Et Fructum Offeratis
In the article of last month an attempt was made to give a clear and concise explanation of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, as forming one of the main foundations of the spiritual edifice. The subject had to be treated at length in order to make quite clear the difference between the Gifts and the virtues, and to dissipate the mists of vagueness and uncertainty that so frequently obscure a subject with which we are often too unfamiliar. The power of the Holy Spirit to illuminate with a flood of light a human mind entirely subject to His sway has hardly ever been better illustrated than in the case of St. Thomas Aquinas, who writes with such clearness and precision on the most recondite themes. Therefore, we took him for guide in a matter where much guidance is needed, for Thomas writes with compelling conviction when treating of that Spirit of God who had inundated his whole being. The subject is of paramount importance in the spiritual life. We know all too little about the Holy Ghost, and it may be that our devotion to Him, as a consequence, is all too slight. The Middle Ages pulsate and glow with this devotion. The tenth century gave us the Veni Creator Spiritus, and the twelfth century endowed the world with the Veni Sancte Spiritus — both masterpieces of spiritual poetry providing plentiful matter for meditation, whilst causing the heart to melt and glow with love for this great Spirit of God abiding within us. We recite them once a year; would that we recited them daily, and then the mute organ might give forth the most glorious music. Paratum est cor meum.
Let us now consider the graces and Gifts of the Holy Ghost as bursting forth into full and fragrant blossom, which finally loads the tree of the soul with fruit that ripens to maturity as it basks in the Sun that knows no waning. Rich in beauty, mellow in ripeness, delightful in flavor, are these fruits of the Holy Ghost. Precious indeed is this choice burden of the tree, but the pick of the fruit is the Beatitudes.
It is well that we should first of all take a rapid glance at God's dealings with the soul. God is in every place and every being as immediate cause of all that exists outside Himself: "In Him we live and move and have our being."1 He dwells only in the souls of the just, uniting Himself to them in a marvellous manner. He is present in them not merely by His image, by His gifts; He comes personally to them: "We will come to Him, and will make our abode with him."2 He begins here that life of union, which finds its ultimate consummation in heaven. No sooner does a creature pass from sinfulness into grace with God than the Holy Ghost comes to him to seal the pact of reconciliation, to set about the grand work of his salvation, to become in him the efficient principle of a new life incomparably superior to that of nature. Say not this is a passing visit — precious as that would be — for He takes up His abode in the soul along with the Father and the Son.
With that awful silence that hung over the world on the first Christmas Night does He enter the soul, and His first great gift is Himself: Altissimi Donum Dei. He sets about furnishing and beautifying the living temple where He chooses to reside, filling with dazzling glory that soul in grace. All defilement being effectively removed, the walls are hung about with the priceless gift of sanctifying grace that glitters like priceless gems. He justifies, transforms, deifies that living temple. Queen Grace is accompanied by a brilliant retinue of gifts that bring welcome support to the fainting soul and spur it on to supernatural activity. Marching in that train like knights of old are the mighty theological virtues of faith, hope and charity; the infused moral virtues forever on the side of good; the Gifts of the Holy Ghost that carry the soul up the hill of endeavor. Over and above all, these Gifts are the seeds of the fruits that God would gather at the harvest, divine energies and sources of those excellent acts called the Beatitudes as giving a foretaste of that eternal happiness (beatitudo) which should be ours. "I have chosen you, and appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain." 3
It is to the Saints we must fly if we would see the fruits that a soul can produce under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit. Children and veterans, virgins and youths, men and women, uproot their hearts from the things of earth that they may give them entirely to the Beloved. The astounding charity of a Vincent de Paul with a heart ever open to the multifold miseries of men, the triumphant faith of a Peter of Verona struck down by heretics and tracing on the ground with his life's blood the one word "Credo," the incredible humility of a John of the Cross who uttered the most heroic words when asked by the Master what recompense he sought: "Lord, to suffer and be despised for You" — these are samples of the fruits that the Spirit of God can cause the soul to produce.
Would that we might only realize the delicious fruits, which the Holy Ghost delights to bring forth from the human soul! What an exquisite picture does the very first Psalm give of the just man's soul, that "shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit in due season."4 St. Paul gives a list of these fruits: "But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity."5
St. Thomas defines clearly what is meant by the Fruits: "all the acts of virtue that have reached a certain perfection and in which a man takes pleasure."6 "They call them fruits," says St. Ambrose, "because they fill the soul with a pure and holy delight." Taken in the natural sense, fruit is the final product, full of flavor, of a plant or tree when it reaches perfection; it is the crowning of the wonderful life of a plant.7 Various are the fruit trees, various the taste of the fruit. Whilst delighting the eye with their delicate variety of colors and filling the air with the fragrance of their perfume, neither leaves nor blossoms merit the name of fruit, which is the end and object for which the tree was planted. This fruit is not merely the crowning adornment of the tree; it is that which gives the tree all its value and repays the husbandman for his hours of toil. We see this more especially in the case of the vine. In our Lord's parable, the tree was useless because it bore not fruit: "Cut it down; why encumbereth it the ground?"8 Under penalty of being cast into the fire, we cannot allow to remain inactive those divine energies which, like seed in the soil, are intended to spring up under the warmth of the Holy Spirit and produce the fruits eternal life, the fruits of the Holy Ghost.
