The Fruits: Gentleness

 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Gentleness of manner or disposition--this quality is very close to kindness, but it has more to do with mild temper or sweet disposition than anything else. It is how we approach the people we have in our life.

God presents each of us with people every day, passing acquaintances as well as family, friends, and coworkers. In every category, some are more likable than others but we're called to love them all. "Gentleness" is how someone who lives in the spirit approaches the people we are given, particularly those we find hard to get along with.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about relationships with people whose political or religious views and values differ sharply from ours. Worse is when those we're given to love are opinionated, judgmental, and harsh with anyone who differs from them. We're living in an age where political tribalism, religious dogmatism, and so on have us so divided into camps that conversations have ceased to be about ideas and often deteriorate into name-calling and labels. The problems in families over these differences have made holiday dinners with those we ought to feel close to tense and sometimes miserable. It has become such a widespread problem, jokes and self-help solutions proliferate.

Here's a solution: pray for the Holy Spirit to so fill us that we bear fruit in gentleness especially when the people we encounter are difficult and prickly. We can't and shouldn't agree with everyone, but we can treat them with gentleness.  Need a model? The portrayal of Jesus on The Chosen is an example that combines strength and firmness of purpose with gentleness beautifully.

The Fruits: Faithfulness

 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

If the Holy Spirit manifests her fruits in my life at all, this one is probably it. Fifty-two years of marriage is one manifestation. Of course, there are kinds and degrees of fidelity in marriage. The absence of adultery is only one. True single-hearted love in the face of illnesses, family stress, career stress, is harder, as is the distraction of other shiny things. Still, we persist.

I'm a tough friend to lose. Close friendships stay with me decade after decade, some of them for 60, 50, 40 years. 

I could not stay steady in all these things without an enormous flood of grace. That I've been able to do so is nothing but a gift from God who does all. He is he who is God. I am she who is not.

The greatest gift of all and the foundational faithfulness, however, is that I have never wavered in my belief since the day I understood that God existed, and because of that nothing else --NOTHING--matters. I may have struggled with the institutional church but never with that foundational faith. For that grace I am grateful.

The Fruits: Goodness

 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

What is goodness? It is the nature of humans to choose what is good. Of course what an individual perceives as good generally is "good for me."

To give a petty example, I may choose pie for breakfast and ice cream for lunch. I crave them and perceive them as very good. In the context of my health and overall well-being, however, they are not so good for me. It is a matter of judgment and perception. On a much greater scale, Hitler did what he thought of as good for himself and even good for Germany. We think of him as a madman, but even madmen choose their perceived good. 

To bear fruit in true goodness, we have to have the wisdom—and selflessness—that only comes from the Holy Spirit.

What then is goodness? The etymological dictionary on historic principles says:

Old English gōd (with a long "o") "excellent, fine; valuable; desirable, favorable, beneficial; full, entire, complete;" of abstractions, actions, etc., "beneficial, effective; righteous, pious;" of persons or souls, "righteous, pious, virtuous;" probably originally "having the right or desirable quality,"

It is tempting to think that good and God have the same English root but the etymological dictionary argues otherwise. It doesn't matter. Goodness is closest to the scriptural idea of righteousness.

As a fruit of the Spirit and life under the guidance of the Spirit, goodness means displaying in my life that string of qualities in definition, things that are fine and valuable, and my particular favorite, "beneficial." I believe it means that the way I live makes the lives of those around me, the life of the church and the community, the natural world as I find it, all better--or at least as fine as God made them. Goodness is to build up, to give life. 

The Fruits: Kindness

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Surely kindness ought to be abundant fruit in the life of the spirit, if only because every day of our lives presents us with opportunities to practice it.

The worm in the apple, er, orange is the hidden desire that our kindness be seen, be dramatic, bring us admiration. Little kindnesses, especially those in our own households, especially those that go unnoticed have no appeal. It isn't my turn to do dishes. Do I do them? Do I do them and make sure my beloved knows that I did, so he can be suitably grateful? Worse, do I do them and complain loudly? The lurking sin of pride is never of God. Kindness, especially unsung hidden kindness, is always of God and to our benefit.

Do it and to God alone be the glory. Soli Deo gloria!

The Fruits: Patience

 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Patience! So many opportunities to practice it! Modern life is hurried and frenzied, and we are surrounded with the opposite.

The kind of patience that its the fruit of the Spirit, however, wells up at key times. The fruit of patience pays huge dividends in relationships too. Small children with learn slowly. Husbands who can't seem to handle emotions clearly. Co-workers who ignore our requests. Family members who just don't see things my way. Patience buys me room for healing, bonding, communicating—whatever it takes to love them as we are commanded. Easy? No. Source of grace? You bet. Do I do it well? Ah....

There are other impacts of spiritual patience. Waiting in traffic or in line become opportunities for prayer and praise.

A deeper more profound aspect of patience deals with the advent that is our life in this world. We are always, always waiting for the coming of Jesus. He comes to us in prayer. He comes to us in the Eucharist. He'll come for us at the end of our lives. He'll come at the end of time. Sometimes I want to stomp my foot and say "COME lord Jesus." He smiles and the Spirit says, "Patience."

The Fruits: Peace

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Today  is Ascension Thursday.  The first, original, most meaningful novena of them all commences. It seems expedient for me to complete this series over the next nine days. 

As I write about peace my city had more shootings overnight. They come daily now. Jerusalem is burning, Gaza is being flattened, and civil war has erupted in some Israeli towns. Afghanistan has erupted as troops withdraw, the latest atrocity, the bombing of a girls' school with many deaths, hints at what may come. Cyber attacks on various power grids feel like the opening shots in a new form of warfare. Political polarization, anger, and yes, hatred continues to seethe. Attacks on Asian Americans are climbing, anti-semitism rises, and bigotry, the legacy of slavery, continues to manifest itself in violence and echoing hatred. Where is this peace?

