Calm

Perhaps the most important part of the leadership is the ability to remain calm.

God the Father with Four Angels and the Dove of the Holy Spirit (Giovanni Francesco da Rimini)

I have long considered myself a bit of a leader.

I am not a great political figure or even someone who others will aspire to imitate, but I am certainly a leader with some leadership qualities.

I do not think this is a result of anything that I have done on my part.  Rather, I believe it is a gift from God afforded to me because I was the first living child of my family and I have seven living younger siblings.  As a result of my position in that family and my love of my siblings, and perhaps also as a result of my upbringing and the messages that my parents communicated to me, I have always known how to lead others in a particular direction – even if it was just from outside in the backyard back into the kitchen for dinner…

As a leader, one must consider a few things. 

Firstly, one must understand that where one leads others may NOT follow.  In other words, I may choose to direct people in one direction, but if they are not happy to respond appropriately and follow me, then I must be able to accept that decision.  At times this is very painful and frustrating.  One has only to think of a mother trying to convince her child to heal from addiction to understand the extent of personal pain that can be associated with such leadership.  Saint Monica prayed for thirty-three years for her son (Saint Augustine) to experience the Grace of conversion and leave his sinful life behind for God.  And during those decades of praying and tears, Saint Augustine bragged that he had sinned so much that if there were a sin he did not commit, he could not think of any…

And secondly, a leader must know never to panic.  If the leader is panicked, then everyone else will be panicked as well and it will be impossible for anyone to rationally follow the leadership.  Even if the leader is actually quite worried and distressed about a particular situation, even then, they must never show any distress or fear, because if they do, nobody will be able to follow.

Saint Padre Pio preached, “I recommend calm, calm above all.”  And I have been thinking about that.  Because a good leader, with a good goal, must be a saint.  After all, where else would one lead people other than to God.

And every Saint that ever was, invited others to follow (without forcing them in any way) and then calmly and rationally failed to panic under any circumstances and under any things that eventuated in their life.

And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about leadership, because perhaps the most important part of the leadership is the ability to remain calm.  After all, did not Christ tell us, “be not afraid”…?

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.