The Father draws Us to the Son [Thursday of the Third Week of Easter]

JESUS, THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
Image from catholictradition.org

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, 

and I will raise him on the last day." 

- John 6:44

We have discussed yesterday that the Lord Jesus Christ welcomes everyone who comes to Him and believes in Him. He receives and accepts everyone, regardless of color, culture or capability for in Him everyone are the same, no more distinctions or differences except with regards to the type of mission work which the Father calls a person to respond to, the kind of ministry that one has to fulfill in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, or the charism which the Holy Spirit endows upon a person.

God has so designed that salvation should come through His only-begotten Son. But only those who open up their hearts to His inspiration and call who eventually find the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes He allows a few people to harden their hearts for the purpose of showing more people His wonderful works [see Exodus 9:12; 10:20; 11:10; 14:8; Joshua 11:20; Romans 9:18; John 12:40]. 

For since the beginning of creation, God the Father has already planned that all of us should be saved and become His children through His only-begotten Son [see 1 Peter 1: 3-5; 2 Timothy 1:9; Romans 8:29; 16:25; Ephesians 1:4; Titus 1:2] and when the fullness of time came, Jesus our Lord was born of a woman to fulfill the mission which God has sent Him to do: the salvation of mankind that no one should perish [see Galatians 4:4; Romans 5:6; 1 Timothy 2:6; Philippians 2: 6-11; John 3: 16-17; 6: 39-40]. 

The Lord tells us that it is the Father who draws people to Him, the Son, our Savior. Unless the Father moves a person to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, he or she will continue to resist the Lord's invitation to follow Him. But since the Father does not want anyone to be lost [see Matthew 18:14], He therefore draws everyone to the Lord so that everyone might be saved and not perish [see John 3:16]. 

For it cannot be denied that it is the Father who has loved us first [see 1 John 4:19] and has decided to send His only-begotten Son to become our Savior [see John 3:16]. He has also sent the Holy Spirit with and through the Son to become our Advocate, our Companion, through our pilgrimage upon this earth [see John 14:16, 26; 16:7; 20: ]. But unless we give Him room in our hearts, He will never be able to draw us to the Lord. We therefore should ask the Father to lead us to His Son so that we may find Him and be saved for God listens to the prayers of a sincere heart [see Psalm 6:9; 22:24; 66:20; 68:35; 1 Samuel 1:27; Matthew 7:11; 15: 21-28; Luke 11:13; 18:7]. 

The Father draws us to His Son but we can ask the Father to lead us to the Son. We should not disregard this or the Father might harden our hearts and then we'll never be able to avail of the free gift of salvation through the only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ who shall raise us up on the last day and then we shall be welcomed to live forever in the Father's house [see John 14: 2-3].