strong invitation: ‘follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men’ (Mk 1:17; Mt 4:19) (page 7). Let it be made clear that leadership in the above context is first and foremost an invitation, then a responsibility. This is why the quote began with ‘’Through the Apostles, we come to Jesus himself’’, meaning that the Apostles are meant to LEAD the Church towards JESUS CHRIST. It is only in this sense that they can understand their role as ‘’fishers of men’’, and not one who sits and orders others to go fishing for them. Any leader who fails to understand this perspective of the fisherman’s theory will be acting contrary to the mind of Jesus Christ who is the perfect leader.
• Most Rev. (Dr.)Alfred Adewale Martins is the Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Lagos
