We were born spiritually deaf and spiritually dumb and we have to rely on God to enable us to communicate with him.  In this connection Jesus said something which was most revealing.  It occurred almost incidentally in his Discourse on the Bread of Life in the synagogue at Capernaum.  “No one” he said “can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me…” (NRSV, John 6:44, our emphasis).  It is always God who takes the initiative.  And Our Lord went on, “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (NRSV, John 6:45, our emphasis).  In that context to hear is to perceive, to learn is to take to heart.

How, then, does the Father actually speak to us, within our innermost selves?  For an answer to that question we turn to the experience of the prophet Elijah.  Elijah had fled for his life to Horeb, the Mount of God.  There the Lord made himself known to him.  First there was a violent and destructive wind, then an earthquake, and then a fire; but the Lord was not in any of them.  Lastly, there was “a still small voice” (King James Bible, 1 Kings 19:12).  The original Hebrew is much more expressive: “there was sound of gentle stillness”.

And that is how the Father today draws us to his Son.  If we call it a voice, it is almost imperceptible.  Yet it is too insistent to pass unnoticed, but not so compelling that it cannot be disregarded.