I went for Mass with the wife in my church on Sunday and there was a Malaysian priest who was giving the homily for the day. He's a long haired chap with an almost maniacal kinda look on him. But this post is _NOT_ about him. LoL.

He went on to tell a story about a priest in Penang who decided to go on a retreat. After going through a few possibiities, he opted for a retreat in Mexico. He went there and the facilitator started the retreat by asking everyone to introduce themselves and tell everyone else who they were, where they came from etc etc yada yada. The whole drill.

When it came to this priest, he went "Hi! I'm Father So and So and I'm from Penang Malaysia."

At that point, the facilitators looked at him in awe and gave him a hearty applause and the priest was bewildered.

At that point, the head facilitator explained why they had given him such a resounding ovation.

So the story goes like this.

There was one year (obviously recent and not too long ago) when they held this retreat just like any other. So they had the standard introductions but without including what they do. (i.e. names, country and that about it). 

After these introductions, they were asked to volunteer for things which need to be done during the retreat. Like sweeping corridors, washing dishes, cleaning toilets etc.

Every task that needed to be done, was quickly snapped up by volunteers when they have been asked and the head facilitator felt that this would be a different retreat, because never had they had all the tasks snapped up that quickly. Then came the last task. Cleaning the toilets daily.

No one was willing to volunteer. He called for volunteers 5 times, each time joking with statements like, "Will someone get me another microphone? This one seems faulty, no one heard me asking for volunteers to clean the toilet"

After the 5th time, a small hand raised up from the back, this person had _already_ volunteered for something else. He said, "I'll do it."

So day in and day out, for the next 2 weeks, this person toiled through his 2 tasks without complaint regardless how dirty the toilets were.

At the end of the retreat,  everyone gathered for a debrief and were asked to tell everyone to again introduce their name AND what they do in their country.

So they started, this person was the Mother Superior in this or that convent, that person is the Rector for this or that Seminary, the other person is the Parish Priest of so and so Church. Then came the small chap at the back. The one who toiled to clean the toilets without complaint, without grumbling every day for that 2 weeks when no one else volunteered.

He went, " I am so and so, ARCHBISHOP of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia"

And ever since then, all Malaysian priests who attended the retreat in that place in Mexico, are given extra mention and respect because of what this Archbishop did, in Mexico.

So you see, my friend, truly, the pre-requisite for Leadership. Indeed is Service.

Hope you enjoyed this story.