Today, as we have our last daily Mass before the start of Lent tomorrow with our Ash Wednesday Mass at St Jude at 6:30 AM, we hear Peter exclaim to Jesus that he and the other disciples have left everything to follow Jesus, which we know is true. They left their lives in occupations such as fishermen and tax collectors to follow Jesus, leaving behind their former lives and their families and friends. The spirit of the Gospel is that they would a community of disciples where they would take care of each other by sharing their resources. In the early community of disciples, with the pooling of their resources and with the help of benefactors, that is how they lived. They left their home and left their family, entering into a new family. While this is how religious life is modeled in convents and monasteries, the lives of most of us modern Christians do not develop in that same way. Even we Diocesan priests have to provide for our own needs in retirement, so unfortunately that is a reality we cannot ignore. Most Christians in modern American earn a living to provide for their material needs and the needs of their families. Our Gospel concludes today by Jesus proclaiming that in his world, the first will be last and the last first. In fact, he is saying that in his world there is no first and no last. In Jesus’ vision of the world, where everyone serves each other, everyone is served. When everyone gives, everyone gets. If all of us would have that same vision.
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