The first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Now, this has nothing to do with showing up late to Mass. I am pretty sure that God prefers you be there early. It may be better to ask, are we pushing others down in order to be raised up? At first, we may not see where/if we do this. A good test would be to check our humility. Do we need to be right? Do we cut others off in traffic? Do we think ourselves more important than others? Those are good checks, but what actually is humility?

A good saying I heard about humility is, "humility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking about yourself less." We think about our needs and desires more than we think about others’ needs and desires. Surely, we must take care of ourselves, but we should not do so at the cost of others. Others depend upon us and our potential generosity. Are we thinking of their needs and desires?

All that we have received is a gift from God. Sure, we may have worked for much of what we have, but God gave us the gifts to do the work. Truly, everything we have is on loan to us from God. As such, we should act like it is God’s. How would God like the money spent or given? Surely, He wants us to live a good life, but He wants the poor to live a good life too. Are we first or last?

Some may respond and say that if they are unable to take care of themselves, they would be unable to take care of others. And that is correct. But let's go back to the saying about humility I stated earlier. Even if we cannot provide material means for others, we should at least be thinking of them. Thinking of others is where we need to start. But if we think of ourselves almost exclusively, then we have made ourselves first at the expense of others.

While there are many ways that we may help others materially. Never forget prayer. Our God can assist in ways we never imagined possible. Even when we can help materially, that should not prevent us from praying for those we are helping.