Grace Along the Way

Oct 15, 2025    Joshua Case

At the end of the Camino de Santiago, most pilgrims arrive at the great cathedral in Santiago and think the journey is over. But if you travel a little farther, out to the coast, you find a place called Finisterre — “the end of the earth.”


Ancient pilgrims would walk there after reaching the cathedral, down to the rocky cliffs where the sun seemed to fall into the sea. They would pause, breathe, and sometimes leave their shoes along the cliffs edge as a way of beginning again. Because that’s what pilgrimage teaches you: that there is no real “end.” Only more road, more grace, more life with God along the way.


That’s what Jeremiah was saying to the exiles long ago. They wanted to go home, to get back to what was familiar. But God’s word came to them right where they were: Build houses. Plant gardens. Seek the welfare of the city. Not because exile was easy, but because even there, in the unchosen places, God was already present, already at work.


And that’s what the Gospel reminds us, too. Jesus meets people on the road, between here and there, healing and blessing them as they go. Grace is not waiting for us at the destination. Grace meets us on the way.


Maybe that’s what Finisterre is really about — not standing at the edge of the world, but remembering that God’s love has no edge at all. The journey doesn’t end when we arrive; it deepens when we pause, turn around, and see that God has been walking beside us the whole time.


So wherever you find yourself today — at a beginning, a middle, or what feels like an end — remember: There is no place so far, no moment so in-between, that grace cannot find you.


Keep walking. Keep noticing. Keep giving thanks. Because the journey itself is holy ground.