Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
When my boys were young, I bought some assorted plastic fruit and wrote an attribute of the fruit of the Spirit on each piece of fruit. We kept the fruit basket on the dining room table and while we ate dinner together as a family, one of the boys would choose a fruit and we would talk altogether about what it means to live that particular virtue. Interestingly, the fruit of the Spirit is singular – St Paul describes fruit, not fruits, so we had fun trying to picture a multi-faceted fruit that contained all of these various virtues. It’s like a fruit that has the qualities of a grape, an apple, a mango, a banana, a kiwi, and an orange all wrapped up in one!
Because we as Christians have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, each one of us also possesses this multi-faceted fruit, and are called to yield its fruitfulness accordingly. We each have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control inherently within us. It’s not the case that anyone can say, “I just didn’t receive the patience fruit!” All of these qualities are part of that wondrous fruit of the Spirit. This day affords us a great opportunity to look deep within and consider how fruitful our fruit really is!
A few weeks ago, I wrote on 1 Corinthians 13 and invited each of us to replace the word “love” in that passage with our names. That prayer exercise opens us up to reflect upon the extent to which we embody those attributes of love. Our reading from Galatians invites us to a similar prayerful examination of our lives. As you read the passage, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what you need to know about the Spirit’s fruit in your life.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. As we walk in the Spirit, as we live by the Spirit, others will see the fruit, the evidence of our Spirit-filled life. They will see these virtues exemplified by our lives. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. As you read those words slowly and prayerfully, are there aspects of this fruitfulness that are missing or less developed in your life? Ask God to help you to yield to the Spirit so that the Spirit might release those virtues in a greater way within you.
I recall many years ago recognizing the absence of joy in my life. I began earnestly and consistently praying Nehemiah 8:10, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Declaring the truth of God’s word over myself and asking for the graces to believe that it was true for me released the Lord’s joy within me. I encourage you to pray today and, in the days/weeks to come for the specific aspects of the fruit of the Spirit that you wish to more fully embody. Trust that the Lord delights in bringing the Word to fulfillment in the lives of disciples. God bless you to grow in fruitfulness today and always.
- Elizabeth Wourms