“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
Jesus, all men are being drawn to you. Jesus, you are lifted high (cf. Joh. 12:32). It is not just some whom the Father calls. Rather, he "desires all people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth" (cf. 1 Tim. 2:4). The Father brings us to you. He gives us to you. And you reject no one!
When you say "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him" it is not in order to exclude anyone. Rather it is to show us that every movement toward you and every desire for you is a gift. Even when we think our smarts, our sanctity, or our strength is what is moving us toward you there is always something deeper. The Father is supplying the grace to make it possible.
The Father is drawing the eunuch is the first reading today. He inspires him to go to Jerusalem to worship and to read the Scriptures. But the Father doesn't draw him to you in isolation. In fact he is unable to discover you on his own.
“Do you understand what you are reading?”
He replied,
“How can I, unless someone instructs me?”
And so you draw him to your body, Jesus. You draw him to yourself, but not apart from your body.
Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage,
he proclaimed Jesus to him.
You draw us all deeper into your body, LORD. You do so because what you have for us is more than mere words or understanding. You want to give us your "Flesh for the life of the world." This is something which no one would guess seated on his chariot reading Isaiah. But this is where the Father is drawing us. He is drawing us so deeply into your Body that we actually receive your Flesh.
This leads us to realize the importance of the part you have for us to play. You draw all to yourself. But you want to draw them through us. We need to be as open to the Spirit as Philip so that we don't miss the parts which you want us to play.
The Spirit said to Philip,
“Go and join up with that chariot.”
When the Spirit speaks to us let us go and join with that chariot. If we do not, there is a real risk that the eunuch continues on his way and never comes to know you and never tastes the grace of baptism. Let us do so without fear knowing that the Father is preparing them. Let us be confident that we are not on our own. He is working through us to bring all people to you Jesus. He is giving us all to you.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
When I appealed to him in words,
praise was on the tip of my tongue.
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