In one of his homilies to the priests, Pope Francis said: “you must be shepherds who smell like your sheep.” What did he mean by saying this? Pope Francis reminded the priests that we shouldn’t think of ourselves as better than others just because we are ordained to the presbyterate. We are just like everybody else; we are human beings. However, we are blessed with a different ministry in our Church. We should smell like the sheep, meaning we need to be part of the herd, and not to stay away from it. Unfortunately, there are some priests and leaders in our Church that think that they are better than others, who stay away from their sheep, who take advantage of them, or preach to them but do not follow what they preach. Those are the hypocrites that Jesus is talking about in the gospel today: “they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen.”
