To Follow the Lord

“But woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation.”(Luke: 6, 24)

“And He called to him the Twelve, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts … and they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.” (Mark 6:7, 13)



He instructed them to take nothing for the journey, no food, no sack and no money in their belts, which seems like a very odd command. You would think our Lord would better equip his apostles in their journey. What leader in his right mind would send his troops into the battlefield so poorly prepared? Would it not been better if He would’ve supplied them with plenty of food and plenty money for their journey? Our Lord’s command seems impractical and irresponsible. This is why we should pay close attention to it. Where human wisdom fails, divine wisdom is at work. He commanded them to take nothing for the journey, he commits them to poverty.

The church calls this evangelical poverty. It is poverty because it denounces wealth and goods. It is evangelical because it announces the good news (The Gospel). This is the vow of poverty taken by those in religious orders; they renounce the right to own anything.

Greater care for Gods creation; This deliberate choice to denounce material things of this world helps
those in the religious world to give greater care for the things God gives them. They do not squander
and waste precious things from God. It’s the deliberate choice to be totally dependent on God and not
on their own resources! Our Lords words to his apostles about poverty apply to us as well. Even though we have not taken a vow of poverty His words still apply to us. We are to live a simple life.

Our Lord is not asking us to live the same poverty as like Mother Teresa or St. Francis did. But we are called to live in poverty according to our state of life; not to be attached to material goods of this world. We are to provide for our family and our state of life as good stewards of what God gives us. But we need to pay close the attention to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They speak of the nature of what it means to be a follower of our Lord, which is simplicity and trust.

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