There is much misunderstanding about the role of a prophet in the Old Testament. It wasn’t so much about “telling the future.” We need to understand the rather complex relationship detailed in the Old Testament in order to understand what exactly the prophet’s job description was.

The Prophet, basically, had one main role – to remind the People of God, through words and deeds, that God is King. The role of the Prophet was to be a professional “nudge,” a provocateur, one who performs seemingly outrageous acts, according to established social norms, in order to bring to the People of Israel to come to see again that God is King, that there is right and there is wrong, and that, as a People of the Covenant, they had to live up to their part of the “deal.” The Prophet reminded the people that they had to be people of justice, of mercy, people who walked in the light of the Lord.

Recall some of the outrageous behavior exhibited in the Old Testament: the Prophet Jeremiah hiding his undergarments in a rock and then leaving them there for a considerable length of time (Jeremiah 13) or fixing himself to a yoke (Jeremiah 27 and 28); think to the nakedness of Isaiah (Isaiah 20); think to Hosea, taking a prostitute for a wife (Hosea 1) in order to demonstrate the infidelity of Israel.

All of these outrageous acts by societal standards were done to point something out to the Chosen People. They were all done to show that God’s way must be followed.

In his visit to the island of Lesbos, in his interaction with refugees and, most especially in his taking of 12 refugees (who had already been cleared to come to Italy by the Italian government), all of whom are not Christian, and by having Vatican City State care for them, Pope Francis is acting in the same way as an Old Testament prophet.

Pope Francis is doing something that is outrageous, at least by the standards of the world. At a time when Europe is closing her borders, at a time when the world is choosing to ignore the plight of people displaced by war and terrorism, by his words and his deeds, the pope is acting as prophet.

His actions on Saturday, April 16, by allowing these pre-cleared refugees to come aboard his airplane and to depart to Rome with him, are setting the example for all world leaders.

He is not doing this for any political purposes. The pope is doing this because he believes what he is doing is right, and, at the core of his conscience. He believes this is what the Lord Jesus Christ would want us to do.

Yes, the refugee crisis remains complex. It needs time to discuss and time to work out the details; the security concerns for those who already reside in nations need study and planning.

And yet, there is something that stirs our heart to see that the pope, our Holy Father, is willing not just to preach the Word, but also live the Word. His actions remind us, like those outrageous behaviors of the Old Testament, that the things of the Kingdom of God are matters not of “eating and drinking,” namely the values of the world, but rather matters of “peace, justice, joy,” values of the world to come through Jesus, the fulfillment of the hopes and prayers of the prophets of old.

Pope Francis’ actions, namely that of welcome and trust, are meant to inspire us to do likewise in our own daily lives.