Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Truth and Leadership


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Church Calendar ends with the Solemnity of Christ the King. The end of the year reminds us of the end of time. Yes, everything comes to an end. For us Christians the end is something that we look forward to because in the end, things will turn out well. The plan of God, which is salvation, will be fully manifest. Good will triumph. Justice will come. Truth will shine forth. So at the end of time, the triumph of Christ will be fully manifest. When the end comes, “Christ will hand over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power.” (1 Cor 15:24) This is our reason for celebrating Christ as king.
At this stage of history though, the full manifestation of his victory is not yet that clear. Many people voice out the perplexity of Pontius Pilate: “Are you the king of the Jews?” (John 18:33) When Jesus answered him that his kingdom is not of this world, he became more forceful in his question: “Then you are a king?” (John 18:37) Jesus answered him: “You say that I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37) Jesus connects his kingship, not only, even the very reason of his coming into the world, with the truth. His kingship, that is, his leadership, is very intimately connected with the truth.
This is a very big crisis nowadays. Many leaders do not care about the truth, just like Pilate who dismissively retorted: “What is truth?” (John 18:38) In fact many leaders hide the truth, and even use their position and their resources to distort the truth and spread lies. This tendency is magnified with the use of the means of mass communication and now with the social media. But no society can stand without the truth. Trust among peoples can only be achieved when there is truth that we all seek to understand and to reach, not “truth” that each one creates.
The leadership of Christ, and his final triumph, is intimately bound with truth. His kingdom is a kingdom of truth, peace, justice and love. These are all connected to each other. There is no justice without truth, there is no peace without justice, and love reigns only when there is truth, justice and peace. Truth is so vital for Christ that he was killed for speaking out the truth. The scribes, the high priests, and the pharisees could not stand him because he was exposing their falsities. He called them hypocrites to their faces.
Following the lead of Jesus, we should gauge our leaders by their commitment to the truth. When they mouth claims which later they could easily dismiss as “jokes”, when they hurl accusations without any basis, when they make tall promises which they never keep, we Christians cannot believe that they are good leaders. Oh, how the false leaders fear the truth! They silence the media that they cannot control. They disparage and accuse people who do not sing their tune and show a different picture of reality that they promote. They cannot stand opposition! These are not good leaders! This is a good reminder that now we are again entering the election mode and will soon choose leaders who will represent us. May we look up to Christ the King as our measure of true leadership.

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