Weekly HOMILY for November 29, 2009: Three Traits of Leaders Put Advent into Focus

1st Sunday of Advent, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
November 29, 2009

Three Traits of Leaders Put Advent into Focus
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


Three Traits of Leaders

A friend of mine who is a Management Consultant shared a good idea about the essential requirements for being an effective leader.

It could be the CEO of a bank, the owner of a local retail store, the principal of a school, or the pastor of a parish.

There are three key traits to being a good leader. He or she must have Insight, Foresight, and Oversight.


A Particular Leader

We can see these three traits at work by looking at a person like Steve Jobs.

You may know that Steve Jobs was the head of Apple Computer. As Apple’s leader, he had the insight that people wanted accessibility to communication and information wherever they are.

And Jobs also had the insight that people want this accessibility in one instrument. So he had Apple Computer develop the I-Phone.

Who doesn’t know by now that this little instrument is a cell phone, a computer with access to the Internet and e-mail, and many other things like a Dictaphone, camera, calculator etc. all combined into one.

It has become very popular and that in itself validates the insight.

Steve Jobs had to have the foresight. He had to have studied the strengths and weaknesses of his company, and also the opportunities and threats posed by the marketplace.

Finally, Jobs must had to have oversight. He had to put the right people in the right positions to assure the successful marketing and development of the product.


Insight: Faith

I am thinking of Steve Jobs’ I-Phone because today’s Scripture readings, on this First Sunday of Advent, call all of us to have these three traits of leaders: Insight, Foresight, and Oversight.

First, Advent reminds us that we are to live with Insight.

(1) Insight that it is not we who have not brought ourselves into existence.

(2) Insight that there is a Higher Power, a divine source, a transcendent God, a God who transcends our human and earthly existence.

(3) Insight that God is our heavenly Creator and that God is the very ground of our being that holds us in existence.

(4) Insight that God has not left us on our own and that God came to be with us in Jesus of Nazareth.

(5) And we need that we insight that God even now is with us through his Holy Spirit.

This insight, in our Christian tradition, we call faith.


Foresight: Hope

Secondly, we need Foresight.

(1) Foresight means knowing that someday we will leave behind this earthly and human life and return to God.

(2) Foresight is the truth beneath the imagery in today’s Gospel. And in this imagery is also the truth that we will need to give an accounting of our lives to God.

(3) Foresight tells us that we will stand before God and the sum of our earthly life will be reviewed and a decision will be made about our eternal status with God.

(4) This foresight includes the love and mercy of Jesus and his promise of resurrection and the fullness of life.

This foresight, in our Christian tradition, we call hope.


Oversight: Love

And finally, we need Oversight.

We need to live today and each day guided by the insight of where we come from and the foresight of where we are going. This leads us to oversight of our lives right now.

(1) Saint Paul in our second reading addresses us as “Brothers and Sisters” and calls us to look upon one another in that way.

(2) He calls us to live with the moral code given us by the Lord Jesus and with the guidance of Paul himself and of the Church down through the centuries.

(3) The oversight that Paul advocates is to be alert to how we are relating to one another.

(4) We are to bring and to be God’s presence in the world.

(5) We are to gauge all we do by whether it is pleasing to God.

This oversight, in our Christian tradition, we call love.


Conclusion

So, Insight, Foresight, and Oversight: this First Sunday of Advent calls us to have these three traits.

Coincidentally, they are the equivalents of our virtues of faith, hope and love.

The first two insight and foresight -- or faith and hope -- will lead us to live well in the present moment -- with love -- and to prepare for that future moment when we will meet the Lord face to face.