By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Those who govern or are in positions of authority are
called to be humble and serve the good of the people God entrusts to
them rather than the interests of their party or themselves, Pope Francis said.
Without prayer, a leader risks serving his own selfish desires
or political party,
closing himself or herself in
a “circle from which there is no escape,” the pope said Sept.
18 during morning Mass at Domus Sanctae Marthae.
“Who has more power than a ruler? The people, who have
given him the power, and God, from whom power comes through the people,”
the pope said. “When
he has this awareness of being subordinate, he prays.”
In his homily, the pope reflected on the day’s reading from
St. Paul’s First Letter to
Timothy in which he asks that “supplications, prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be
offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority.”
The
pope also spoke about the day’s Gospel reading from St. Luke, which recounted Jesus’
healing of a slave at the behest of his master, a Roman centurion.
“This man felt the need for prayer” not because it
was a last resort but because he knew that “there was someone above him,
there is another who is in charge,” the pope said.
Praying
for politicians and those who lead, the pope continued, is important
“because it is the prayer for the common good of the people who are
entrusted to him.”
Leaders
also must pray and ask the Lord for wisdom so that they find their true
strength in God and in the people and not “in small groups or in
myself,” he said.
And
leaders who claim they cannot pray because they are agnostic or atheist,
he said, at least must
examine their consciences and seek counsel from those their people consider
wise.
Christians “cannot leave rulers alone, we must
accompany them with prayer,” the pope said. And when a leader does “awful
things,” he added, they need even more prayers.
“Pray, do penance for those who govern,” the pope
said. “The prayer of intercession — it is beautiful what Paul says — is
for all leaders, for all those in power. Why? So ‘that we may lead a quiet and
tranquil life.’ When a leader is free and can govern in peace, all people
benefit from this.”
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