“First Responders and the Virtues of Servant Leadership”

—Homily for the Annual Police-Fire-Sheriff Mass, September 8, 2024; St. Cecilia Church in San Francisco —

Introduction

It is an honor for us to be here with our firefighters, police officers, sheriff deputies and park rangers, along with dignitaries from our city government, to thank you, our dear first responders, for the invaluable service you provide to our city and her residents – a service which requires sacrifices often invisible to the rest of us.  Thank you for being with us today, and thank you, our government leaders, for your presence with us.  We are most appreciative of this sign of solidarity as together we strive to work for the common good of all in our city.

Fulfillment of a Prophecy

I am especially happy to welcome those of you not of the Catholic faith.  We are pleased that you have joined us, as we come together to pray for those who put their lives at risk for the safety and well-being of our community.  In our Catholic system of worship, we have specific Bible readings designated for each Sunday, and I believe the ones we just heard proclaimed for this Sunday can give us some insight into the kind of qualities our first responders must embody in order to fulfill their charge effectively and well.

First of all, we heard a story from the Gospel of St. Mark that is very telling.  Jesus here is presented as fulfilling the prophecy we heard from the prophet Isaiah.  Isaiah here is preaching to a people who have been defeated, exiled from their homeland and in the depths of desolation.  He tells them that God will bring about a restoration: this is the prophecy of the Messiah whom God would send to restore His people.  And he proclaims what the signs of this Messiah will be – among other things, “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.” 

The “then” refers to the return from the exile: God will restore and heal, He will send His anointed one to re-establish His people.  Mark intends to show here the fulfillment of this prophecy.  Jesus heals a deaf-mute, and the people react with words that resonate to this prophecy: “He has done all things well.  He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”  But there is something more going on here.  It is how Jesus goes about this miracle that provides the lesson for us.

Notice what Mark tells us: “Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis.”  This means that he traveled north, then east, and then south to arrive at this area of the Ten Cities, that is, he passed through pagan territory on his way to Jerusalem.  Which means, then, that rather than going directly to the east to get to Jerusalem he went way out of his way in order to be with people different from himself, outside of his own group, that is, outside of the Chosen People of God; he went to where no one else of his group wanted to go.  And then he works miracles for these people who are not of his own clan. 

We hear today about him healing the deaf-mute.  But before this passage Mark tells us about another miracle, one which Jesus worked for a Syro-Phoenician woman who begged him to cast out a demon that had possessed her daughter.  What we see here, then, is an opening up in God’s plan even beyond what the people had imagined.  This is the vision of a community of disciples that moves beyond the bounds of its own culture, confronting human suffering and alleviating it for those who are in its grasp with the healing balm of God’s love and mercy.

Lived Out in the First Communities

The second lesson we heard proclaimed, from the Letter of St. James, indicates to us how this vision was lived out in the first communities of disciples.  The situation described in this passage was not uncommon in the ancient world.  The wearing of rings was a common practice among the well-to-do of that time as a means of showing off their wealth and status in society, and thus they were accorded special treatment.  St. James speaks here about “partiality”: the word carries with it the sense of undue or unfair partiality, pandering to someone because of their power or influence and what one can get from them.

In the ancient world the communities of the first followers of this new way were the only places where there were no social distinctions.  It even approached a scandalous extreme in the culture of that time, for it was quite possible that the master would find himself sitting next to his slave, or that the slave could actually be the one leading the worship of the gathering of believers.

A moral revolution was brewing here, for, in contrast to the usual way of thinking, these believers held in great esteem the virtue of humility – the virtue that renders one capable of lowering oneself to act for the good of the other, without regard for recompense.  It is the virtue that enables one to recognize the special place of the poor in God’s view of things, and to affirm, as St. James puts it in his letter to his fellow believers, that God chose “those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him.”

The Moral Qualities of a First Responder

Going into a place where no one else wants to go, treating all equally, all who need assistance, protection, and being rescued, without regard for what one receives in return, or even regard for risk to oneself – is this not what our first responders do for us?  Let us recall the origin of this Mass that brings us together today: it was the Herbert Hotel fire on July 30, 1946 – a five-alarm fire in which four firefighters were killed and 37 others injured.  The community then came together annually in worship to remember them, and to pray for them and their surviving loved ones.

This is the call of first responders, a noble calling indeed.  The world leader of my own faith community, Pope Francis, put it well in a talk he gave last February to police officers who work in St Peter’s Square: “The common good and peace in society are not things that just happen overnight or naturally blossom on their own.  The dark side of our human nature, limited and wounded by sin, entails the need for there to be people who, when faced with evil, do not stand by and watch, but take the responsibility of intervening, to protect the victims and bring the transgressors back to order.”  He also quoted his predecessor here, Pope John XXIII, who, over sixty years ago, said: “the task entrusted to law enforcement officers is a burdensome one, which requires great moral qualities and, above all, dedication and self-sacrifice, for the  achievement of the common good.”

What is said here is true for all of our first responders, each in their own way according to the calling of their service.  In all cases it is, above all, these moral qualities that are necessary for the work of protecting our community, ensuring good order, and readiness to respond in any emergency, regardless of the risk or the cost or of who it is whose life is in danger.

As first responders, you display these qualities of dedication, self-sacrifice, and willingness to step into situations where no one else wants to go in order to confront danger, violence or potential violence, and any kind of human suffering and distress.  As such, you provide an example for the rest of us; for anyone in a position of leadership needs to embrace these qualities – whether in government, pastoral care of a faith community, leadership in corporations or non-profit organizations, and so on.  We all need to recognize that dark side of our human nature, and be willing to intervene, each of us in accordance with how we are called to serve, by divesting ourselves of our self-referentiality and self-interest, in order to protect the weak, lift up the poor, and act always for the common good, no matter the cost to ourselves.

Conclusion

It is that virtue of humility which makes this possible – which, in the last analysis, is what makes us capable of giving and receiving love, because that means precisely willing the good of the other and acting upon it.  We need the help of God’s grace to get there, and we pray for the grace of God’s protection and guidance upon you, our dear first responders, as we thank you for putting your lives at risk every day to protect us, to rescue us, and to give us the assurance of peace and order that we need in order to fulfill our own callings in life with serenity and good will in service to others.

You all have symbols of your office: your badges are the sign of the commitment you have made to our city, and which you renew every time you put on your uniform and carry out your duties.  It is my honor now to bless your badges – may they serve as a reminder to you, and to all of us, of the moral qualities of humility, dedication, self-sacrifice and courage needed to be a servant leader who puts service to the common good above all else.