bad leadership

²When just men are multiplied, the common people shall rejoice. When the impious take up the leadership, the people shall mourn.

¹“Woe to the shepherds who scatter and tear apart the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord. ²Because of this, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to the shepherds who pasture my people: You have scattered my flock, and you have driven them away, and you have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you because of your evil pursuits, says the Lord. ³And I will gather together the remnant of my flock from the entire earth, from the places to which I had cast them out. And I will return them to their own fields. And they will increase and be multiplied. ⁴And I will raise up shepherds over them, and they will pasture them. They will no longer dread, and they will no longer fear. And no one among their number will be seeking more, says the Lord.

¹²A leader who freely listens to lying words has only impious servants.

¹²Those who act impiously are abominable to the king. For the throne is made firm by justice.

¹It is a faithful saying: if a man desires the episcopate, he desires a good work. ²Therefore, it is necessary for a bishop to be beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, gracious, chaste, hospitable, a teacher, ³not a drunkard, not combative but restrained, not quarrelsome, not covetous; ⁴but a man who leads his own house well, having children who are subordinate with all chastity. ⁵For if a man does not know how to lead his own house, how will he take care of the Church of God?

¹⁷Obey your leaders and be subject to them. For they watch over you, as if to render an account of your souls. So then, may they do this with joy, and not with grief. Otherwise, it would not be as helpful to you.

²⁸Take care of yourselves and of the entire flock, over which the Holy Spirit has stationed you as Bishops to rule the Church of God, which he has purchased by his own blood.

¹²Let no one despise your youth, but be an example among the faithful in word, in behavior, in charity, in faith, in chastity.

²³Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as for the Lord, and not for men. ²⁴For you know that you will receive from the Lord the repayment of an inheritance. Serve Christ the Lord. ²⁵For whoever causes injury shall be repaid for what he has wrongfully done. And there no favoritism with God.

⁴²But Jesus, calling them, said to them: “You know that those who seem to be leaders among the Gentiles dominate them, and their leaders exercise authority over them. ⁴³But it is not to be this way among you. Instead, whoever would become greater shall be your minister; ⁴⁴and whoever will be first among you shall be the servant of all. ⁴⁵So, too, the Son of man has not come so that they would minister to him, but so that he would minister and would give his life as a redemption for many.”

¹And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ²“Son of man, prophesy about the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and you shall say to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the flocks be fed by the shepherds? ³You consumed the milk, and you covered yourselves with the wool, and you killed what was fattened. But my flock you did not feed. ⁴What was weak, you have not strengthened, and what was sick, you have not healed. What was broken, you have not bound, and what was cast aside, you have not led back again, and what was lost, you have not sought. Instead, you ruled over them with severity and with power. ⁵And my sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd. And they became devoured by all the wild beasts of the field, and they were dispersed. ⁶My sheep have wandered to every mountain and to every exalted hill. And my flocks have been scattered across the face of the earth. And there was no one who sought them; there was no one, I say, who sought them.

¹⁸Arrogance precedes destruction. And the spirit is exalted before a fall.

²⁴For the servant of the Lord must not be contentious, but instead he must be meek toward everyone, teachable, patient,

¹Then Jesus spoke to the crowds, and to his disciples, ²saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have sat down in the chair of Moses. ³Therefore, all things whatsoever that they shall say to you, observe and do. Yet truly, do not choose to act according to their works. For they say, but they do not do. ⁴For they bind up heavy and unbearable burdens, and they impose them on men’s shoulders. But they are not willing to move them with even a finger of their own. ⁵Truly, they do all their works so that they may be seen by men. For they enlarge their phylacteries and glorify their hems. ⁶And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues,