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17 So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. 18 A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:17-20 RSV)
Thusly I heft a scriptural lantern to illuminate the special content of our Epistle reading for this 14th Sunday after Pentecost from Galatians 5:16-24. Herein we have Paul’s list of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. In the Revised Standard Version (RSV), Paul signals nine. In the Latin Vulgate and Douay-Rheims Version (DRV) we find twelve.
Here’s the reading itself:
[Brethren:] 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, 21 envy, [some manuscripts add murder] drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Paul wrote this rather angry letter to the churches in Galatia in Asia Minor who were succumbing to false, Judaizing teachers about having to follow Jewish, Mosaic legal practices, such as circumcision. He renews his appeal to freedom in Christ rather than slavery to the Law, freedom in the Spirit rather than slavery to the flesh.
Traditionally you might have memorized all twelve as elucidated by the Vulgate, DRV and St Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica and, therefore, in most classical catechisms: charity (caritas), joy (gaudium), peace (pax), patience (patientia), benignity (benignitas), goodness (bonitas), longanimity (longanimitas), mildness (mansuetudo), faith (fides), modesty (modestia), continency (continentia), and chastity (castitas).
St. Thomas remarks (Ia, IIae, q. 70):
The number of the twelve fruits enumerated by the Apostle is suitable, and that there may be a reference to them in the twelve fruits of which it is written (Apocalypse 22:2): “On both sides of the river was the tree bearing twelve fruits.” … As Augustine says on Galatians 5:22-23, “the Apostle had no intention of teaching us how many [either works of the flesh, or fruits of the Spirit] there are; but to show how the former should be avoided, and the latter sought after.” Hence either more or fewer fruits might have been mentioned.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church 1831 states:
“The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: ‘charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity’”.
Nine or twelve? I am not sure that an exact number is possible, since all of these twelve are, as the old Catholic Dictionary observes:
“acts produced by virtue, not the virtues or habits themselves: a harvest of the spirit, worked on by Grace, and done joyfully and with peace of soul.”
Moreover, you will note that in the reading, Paul says in v. 22 that the following list is the “fruit” (singular) of the Spirit. In a harvest season many and various fruits are gathered and they are all the “fruit” of the harvest. Benefits of the habits which are virtues, informed by faith, hope and love through the indwelling of the Spirit will manifest themselves in myriad ways, the principle of which have been teased forth by Paul and by the collators of the Church’s Vulgate and explained in detail by the Angelic Doctor. And if they are good enough for Thomas Aquinas, then they are good enough for me.
This is where I share the obvious, which is the rapid definition of the twelve fruits. It is necessary to do this because the list might serve as a counterpart to an examination of conscience. How so? I’ll tell you in a moment why I think it is good to review this, apart from the fact that repetita iuvant.
Charity is conscious and conscientious sacrificial love of God and neighbor. It is, as Paul describes in 1 Cor 15, the “greatest” of the higher things which we should seek. Joy is pleasure at God’s grace, His mercy, His providence and whatever is pleasing to God in contrast to that which give only worldly or sensual and passing pleasure, mere happiness. Peace is tranquility of conscience with the conviction without being presumptuous that we are in the state of grace and are in the friendship of God. A wholeness rather than a chaos. This is perhaps that which is the most illusive in life are hardly understood by those without a relationship with God or who are mired in the secular, temporal and profane, or who are drifting from their spiritual moorings. This fruit of the Spirit brings us the contentment in which we can live and then die peacefully. What more can one desire? Patience makes hardships, trials challenges easy. The patient remain self-composed. Benignity, sometimes called kindness, brings us to treat all people genially or mercifully, even the annoying, avoiding in our own behavior what might irritate or repulse. Goodness seeks to go beyond what is merely duty in regard to others but, from charity, do more according to one’s means, not expecting worldly praise or reward. Longanimity helps us to bear the faults or failings or frailties of others without improper chastisement or rebukes, always hoping for their amendment. Mildness is reflected in outer tranquility, mildness of speech, calm and silence when being offended in the vein of Christ’s most meek and mild Sacred Heart. Faith is the resolute adherence to our promises in the sight of God and men, uprightness in our dealings without temptations to avarice or injustices. Modesty concerns restraining moderation in all things, including the desire to eat and drink, contentment with and use of clothes and possessions in keeping with our state in life, making use of good earthly pleasures in the right measure, at the right moment, and for the right reason. Modesty, like temperance, is impacted by circumstances. Continency controls the sensual whereby we deny whatever is against the will of God regardless of how alluring it may be. Chastity brings us to detest impure desires and to refuse temptations to impurity of body and soul. It is self-control over our thoughts and acts.
Why this rapid-fire set of definitions as a possible addendum to an examination of conscience?
If I cannot recognize these fruits in my own life, as being manifested easily because they flow from virtues (which are habits, by definition enacted with ease), then maybe I don’t have the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If I am not manifesting the “fruit” of the Spirit, the harvest that comes with the indwelling of the same, then … who am I spiritually speaking?
The same can be said of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. If I am not manifesting them in my outward behavior, with relative ease, what’s going on with me?
Pick a fruit. Go ahead.