The promised land, brimming with delights, is a scriptural metaphor for God himself and for the transfigured existence of man with God. God draws us through the desert of this life, to himself. He stands at the far side of the desert experience, as the risen Jesus stood in the dawn light on the shore of the sea of Tiberias (John 21: 4). Like the disciples in the boat, we toil in the waves of a sea of desert sand, trying to reach the shore of that good country where the risen Lord calls us to come to eat of his meal and never be empty again. Slowly the disciples made their way to Jesus, and perhaps the way seemed arduous to them at times, but actually ‘they were not far from the shore’ (John 21:8).
–Father Charles Cummings OCSO