What God says through Prophet Isaiah in our 1st Reading [My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are my ways your ways...] Jesus exemplifies in today's Gospel. To the calculating, worldly mind, Jesus' upside-down economics makes absolutely no sense. Today's message is in the same league as the Beatitudes. What is being called for here is a mature, second half of life wisdom. Jesus does not abandon the Commandments which are the pillar of the first half of life; rather, he builds on them and takes them to a new level. While honouring justice, Jesus raises the bar to unheard of levels of generosity. Such a prodigal approach is certainly as far above our human thinking as the heavens are above the earth 1st Reading again. Paul in our 2nd Reading is at his paradoxical best. On the one hand to live is Christ, but on the other, to die is gain! At one moment Paul wants to die and be with Christ; at another he wants to go on living so as to help the early Christians to live according to the Gospel of Christ. Jesus brings the whole paradox to a head when he concludes in today's Gospel, 'The last shall be first, and the first last.' We need to think twice before taking our place in the queue for the Kingdom of Heaven!