“Service” is a word that may seem old-fashioned in certain contexts. Servitude is certainly
unworthy of human beings when it is imposed or endured because of poverty or discrimination.
Instead, the “spirit of service,” especially when it is reciprocal in a community of any kind, is
a witness to changing social relationships that break down old patterns of behaviour and new
power structures. Indeed, service lived with humility characterizes protagonists of real progress.
Nitin Nohria, former dean of Harvard Business School, says that in the future, being a good leader will require learning about humility. He believes this “future” has already begun. According to him, humility will have to become a key word in the profiles of the next generation of aspiring managers andhe does not lack experience in this field. He says this because he realizes that the current trend of being increasingly competitive is producing results completely opposite to expectations. It is creating people who are psychologically fragile, needy, narcissistic and obsessed with appearance (1).
After all, great women and men are recognized through their small actions, just as ancient Eastern wisdom reminds us: “The largest tree is born from a small shoot. The tallest tower is born from a mound of earth. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” (2)
Living this way requires a conscious and free choice: it demands that we do not liveclosed in on ourselves and our own interests, but that we“live the other”,and feel whatever they feel, carry their burdens and share their joys. We all have responsibilities, bothlarge or small, and areas of authority. They may be in the political or social fields or within our family, school or community. Let us take advantage of our “places of honour” to put ourselves at the service of the common good, building just and supportive human relationships.
This is also how Igino Giordani, writer, journalist, politician and family man, lived during a time marked by dictatorship. To describe his experience, he wrote: ‘Politics is – in the most dignified
Christian sense – a “servant” and must not become a “master”: nor should it abuse, dominate or dictate. Its function and dignity is to be of service to society, to be charity (3) in action, to be the highest form of love for one’s homeland.
It was probably the personal relationship that Chiara Lubich had with this man who was
rooted in his time but also saw beyond its barriers and walls that led her to remind usmore than
once that true politics is “the Love of Loves,” because it is the means of the most authentic and
disinterested service to humanity in fraternity.

(1) Michele Genisio “Umiltà” (in press)
(2) Daodejing,64
(3) Giordani uses the word charity not in the ‘welfare’ sense, as it is usually understood, but in the Christian sense, which indicates the highest form of love.

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THE IDEA OF THE MONTH iscurrentlyproduced by the Focolare Movement’s “Centre for Dialogue with People of NonreligiousBeliefs”. It is an initiative that began in 2014 in Uruguay to share with non-believing friends the values of the Word of Life, i.e. the phrase from Scripture that members of the Movement strive to put into practice in their daily lives. Currently, THE IDEA OF THE MONTH is translated into 12 languages and distributed in more than 25 countries, with adaptations of the text according to different cultural sensitivities. https://dialogue4unity.focolare.org/en/