Jesus says:
“The teaching to be read in chapter 4 of Nehemiah is great and overly neglected.
“Vigilance, constancy, and prayer. These are the three weapons more powerful than arrows, lances, and swords. And hence the need, too, for there to be those amidst the people of God who are specially designated to pray for the ones who work and are unable to use their hands for occupations and their hearts for prayer at the same time.
“The young, the book of Ezra states, who were working, including those who were occupied in labor and not in defense, worked with their swords girded on at their side, ready for battle. Nor were there acts of rebellion against the command designating them at one time for labor and at another for defense. Superiors are always inspired by God, and when they assign a task, they should be obeyed with promptness and without grumbling.
“All have this duty. And you have it especially towards God, the Supreme Superior, who, in his providence, arranges missions in advance and changes in missions. Woe to those hearts attached to perishing things that rebel against obedience, saying, ‘I feel better in this state and don’t want that other one.’
“I don’t want to! How can you say that you don’t want to? Where is obedience, submission, and love for the Will of God, which shines through from behind the commands of man? In one thing alone is it licit for you not to want. When man imposes on you the doing of evil. You must then resist and say, ‘No,’ even if this makes you martyrs.
“And you that have the power to command, whether in small or great matters - hear what you are told by the Lord, who spoke first to those subject by way of the Book and now speaks to you.
“Remember that to rule is twice as much responsibility as being ruled. It is up to you not to make yourselves responsible for the ruin of others. Those subject answer to God for themselves. You, for yourselves and for them. To the dignity of the post there corresponds severity in conduct towards yourselves. You must be an example, for example exerts a pull, regarding both good and evil. And from wicked or merely slothful superiors only wicked and slothful subjects can be obtained.
“So it is in a community, and so it is in a state. The small look at the great and are the mirror of the great. Remember this.
“Another gift, after irreproachableness, is goodness. Goodness reins in the instincts more than jails and prescriptions. Make yourselves be loved and you will be obeyed. You will exert a pull towards goodness by being good. But woe if you are avid, unjust, and wicked. You will be hated, mocked, and disobeyed even, and above all, in the good commands you give, and obeyed, even more than you would like to be, in copying your avidity, your injustice, and your wickedness.
“Do not get so drunk with your honor as to be unable to understand your subjects in their just needs and grievances. To be leaders means to be ‘fathers.’ For this purpose God has given you authority. Not in order for you to turn it into a lash upon those under you. are not omnipresent, like God. This is true. But when one wants to, one is able, in all that one wills. And whoever wants to know the truth knows it.
“Vigilance, then, over everything and everyone. Not foolish, blind trust and slothful carelessness regarding your assistants. Not all are just, and many Judases are scattered among the ranks of those assisting leaders. Do not become their slaves by begging for their approval just to rule. Be just, and that’s all. And when you see that in your name a blameworthy despotism is being exercised, act so as always to be in a position of freedom from obligations to your representatives, so that you can reproach them with no fear that the accused will turn into accusers.
“Be honest and just. Honest in not taking advantage of circumstances to the detriment of subordinates. Just in being able to punish those who, because they occupy some position, have regarded all methods as licit.
“If you act this way, you can say to God, ‘Remember me favorably, for I have done good to those You have given to me.’ ”