Mass Readings Audio
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The Epiphany of the Lord – January 2, 2022
Welcome to the one hundred and ninety-seventh episode of By Your Life. Thank you for listening. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now so I thank you for choosing By Your Life. If you haven’t already, please subscribe via your favorite podcast app, or on the right side of this page so I can send you notifications when each new episode is posted. And please forward to a friend you think would benefit from By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It is my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace, and to trust that it is good for business. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
In this edition, we will reflect on the readings for The Epiphany of the Lord. Matthew’s Gospel tells us the story of the magi visiting the child Jesus and Mary, his mother. We also hear that they first visited King Herod looking to find the newborn King of the Jews in the palace of the king. But he wasn’t there. So “When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” (Mt 2:3)
Herod spent his reign squashing anyone he viewed as a threat to his kingship, Earlier in the Christmas season, we heard the Gospel account of Herod’s Massacre of the Infants (Mt 2:16) in Bethlehem. These accounts in Matthew’s Gospel are very telling about the type of leader Herod was, and the type of leader you may not want to be.
Authority is Granted and Limited
Herod, who was also known as Herod the Great, was granted the title of “King of Judea” by the Roman Senate on conditions of homage and allegiance. He wasn’t a king because of his birthright, rather, because he was given the authority to reign by Rome and was expected to support their interests in the region. As such, there were limits to what he could and couldn’t do that were defined by the higher authorities. This is not unusual. We find it in most, if not all, organizations. A person has authority to exercise the role which they have been given, but nothing more.
I mention this because when leaders rely on their authority to lead, they are less effective than those who don’t. So, what do I mean by this? To explain, we first need to distinguish the difference between power and authority. Authority comes with a position in an organization and is limited by the scope that is granted by the organization. Power, on the other hand, is the ability to influence people and can be unlimited.
Abuse of Authority
It is important to understand the difference because we often use the terms interchangeably. We use the phrase “abuse of power” when we really mean abuse of authority. That is, we object to an individual who oversteps the boundaries of the authority they are granted by the institution. Many people with authority also have personal power, however, a person can have power without having a formal position of authority. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and St. Mother Teresa are two examples of this type of person.
Many people with authority have no power. However, a person can have power without formal authority.A person with authority can also fail to develop personal power, as was the case with Herod. Despite his large and ambitious building projects and his title of “Herod the Great,” Herod wasn’t a great leader. He relied on support from the Roman Empire to maintain his authority over Judea. He also knew that because his authority was given to him, it could also be taken away. As a result, he lived in fear. He eliminated by force anything that threatened his reign. Leaders who rely on authority in order to force you to work, are not the greatest people to work for.
You probably have experienced this type of leader yourself. I have clients who struggle with this style of leadership. It is easier to fall back on “because I said so” dictatorship than to develop influence. At least in the short term, it appears to be easier. In reality, it isn’t easier at all because an authoritarian leader demoralizes a team, stifles creativity, cripples initiative, and encourages blame, all of which bring down, not build up an organization.
“Because I said so,” is not leadership. It is a dictatorship.Personal Power Can Be Unlimited
Contrast this with a leader who relies on their personal power and influence to get things done. When you work for these leaders, you work hard to accomplish goals, not because they force you to, but because you want to. They expend energy enhancing your strengths and encouraging your success because they know that when you are successful, they are successful.
I once worked on a cross-functional project with this type of leader. He had no formal authority over me. He couldn’t fire me or affect my bonus or merit pay, but he got the best I had to give to the project’s success. He wasn’t concerned about himself, rather doing the will of the company and accomplishing the mission he’d been assigned. He used his influence to make sure that we were successful by removing roadblocks and securing the resources we needed. He also made it fun. But, the most important quality this leader possessed was humility.
Humility and Leadership
In episode 004, and episode 018 of By Your Life, I talked about Level 5 Leaders, as defined by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great. Level 5 Leaders are people who have a unique combination of fierce resolve and humility. Many good leaders have the determination or fierce resolve to accomplish their goals. Herod certainly did, but great leaders are also humble. This is a paradox because in a competitive world, we think that humility and determination are mutually exclusive, but they aren’t. Unfortunately, we have far more visible examples of leaders who are determined than we do those who are humble.
In a Harvard Business Review article titled, If Humility Is So Important, Why Are Leaders So Arrogant?, writer Bill Taylor quotes Edgar Schein, a professor emeritus at MIT Sloan School of Management and author of the book Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling. He says that Schein identifies three different forms of humility. “The first, ‘the humility that we feel around elders and dignitaries,’ is a basic part of social life. The second, ‘the humility that we feel in the presence of those who awe us with their achievements,’ is a standard part of professional life.”
