Commentary on the Gospel of
“Unless the Father draw him!” Commenting on this in the fifth century, St. Augustine wrote: “He did not say lead, but draw. This ‘violence’ is done to the heart, not to the body… Believe and you come: love and you are drawn. Do not suppose here any rough and uneasy violence. It is gentle, it is sweet; it is the sweetness that draws you. Is not a sheep drawn when fresh grass is shown to it in its hunger? Yet I imagine that it is not driven bodily on, but bound by desire. In this way too you come to Christ: do not imagine long journeyings; in the very place where you believe, there you come. For to him who is everywhere we come by love, not by sailing.”
