If you’ve ever been stuck in the slowest line at the grocery store, you know a little of what Moses felt. Forty years of leading Israel through the wilderness was like being trapped behind a customer with 20 coupons, a cart full of melons, and a personal chat with the cashier. Just when you think you’re finally getting out, the lane closes. Moses led the people for forty years, through wilderness, disasters, rebellions, and at the end, God shows him the Promised Land from a mountaintop and God says, “Beautiful, isn’t it? But “You will not enter it. Thank you very much, Now Joshua will take it from here.”
The Promised Land was Transformation
It’s almost as if you trained for a marathon, ran the full distance, and just before the finish line, you’re told, “Great job! Now hand the baton to someone else.” It sounds harsh. But the final chapter from the book of Deuteronomy, that we heard today is not a tragedy, it’s a masterpiece in divine perspective. Moses is not remembered for where he didn’t go, but for who he became along the way. The Promised Land was never just geography; it was transformation. God’s greatest work in Moses wasn’t leading him into Canaan, it was making him the kind of leader who could let go.
That’s a lesson that feels both rare and liberating in our age of constant achievement-chasing. Blessed Michael McGivney, whose memory we honor today, understood this truth well. The eldest son of Irish immigrants in Connecticut, he left school at the age of 13 to help his family, entered seminary young, and even paused his studies to support his siblings after his father’s death. As a parish priest, he saw the crushing poverty faced by widows and orphans, especially among immigrant families, and he dreamed of a practical, faith-filled solution.
That dream became the Knights of Columbus, a small parish group that began in the basement of a parish, grew into a global fraternity dedicated to charity, unity, and the protection of families. But Father McGivney never lived to see the full reach of what he began. Like Moses, he stood at the mountain’s edge, able to glimpse the promise but leaving the journey for others to complete. His legacy reminds us that the seeds we plant in faith can outlive us by centuries.
We Want Our Prayers Answered
Let’s be honest: most of us like the Moses role as long as it comes with the Joshua ending, crossing the finish line. We want to see our prayers answered, our projects completed, our visions realized. But in God’s economy, success isn’t measured by the land you stand on, it’s measured by faithfulness to the journey. Father McGivney could have let hardship make him small. Instead, he let it enlarge his vision until it could embrace the needs of countless families. Moses could have died bitter on the mountain. Instead, Scripture tells us he died “his eyes undimmed and his vigor unabated” (Dt 34:7).
Maybe that’s the real Promised Land: not a place we reach, but the person we become in walking with God. Today, whether we’re on the mountaintop or still trudging through wilderness, we’re invited to the same grace Moses and Father McGivney embraced, the grace to labor without needing to see the final harvest, to trust the One who holds both the journey and the destination.
Because in the end, the truest victory isn’t crossing the finish line, it’s crossing it with a heart still open, still faithful, still saying, “Yes, Lord,” even if the final gift we receive, is only a glimpse of the Promised Land.
- Today’s Readings
Father Boby's inspirational homily was recorded live during Mass at the Father Peyton Center this morning. You can view the Mass (and the Rosary at the 30-minute mark) on the Family Rosary YouTube page..
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