Live by
the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the
flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed
to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing
what you want.
But if
you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the
flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery,
enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy,
drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned
you before:those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
By
contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control. There is no law
against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the
flesh with its passions and desires.
If we
live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become
conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
Galatians
5: 16-26
Reflection – ‘By their fruits you shall know them’
has to be one of the most practical precepts of the whole of the Gospels, in
the sense of providing a standard by which almost anything can be measured and
evaluated in a simple, almost obvious way.
What are the
fruits here? This is the question that always needs to be asked when we are
trying to figure out if we’re on the right track or not in life. And it’s not
exactly like the fruits of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit are really,
really similar—like only a certified expert can tell the difference between,
say, ‘enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels’ and ‘peace, love, kindness,
patience’. ‘Fornication, impurity, licentiousness’ do not look all that much
like ‘faithfulness, gentleness, self-control’.
I don’t want
to talk much about fornication, etc., today, though—my series on Humanae Vitae
has provided me ample space to give my thoughts on matters of sexual morality
and chastity, and will continue to do so when I get back to it. It does seem to
me that the world of social media, and particularly the Catholic blogosphere,
could do well to reflect on the works of the flesh of ‘strife, quarrels, anger,
dissensions, factions’ as opposed to the works of the Spirit of ‘love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.’
As Pentecost
draws near, and we all are supposed to be yearning for, welcoming, praying for
an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives, it is worth examining our
consciences precisely along those lines. I try, generally, to keep up with
what’s going on in the Catholic blog world, without being obsessed about it,
and certainly without feeling like I have to get involved in it (I frankly
loathe the band wagon phenomenon where ‘x’ says something or ‘y’ happens, and
then everyone has to write about x or y and what they think about it, and blah,
blah, blah).
And… ummm.
Kindness? Patience? Generosity, as in assuming the best of people who you may
not agree with? Gentleness, as in not perpetually coming out with all guns
blazing towards those whose positions you may not like? Love, as in… well,
surely to God we know what it means to love one another, don’t we? If we don’t,
why on earth are we holding forth publicly as Catholic writers on the Internet?
These are in
scant evidence, often, in the Catholic blogosphere, and this is not good. I’m
not going to give lots of examples because then I would be singling this
blogger or that writer out, and it’s not one or two writers, and it’s not ‘the
conservatives’ or ‘the liberals’ or ‘the trads’, as far as I can see. It’s fairly
endemic. ‘See how those Christians love one another’, the pagans used to say in
the days of the Roman Empire, and the pagans in the Roman Empire mostly became
Christians. I don’t think we’re converting too many pagans these days with our
example of mutual love, forbearance, and kindliness.
Evangelization,
folks – it is the word of the day, if not the century. And we evangelize above
all by example and by presenting a vision of what Christianity is that is
actually attractive to people. Shrill denunciations, mockery, scorn, expressions
of outright hatred and vituperation for those in the Church with whom we
disagree—all of this is profoundly anti-evangelical.
We can make
our points and express our opinions without all of that, you know. Anyhow,
perhaps this feast of Pentecost would be a good time to resolve to hang up the
quarrels, envy, factions, dissensions, strife, and enmities, and pray for the
Spirit to show us the path of kindness, love, patience, peace, self-control,
and gentleness.
Come, Holy
Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your
love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew
the face of the earth. Amen.