My son,
It is really sad when you look around and see people who have passed their “sell-by-date”, but still stay on thereby constituting themselves into a problem.
I will use some public figures as examples. Take Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, he has been at the helm of affairs in his country since 1980 and what a fine mess he’s made of it. A classic case in my opinion of a man who does not know when to quit.
Do you remember Muammar Gaddafi the Libyan leader? He too did not know when to quit. Having led a successful military coup in 1969, Gaddafi styled himself as Libya’s “brother leader” and the “guide of the revolution,” and went on to preside over the affairs of his country for many years. The deposed leader of Libya following the Libyan Revolution died on 20 October 2011 during the Battle of Sirte. Videos of his last moments show rebel fighters beating him before he was shot dead. Here was a man who was not aware of his “shelf life”
Now I am sure that you know about Pope Benedict XVI (the sixteenth) who resigned as the Roman Catholic Pontiff in 2013.
Benedict XVI shocked the world in February of that year when he became the first pope to resign in almost 600 years. His resignation statement, which I have reproduced below, clearly shows a man who knows when to leave the stage to others. Read and reflect on this.
“Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.”
My son, a man has to know when to quit.