My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. (John 14:27)

Jesus gives us His peace! If you search the gospels you'll find Him wishing/offering peace over and over. You'll find Him urging his followers to be peacemakers, to offer peace, to bring peace. He does not promise that the world, ever the opposite of God, will have peace. In fact, he goes on to say:

In this world you will have trouble. (John 16:33)

Period. Full stop. You will. He continues:

But take heart! I have overcome the world. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

(John 16:33)

So what is this peace that his followers ought to manifest, that will blossom from the seeds the Holy Spirit sows in our souls? Is it merely  a calm, untroubled manner in the face of all this violence and hatred, or is it something more? I won't pretend I can even do that. When faced with violence and anger I cringe.

Here's what I do know: forgiveness, acceptance and patience with the people in our lives feel good and they are good. Anger, resentment, and vengence do not and are not. In the face of injustice we ought to speak up, but we can still forgive and offer the world His love. To forgive, accept and offer everyone we encounter love we have to dig deep because conflict abounds. Our Lord wants us to be overflowing with peace in this troubled world and he sends the Holy Spirit to help us do it. Once again He demands we do the good that He presents in front of us, the peace that we and only we can make. Imbedded in the life of the Holy Spirit, we can bear the fruit that is peace in our own sphere of life.

The Fruits: Joy

 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

This fruit of life lived in the Spirit can feel illusive. As the scripture reminds us in Psalm 30, "Weeping may endure for a night." The Good Lord knows our lives frequently give us cause to weep: illness and financial upheaval, not to mention pandemic, unemployment, and the ominous drumbeat of division and anger that seems to afflict our politics, our families, and even our church in recent years. Worst of all is conflict in family.

Still the psalm goes on, "… joy cometh in the morning."

It took me a long time to realize that the joy in question wasn't some sort of surface happiness dependent on external realities of life. Joy comes from the depths, the river of grace running through the souls of those who live in the union with the Holy Spirit. It is the result of allowing the Gifts of the Spirit to take root and grow. 

I have come to believe that joy is the most obvious sign of a Christian who walks in grace with God. You see it in their faces, you hear it in their voices, and you find it even when life is knocking them around. They radiate joy. In those times of anger and conflict, this joy is closely linked to peace which is closely linked to forgiveness, loving God's children as he loves them. Some people can manage it.

I'm struggling to learn to look for it in myself, and to note when it does not appear, so I can remind myself to pray and tap into the Spirit who just waits to be asked.

The Fruits: Love

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

When we measure our spiritual life agains the fruits we are meant to produce, there is nothing more important than the first one: Love. Saint Paul tells us, all things pass away but love never ends. (1Cor 13:8)

God is by nature love, entirely love, flowing out over all of us. As we give ourselves over to him entirely and become more like him, our very nature shifts to become, like His, love. 

The catechism of my childhood taught that entire meaning of life is that God made us. Why? God made us to love and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him in the next. In other words, He wishes to be united to us utterly. So love of God implies service and that love drives us, as all love does, toward union, with the Beloved.

But how is it fruit? As we empty ourselves in order to let God in, our capacity for love grows. We begin to see the world and the people in it as God sees them, to love them as God does.

Imperfect person that I am, people irritate. People anger. People make demands that are inconvenient, imposing, and annoying. Imperfect person that I am I prefer my own will, and yet I get up every morning and tell Him I will do His will. When his love bears fruit, I forgive, I give of time and treasure, I build bridges to those who different, difficult, and demanding. When it doesn't, I crawl back into my cave.

In a recent speech Pope Francis called love of neighbor "a daily gymnasium in which we train love for God."

What of marriage? Marriage is the great school of love; done well it burns off selfishness year after year. At a profoundly spiritual moment once He told me I would never learn to love Him until I learned to love in marriage. My vocation has always been clear.

So the mechanism of love goes both directions. Insofar as I learn selfless love and practice it, however imperfectly, I make room for God to pour his love in me. Insofar as I let God pour His love in me, it overflows, bearing fruit in the world. Allow the Holy Spirit full rein, and love takes root to bear fruit.

Fruits

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

 

How can the world recognize a Christian? By the words they quote? The symbols they wear? The laws they uphold? No. Not even by their virtues, per se, but by their fruits, 

You will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:16)

In a time when the Church calls us to the New Evangelization, it seems like we ought to start with the fruits our lives bear. If we aren't producing good fruit, no amount of speechifying, apologetics or (saints preserve us) argumentation will attract people to Christ.

And the scriptures give us a clue by listing the fruits of some one in union with the Holy Spirit. What what we to make of that? How shall each of us judge ourselves? Perhaps a good examination of conscience might start with examining my life for signs of:

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-control

I stumble right out the gate on that second one if not the first. In the next few posts, I think I'll examine those one by one.

Hope

 Hope is faith in things unseen, the promise of things to come. Without we hide under the bed of our soul and never let God make us what we can be.

As 2020 turned over into 2021 and the New Year begins with yet more ugliness—deaths from Covid are up, Virtual Mass proves a poor substitute for the relating, hunger is rising and homocide rates with it, and a coup attempt that is probably just an opening sally has occurred—hope has never been a more vital component of our spiritual lives.

Samantha Powers told U.S. Catholic recently that, while the size of if the  world's ills is massive, there are always things that can be done right in front of our noses. No one of us is called to save the world. (The work of Redemption has been done, I believe), but we are all called to remember that the kingdom is at hand--right in front of us. We're called to live in the kingdom, loving God with our whole hearts and our neighbor--whoever that is and a whoever comes our way each day--as ourselves. 

We can't let darkness win. We'll know we walk there if we see His fruit. More on that another time.