Regardless of why we are humbled in their presence, the thing that impacts us the most is how these people make us feel. Elders, dignitaries and those who have achieved great things can either make us feel small or make us feel safe. Those who believe their “greatness” is all about them, make us feel small. They are arrogant, and arrogance is not an attractive trait in a leader.
On the other hand, the people who we revere because of their accomplishments who are humble, make us feel safe. This is because they themselves have what Schein calls “here and now humility”, or “how I feel when I am dependent on you.” Schein says that this third form of humility “is the most rarely observed in business, and the most relevant for leaders who truly want to achieve big things.”
Every great leader understands “here and now humility.” They admit that someone else knows something or can do something that they need in order to accomplish their goal, and that is humbling. Unfortunately, every leader also has a choice as to whether they accept this truth. They can choose not to commit to tasks that make them dependent on others, or they can deny the dependency to avoid feeling humble. When they make this choice, they fail to get what they need and therefore fail to accomplish the task or unwittingly sabotage it. Unfortunately, Schein says, “people often would rather fail than to admit their dependence on someone else.”
“People often would rather fail than to admit their dependence on someone else.” ~ Edgar Schein @EdgarHScheinDeveloping Humility
I think the problem is that we just don’t know how to be humble. We haven’t acquired the skill. As interesting as Bill Taylor’s HBR article is, it doesn’t offer solutions for how to acquire humility. If you want help to accomplish your goals, you can Google “goal achievement” and you’ll get over 2.8 billion results. Yet, if you search for “developing humility,” Google only offers you about 15.6 million results or ½ of a percent as many as for goal achievement. Is that an indication of a lack of interest in developing humility or a lack of answers as to how?
The truth is, humility is a virtue that can be developed. If you want to stop sabotaging your success and instead inspire close teamwork, rapid learning, and high performance, you can begin by developing humility. But, how?
The best place to start is by practicing humility and admitting that you can’t develop it on your own and that you need help—God’s help. Pray for it! There is a beautiful prayer called the Litany of Humility. It is attributed to Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), the Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X, (although the original author is unknown).
It begins (and I’m paraphrasing here):
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being loved, extolled, honored, praised, preferred to others, consulted, and approved, deliver me, Jesus. From the fear of being humiliated, despised, suffering rebukes, being calumniated, forgotten, ridiculed, wronged, and suspected, deliver me, Jesus.
That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be esteemed more than I, that, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, that others may be chosen and I set aside, that others may be praised and I unnoticed, that others may be preferred to me in everything, and that others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
To develop the virtue of humility, pray the Litany of Humility.If you want to develop humility, pray this prayer, and not just once, pray it every day, multiple times a day. I had to start by praying for the ability to truly want to be delivered from my desire for love, honor, and approval. I had to pray for the grace to truly want others to be more esteemed, chosen, and holier than I. Maybe you need to pray for the ability to pray this prayer too. Wherever you start, just start. God will grant you humility. Then, keep praying, because as they say, “The minute you think you are humble, you’re not!”
In Sunday’s Gospel, the magi encountered the King of Humility, a baby in a manger, and when they found him, “They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Mt. 2:11) He didn’t demand these things. He didn’t coerce, manipulate, or force the magi to honor him. Yet, they did, and not because they had to, but because they wanted to. We didn’t hear that the magi honored Herod. In fact, they avoided him and “they departed for their country by another way.” (Mt 2:12)
St. Paul was continuously acknowledging that it was not him, but the Lord who worked in him. In his Letter to the Ephesians, he writes, “You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit.” (Eph 3:2) Merriam-Webster defines stewardship as “the conducting, supervising, or managing of something especially the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.” We all have been entrusted with grace, gifts, talents and abilities that are given to us. It is not because of us but because of the Lord that we have these gifts and are able to do anything. When we acknowledge this, we are practicing humility.
Humility attracts. Arrogance repels.Humility attracts, arrogance repels. If we have any doubt about the ability of a humble person to accomplish great things, we only have to look to the person of Jesus Christ. The essay, One Solitary Life, that is attributed to James Allan Francis, says it best:
Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying—and that was his coat. When he was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life.
Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to grant us the grace to develop the virtue of humility so we may reflect His glory in all that we do.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth.
May God abundantly bless you with the virtue of humility so that you glorify Him by your life. Amen
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