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HOMILY FOR THURSDAY: 2ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME [YR. B]
THEME: COMPETENCE DOESN’T COMPENSATE FOR INSECURITY
BY: FR. KARABARI PAUL
‘From that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.’
1 Samuel 18:9
One of the truest tests of leadership is how you respond to somebody else’s success. Do you rejoice, or secretly resent them? Do you feel like their blessing somehow came at your expense? King Saul sent David out to fight Goliath. When he succeeded and the Israelites began to sing David’s praises, Saul couldn’t handle it. ‘From that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.’ In the First Reading of today (1 Samuel 18:6-9; 19: 1-7), Jonathan, the son of King Saul, revealed the secret plan of his father to kill his friend David. Saul was threatened by the success story of David.
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Leaders who lack confidence are a danger to themselves, their followers, and the groups they lead. That is because leadership doesn’t camouflage your flaws; it puts them on display. Whatever negative baggage you are carrying grows heavier when you attempt to lead others. Insecure leaders generally have four common traits:
1) They don’t provide security for others. To be a good leader, you must make your followers feel good about themselves. Honour them. Reward them. Promote them.
2) They take more than they give. Insecure leaders are on a continual search for validation, acknowledgement, and love. And because of that, their focus is on obtaining personal security, not instilling it in others.
3) They continually limit their best people. Insecure leaders don’t see their best people as co-workers; they see them as potential competitors who might rise up through the ranks and threaten their position. Such leaders generally find ways to take the credit for work that was done by others.
4) They continually limit their organisation. When followers are undermined and go unrecognised, they become disheartened and eventually stop performing to their potential. When that occurs, the whole organisation suffers.
Like Jonathan, how many people would you say are your true friends? Usually we only have a few people in our inner circle. These are the people who we are close to, who we trust, and who we can be open with. We need to be wise when it comes to who we allow into that circle. It really hurts when we discover that not everyone has our best interests at heart. So we must learn to be discerning, and know on what level to interact with people. A great biblical example of this can be found when we look at the lives of David and Jonathan. They became good friends quickly.
When David was out of favour with King Saul, Jonathan kept David’s secrets and protected him, even when faced with displeasing his own family. Jonathan wasn’t seeking to advance himself through his relationship with David. He was a true friend. We need to be able to trust that we can speak to people in confidence so that we can express ourselves and get wise advice. True friends really care about us, and don’t bring up our past mistakes to manipulate us. The Bible warns us: ‘One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother’ (Proverbs 18:24). If we have close friends like this, we need to appreciate them and thank God for them. GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE. May God have mercy on us, bless us and our household through Christ Our Lord Amen. Good morning.
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