Everything that the Father gives me will come to me
We need the Father to reveal his Son for us, just as he did for Peter. Mere flesh and blood understanding of Jesus is not enough. Rational understanding terminates at probable hypotheses about who Jesus might be, whether John the Baptist, Elijah, or some other prophet. We need more than that. We need faith, which implies a relationship. This is why Jesus says we desires us to see him and believe in him. It is not facts or data that can make us live forever but rather the person of Jesus himself. The Father desires to make his Son known to us. And the Son desires to welcome into union with himself those whom the Father enlightens.
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
By allowing the Father to reveal his Son to us we certify him as trustworthy (see John 3:33), allowing him to be the arbiter of reality, rather than opinions or speculation. When we know the Son by faith we are able to share the heart which made him always pleasing to his Father, always ready to do the will of the one who sent him. The will of the Son was in harmony with that of the Father, desiring to save any who would believe. Because he didn't have anything separate or self-focused added to the Father's will he became the ideal model of obedience for us. He came to a people who were selfish and self-centered, concerned more about their own will than anything else. These were the wounds of sin and the byproducts of living in a fallen world. But his own will and heart became the remedy for all of those who would be joined to him. His perfect trust in and obedience to the Father healed the wounds of sin, not merely legalistically, but actually, in the hearts of those who let the Father join them to his Son.
For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his,
we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
No one will be forced to receive healing or be made capable of eternal life. Only those willing to receive the Father's revelation will see the Son, believe, have eternal life, and be raised on the last day. God wills all to be saved, but not so much that he will force those who obstinately refuse his invitation. But this should give us hope. It seems he wants to save us even more than we want it for ourselves. And if this is true, as long as we continue consent to his work in us, nothing, not even our own failings and imperfections, will stand in his way. This, after all, is what happens in Purgatory when the work of sanctification we failed to attain in this life is completed by God himself on the basis of the fact that we at least continued to say yes and desire that work. May all of those Holy Souls now undergoing that work quickly be purified so that they may behold the face of God.
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