by Luis G. Dato
The leader, what must Catholics possess
That the apostolate may win success?
They must be firm, sincere and fired with faith
Whose flashes, Phoenix-like, transcend their death.
They must be pure, like Galahad of old,
Who would return the stray sheep to the fold,
And, armed with discipline and constancy,
Labor with love and true humility.
Infuse the virtues supernatural
That though earth shake and all the Heavens fall,
They may the apostolate with seal pursue
And the besetting enemy subdue.
Eureka! Archimedes is small indeed,
No minds he lifts to God, no bruised heart bleeds
At his discovery of matter’s law,
Greater the vision that Isaiah saw.
The leader true will gold and silver spurn,
The pits of Hell with coney-changers burn,
It is the devil’s toy, the blind man’s tool,
Who Mammon puts o’er God, what greater fool?
Humility, for why should man be proud?
Fall on your knee, with head to heavens bowed,
For all the talents man has been endowed
Come not from him but kingly gift of God.
The leader is a friend to great and small
Who notes, like God, the sparrow as they fall,
The sinner he uplifts from certain doom,
And Lazarus he rises from the tomb.
One did not wait for men, He want to them
In cities big, in small-town Bethlehem,
He sought the synagogues, He took the road,
This was one leader, Jesus, son of God.
