Gospel Reflection for Tuesday, March 4, 2025

The apostles say that they had left everything. This «everything» can be viewed from two perspectives. The first is to think about what this «everything» consisted of. The world of fishermen in Galilee during Jesus’ time was extremely poor. Their life was more about surviving, struggling to find the minimum necessary to stay alive. The «everything» of those fishermen or peasants must have been very little. Perhaps Matthew, who was said to be a tax collector, might have been at a slightly higher economic level. Tax collectors collected taxes and earned a percentage of what they collected. But it is unlikely that Matthew was one of the big ones, taking the best share. After all, Galilee was poor, and the taxes collected there must have been poor too. So, his «everything» was also little, barely just enough.

But it is also true, and this is the other perspective, that even if we have little, what we have is a part of us, it is what makes us feel secure. Our house/hut/shack is ours. It has some kind of door. Poor but living in their village, with their people, counting on a certain solidarity, with family, friends, and acquaintances, all forming a safety net. That little that they had, which the group following Jesus had before following Him, was «everything» they had. It was theirs, what gave them a sense of belonging, being part of something, of a village, of a tradition.

So yes, we should value what Peter says to Jesus. They had left «everything» for the Kingdom. With their limitations, their miseries, their nostalgia. It’s true. But also with great courage to leave that «everything» to follow that man. They must have seen something in Him, in His message, in His behavior, that made them think it was worth leaving «everything,» no matter how little it was.

Question: Do we see something like that in Jesus? Are we capable of leaving our «everything» for the Kingdom?