Commentary on the Gospel of
BE AN EXAMPLE TO YOUR FLOCK
Pope Francis has many pastoral admonitions — He tells the Bishops to be Pastors rather than airport bishops. He tells them and all pastors to be with their sheep and actually should smell like their sheep. This is one way of saying be an example to your flock. You should not be a distant figure admonishing them just from the pulpit. They must see their pastor as a human being like them, struggling to be good, sometimes failing, always rising again. Being an example does not mean one has to be perfect. But people should see that one is really trying to walk one’s talk. As a teacher for many decades, I know that the students are very observant and know which teachers do not practice what they preach. When they look back to their student days they realize that they learned most not from the most brilliant but from those who taught them by example how to be good human beings.
