Pope tells seminarians they are not preparing to become officials, but shepherds

April 14, 2014 - “Dear seminarians, you are not preparing yourselves for a job as an official in a company or in a bureaucratic setup. Remember not to fall into this! You are going to be pastors in the image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, to be like Him and in his person to be among his flock, to feed his sheep.” Pope Francis gave this exhortation to a group of 100 seminarians, staff and bishops of the Pontifical Leonine College of Anagni, who met him in the Vatican on Monday. The pontifical college serves as the seminary for the dioceses of the Italian region of Lazio.
The Pope told the seminarians that it is a big job to become good shepherds in the image of Jesus, but assured them it is not our job, but of the Holy Spirit who does it with our cooperation. For this, one needs to offer himself humbly like clay to be shaped, so that God, the potter, can work it with water and fire, with the Word of God and the Spirit. This, in the words of St. Paul means: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” This means meditating daily day on the Gospel in order to pass it on with one’s life and preaching. It means experiencing the mercy of God in the sacrament of reconciliation, to become its generous and merciful ministers. It means feeding oneself with the Eucharist with faith and love, in order to nourish the Christian people with it. It means being men of prayer in order to be the voice of Christ who praises the Father and intercedes continuously for his brothers. Anyone not ready to follow this road should find another road, the Pope warned. In the ministerial discipleship of Jesus Christ, there is no place for mediocrity that always leads to use the holy people of God for his own advantage, he added.