In the springtime, after 40 years in the desert, the Lord told Joshua to watch for the flooded, mile-wide Jordan River to stop flowing while the priests, carrying the Ark of Covenant, entered it. This was a call to the Chosen People to be attentive. One of the main things the Lord asks them to do is to watch and listen – “for the time when you can go out and enter into this Promised Land.” This would mean he wanted them to show discernment and fidelity to the law of God, which is exactly what their example teaches us. As we follow their path through Salvation History: God’s path, laid out for each of us by his providence, is how he fulfills his plan for and through us. His path leads us to “where true glory will be … where true peace will reign … to the best and greatest reward … so God may be all in all.”

Let’s pray for this beatitude for one another:

– that we may have this great desire for the Land of the Promise, which ultimately is Heaven

– that this desire of our poverty of heart (preferring the Lord to everything, everyone) leads us home