Faith allows you to see things from God's perspective, and his perspective is true and life altering. The words of the gospel today about uprooting mulberry trees is a great challenge to our illusions of self-reliance and self-derived merit in the Kingdom of God. Mumford and Sons helps us with some images to see the world hanging upside down in dependence on the Maker.

Lazarus is no help for the rich man after the rich man dies and finds himself in torment. The rich man, like us, has Moses and the prophets, but even more, a Jesus has risen from the dead and his message continues to go out to those who have ears and hear today: beware of all forms of greed!

Have you made an idol out of riches? The most concrete way to determine your attachment to riches and whether or not it has displaced God as the love of your life is whether or not you tithe 10% of your annual income. If so, that is a good concrete sign that you are not enslaved to wealth. If not, it is a good point for an examination of conscience.

What is going on in the desert when the bronze serpent is lifted up as a healing remedy to the Israelites? (Numbers 21) Diving into the Old Testament will give us greater perspective by which we can understand Jesus allusion to his own "lifting up".

What is clear? The wages of sin is death, and idolatry is the origin of it. Jesus' blood is the anti-venom capable of healing us from the poison of the worship of Satan, the serpent, whose lies tempt us to doubt and deny God's goodness and provident love for his people.

What place does God hold in your life? What competes with God for our love, obedience, affection, and meaning in our lives? Our life is a choice. There can only be one ultimate love in our life. Is it the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob made flesh in Jesus?

Humility is a virtue that is foundational for the Christian life. But what is humility, exactly? In this homily, we look to the eminent theologian, Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange to help us.

Today's gospel touches upon the question of greatest importance for each of us. What does Jesus say about the question of salvation? Will many be saved? His answer is instructive for us. We must all enter through the door to be saved. We can't remain outside the Kingdom of God. The key is knowing that Jesus himself is the door through which we must pass.

The self-revelation of God's name to Moses took place in the context of a sign; a bush on fire, but not consumed. It is a vision of God's love that in the Incarnation of Christ will show forth the blazing, unfettered power of love in a humanity so pure that it is not consumed by it. St. Theresa of Avila met this Fire and was touched by it. The fire of God's love is meant to transform and illuminate each of us.

On this 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the reading from the Letter to the Hebrews is a Master Class in the life and virtue of faith. Faith is foundational to our lives as christians, but dynamics of faith lived out can often be hard to understand or difficulty to describe. Thankfully, we can look to the life of Abraham, our Father in Faith, to understand the pattern of faith in our own lives.

This homily explores what we expect from God. What do we ask him for? What do we really want from him?

In today's gospel, Jesus reveals his compassion and desire to heal us from our pain, our misery, our sin which leads to death. He is the good Samaritan and we are lying half-dead in the road.