On the day of 19 August
Of Saint John Eudes, priest, who for many years devoted himself to preaching in parishes, then founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary for the education of priests in seminaries, and also the monastery of Our Lady of Charity to support penitent women in Christian life, and nourished devotion especially to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, until he piously fell asleep in the Lord at Caen in Normandy, France.
**Saint/Feast of the day segment copied from the USCCB page.



Reading 1: Ezekiel 28:1-10
I cringed before I read this, because I was afraid more bad stuff was going to happen to Ezekiel. I mean, the guy lost his wife yesterday! I was relieved then, 'cause it's only warnings of bad stuff for someone else. I do enjoy how upset God is, though. I can relate. He's basically saying: "Because you are so vain, and you think that you are as good as me, I will get someone to impale you and throw your body in the desert. Savvy?" Sooo, let's not fall into the vanity, trap, eh?

Gospel: Matthew 19:23-30

This is what the footnotes said about But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first:

Different interpretations have been given to this saying, which comes from Mark 10:31. In view of Matthew's associating it with the following parable (Matthew 20:1-15) and substantially repeating it (in reverse order) at the end of that parable (Matthew 20:16), it may be that his meaning is that all who respond to the call of Jesus, at whatever time (first or last), will be the same in respect to inheriting the benefits of the kingdom, which is the gift of God.

But what I take it to mean is this: We are here to serve. We are meant to serve each other and serve God. This doesn't mean that we can't be successful. A CEO of a Fortune 500 company is still serving his employees by providing them a means to pay their bills. As long as we remember that we are servants, and not first, we are doing okay in the eyes of God.