Many of you remember when John Paul II died, the new bishop of Rome became Benedict XVI. Many of us expected him to be just like John Paul II, but Benedict’s leadership style was completely different. Some were happy with that, but some were disappointed. And then Pope Francis came, with another style of shepherding our Church. Perhaps you have a new pastor at your church and so in a same way you are tempted to compare him to the previous one, saying that the former one was better because he was more traditional, or was offering jokes after Mass, or was a great singer, and so on. There is one conclusion to all this -- there is no way that we can please everyone. There will be those who would like us and others who won’t. “To what shall I compare this generation?”- Jesus asks- “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, He is possessed by a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus knows that no matter what we do, or what decisions we will make, there will be those who will criticize us. But also, let us be careful before we criticize or gossip about others.
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