Homily – Faithful Until the End, Faithful in the Church

Brothers and sisters,
Today we stand with Moses on the mountain — and with Jesus in the midst of His Church.
Two moments, centuries apart, but one lesson: Be faithful until the end, and be faithful in the Church Christ founded.

In Deuteronomy 34, Moses—the greatest of the Old Testament prophets—stands on Mount Nebo, looking into the Promised Land. He has led Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and right to the brink of the inheritance God promised.

Yet Moses will not enter. Not because God is cruel, but because even the greatest of God’s servants are part of something bigger than themselves. The mission is God’s, not ours.

Moses’ death reminds us: no one is indispensable. Even the holiest leaders are servants of a greater plan. The Catholic Church has seen this across the centuries—Popes, bishops, saints—they pass, but the mission continues because it belongs to Christ.

It also reminds us of something deeper: Moses, the Law-giver, could only lead the people to the border. It was Joshua—whose name in Hebrew, Yehoshua, is the same root as Jesus—who would bring them in.

The Law could show the way, but only Jesus, the new Joshua, can take us into the true Promised Land—Heaven.

In Matthew 18, Jesus gives His disciples practical instructions for living together as His Church.

This is not just a moral suggestion—it is Christ establishing a visible, structured community with authority to reconcile and to bind and loose sins (see also Matthew 16:19, John 20:23).

He tells us:

• Go to your brother or sister privately if they sin.
• Bring witnesses if needed.
• And if they still refuse, “tell it to the Church.”

Here Jesus assumes there is a Church—a visible, identifiable body with real authority. Not a vague collection of believers. Not “me and my Bible.”
A Church with leaders and the authority to speak in His name.

And to confirm it, He says:

“Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

That is the very authority Christ entrusted to His Apostles—and in the Catholic Church, to their successors, the bishops, united with the Pope.

Then Jesus gives one of the most beautiful promises in all of Scripture:
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

For Catholics, this is not just poetic language or a warm feeling.
It is a reality—a reality fulfilled most perfectly in the Holy Eucharist.

At every Mass, this promise is brought to its fullest expression.
We are not merely recalling a distant memory of Jesus, as though He were far away in history.
We are encountering Him—truly present, here and now—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
The same Christ who first spoke those words in Galilee is the very Christ who is present upon our altar, and who enters our very bodies in Holy Communion.

This is why Catholic community is never just about friendship or shared values.
It is about communion.
It is about being bound together—not by hobbies, not by culture, not by human opinion—but by a shared faith in the living Christ, truly present in His Church and in His sacraments.

And because He is here—really here—our gatherings are not simply meetings.
They are moments of heaven breaking into earth.
They are encounters with the Lord of Glory.
They are foretastes of the eternal banquet, where the “two or three” will become the multitude from every tribe and nation, gathered before the throne of the Lamb.

Put Moses and Jesus side by side, and the message comes into sharp focus.
Moses, the great lawgiver, leads God’s people right to the edge of the Promised Land—yet he cannot enter.
Jesus, the new and greater Moses, does not just lead us to the threshold—He brings us all the way in.

The lesson is clear:
Be faithful to the mission God has entrusted to you, even if you don’t see the final result.
Moses did not see the fullness of the promise fulfilled in his lifetime, yet he obeyed to the end.
You may not see the fruits of every prayer, every act of faithfulness, every quiet act of love—but if you are faithful, you are part of God’s plan in ways you cannot yet imagine.

And stay in communion with the Church Christ Himself founded—because that is where His presence, His authority, and His saving grace are found.
Our Catholic faith is not a “choose-your-own” spirituality. It’s not “me and God, on my terms.”
Christ willed that salvation be lived out in His Body, the Church—through the sacraments He gave us, under the care of the shepherds He appointed.

No prophet, no leader, no human effort—no matter how holy—can bring us into the true Promised Land on their own.
The Law of Moses points the way, but only the grace of Christ opens the gate.
And that grace is not vague or abstract—it is concrete, sacramental, real.

The Church is visible. The Church is authoritative.
Jesus does not say, “Keep it to yourself.” He says, “Tell it to the Church.”
He gives His Church the authority to bind and loose on earth—and that authority is backed by Heaven itself.
That is why we confess our sins to a priest—not because the priest is perfect, far from it, but because it is Christ, through His Church, who absolves, reconciles, and restores us.

And Christ is truly with us when we gather in His name—most especially, most profoundly—in the Holy Eucharist.
This is not mere remembrance.
It is not symbolic comfort.
It is Jesus Christ—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—truly present on our altar.
When you are in a state of grace and you receive Him worthily, you are already tasting the Promised Land.

Moses’ mission ended on the mountain.
Ours is still going.
The Church today has been entrusted with the fullness of the Gospel, the seven sacraments, the teaching authority of the Apostles.
And you—you sitting here—are part of that mission.
You are not a spectator. You are a living member of Christ’s Body, called to bear witness, called to holiness, called to stay faithful until the day when, by His mercy, you enter not just the border, but the heart of the eternal Kingdom.

So the next time you hear those words—“Where two or three are gathered in my name”—remember what they truly mean.

They are not just a comfort for small numbers; they are a summons to deep faith.
If you believe He is here, then worship Him as if He is here.

Come to Mass not as an observer, but as a disciple who knows the King has entered the room.

Leave this place not as someone who “attended,” but as someone who has received the living God into your very body and soul.

Because if Christ is truly in our midst, then nothing is ordinary, nothing is casual, and nothing is more important.