"Drawn by the Father" Feelings under the Treaty on John »St Augustine, bishop
(Tratt. 26, 4-6, CCL 36, 261-263)
Behold, I will save my people
" No one can come to me , unless drawn by the Father "(Jn 6.44). Do not expect to be drawn against your will: the soul is attracted by love. Nor should we be afraid of being criticized for these words of the Gospel of the Holy Scripture by those who are to weigh the words, but are totally unable to comprehend the divine realities. They might argue: How can I admit that my faith is a free act, if I get pulled? My answer is: No wonder we feel a force of attraction on the will. The pleasure has such an attraction.
What it means to be attracted by the pleasure? "Delight yourself in the Lord, fulfill the desires of your heart" (Ps 36.4). Thus there is a certain delight of the heart, so it enjoys the bread of heaven. The poet Virgil was able to say: Everyone is attracted to his own pleasure. Not so out of necessity, but pleasure, not by coercion but by pleasure. The more we can say that Christ is attracted to the man who finds his delight in truth, happiness, justice,. in eternal life, because Christ is precisely that.
Or maybe the senses of the body have their pleasures and soul should not have them? If the soul has its delights, why the Psalm says: "They take refuge in the shadow of your wings men, they have their fill of your house, and they drink from the stream of your delight. It is the source of life in you and in your light we see light "? (Ps. 35.8 to 10).
Give me one you love, and you will understand what I'm saying. Give me someone who burn with desire, one who is hungry, that they are pilgrims and thirsty in the desert, one that I long for the source of our eternal home, give me an experience that all of this to himself and he will understand my statement. But if I talk to a cold, unfeeling heart, can not understand what I say.
you show a sheep a green branch and pull it behind you. Monsters of the nuts to a child, and he is attracted and there where running feels drawn: it is attracted by love, is attracted without undergoing physical restraint and is attracted by the bond that binds the heart. If, then, these delights and earthly pleasures, presented to them amateurs, have on their overall attractiveness - it is always true that everyone is attracted by his pleasure - as you will not be able to draw us Christ, who is revealed to us by the Father? Who else wants more ardently the soul, if not the truth? What should be greedy man, to what end should you wish your Internal mouth is healthy in judging the truth, if not satiate the wisdom, justice, truth, eternal life?
Therefore the Lord says: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," here, "they will be satisfied," up there (Matt. 5:6). Grant him what he loves, makes what he hopes. You'll see what we now accept by faith without seeing. Shall eat what hours he is hungry, it will be quenched with what now has thirst. But when and where? In the resurrection of the dead, because, "I will raise him on the last day" (Jn 6:54).