It is by analogy that, in the spiritual order, the name of fruits is given to the final product of grace in the soul. They are not habits but acts, distinguished from virtues and gifts as an effect from a cause. When St. Paul, in the quotation cited, mentions charity, patience, etc., he is not referring to the virtues, but to their operations, which are fruits. The virtues only reach their ultimate perfection when they burst forth into fruit by acts. To merit the name of fruit, these acts of the virtues must be performed with a certain delight. To the neophyte these operations are laborious, demand great effort, have the sourness of unripe fruit. By one long accustomed to the practice of virtue they are performed with far greater facility, are no longer repugnant, and what was formerly a pain is now a pleasure. When fruit reaches the stage of maturity, that which was formerly sour becomes sweet and full of flavor. Even so, the doing of virtuous deeds reaches a certain maturity when at last they are executed with pleasure, nay delight.9
Such delights are a puzzle to the world, which sees the cross but not the unction, to use a phrase of St. Bernard.10 Mortifications of the flesh and the senses are held in horror by worldings, who know nothing of the consolations of the Holy Ghost that come in their wake. Saintly souls say gladly with the spouse in the Canticles: "I sat down under His shadow, whom I desired; and His fruit was sweet to my palate."11
St. Paul gives the number of the fruits as twelve. Why twelve? — for St. Thomas asserts: "The fruits are all the acts of the virtues in which a man finds pleasure." Paul then had no intention of naming all the fruits, but stops at twelve since this number is a symbol of universality in the Scriptures; moreover, all virtuous acts can be traced back to those given by the Apostle, which embrace the whole Christian life.12
Though we speak of fruits, we might almost as well call them flowers, if, instead of regarding our good works as the final product of grace here below, we rather look upon them as the pledge of life eternal. When the tree blossoms, we look forward with pleasure to the fruit that will one day grace the tree; even so does the soul that blossoms forth into holy works give promise of arriving at never-ending joy.
The choicest fruits of the soul are the Beatitudes, the most sublime products of His presence whom the Father has deigned to send us for our holiness. They are certain acts of the present life that by reason of their peculiar perfection lead straight to eternal life. They are called Beatitudes, because they are the first fruits of true and perfect happiness. Beatitude is essentially one, consisting in the possession of God, and a soul is only truly happy in the measure in which it possesses Him. In this world we carry Him within us, but veiled; we love Him, always with the danger of losing Him. Thus, any beatitude on earth is but imperfect, more or less in the initial stage. Those mentioned in the Gospel do not imply absolute happiness. How can tears, poverty, hunger and thirst, constitute true happiness? Our Lord rather asserts that these are the means, the degrees of ascension, whereby absolute happiness is reached. Powerful means it is true, for whoever exercises them with perseverance can say with St. Paul: "I am saved in hope."13 We declare that a person has reached the object of his desires when he has well grounded hope of arriving there. Then, why not conceive the hope of attaining a determined end when one sets out for that object in a regular and constant fashion, draws near it, and has even a foretaste of the sweetness of the good thing desired?14 Thus, when a Catholic, docile to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, progresses each day along the way of good by virtuous acts and the Gifts; when he sees realized little by little those wonderful ascensions — "in his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps";15 and when he finds himself nearing the goal, why should he not feel confident of attaining the fatherland — why should he not be proclaimed happy in anticipation?16
These Beatitudes are eight in number: poverty of spirit, meekness, mourning, hunger and thirst for holiness, mercy, purity of heart, love of peace, persecution suffered for God's sake. The eighth is but the manifestation of the rest, for one who possesses the other seven will never be shaken from good by persecution. These Beatitudes are neither virtues nor gifts of the Holy Ghost, but acts, which those habits lead us to perform. By reason of their excellence and perfection, they should be rather considered products of the Gifts than emanations of the virtues. The virtue of poverty may inspire one to a detachment that leads to a moderate use of the things of earth, but it is the gift of fear that fills one with contempt for them. The virtue of meekness gives a man energy to restrain his anger, but it is the gift of piety that pours over his soul unruffled calm and serenity under every provocation. Temperance puts a break on the passions champing for sensual pleasures and holds them in bounds; the gift of knowledge raises the soul to a height where it sees the emptiness of earthly pleasures, rejects them entirely, embraces mourning and tears.17
The Beatitudes can equally be distinguished from the fruits of the Holy Ghost. They are, if you like, the most excellent and exquisite of the fruits which the Divine Sun with the last touches of His rays has ripened to perfect maturity, possessing such sweetness and flavor as to be a foretaste of heaven. They are the crowning of those series of wonders, which the Holy Ghost delights to perform in those souls where He takes up His abode. Alas, that such graces and gifts should be allowed to lie dormant in the soul, with the tree almost barren! "Grieve not the Spirit of God,"18 above all, "extinguish not the Spirit."19 Why does such abundant seed produce so poor a harvest? It may be because of ignorance or indifference, our little remembrance of the Holy Spirit that dwelleth in our hearts, as witness of all our triumphs and refreshment in the noonday heat of temptations:
In labore requies,
In aestu temperies,
In fletu solatium.
The Temple of God is a holy place so that the soul is called to sanctity for that very reason: "Holiness becometh Thy house, O Lord."20 Our deeds more than our words should declare: "I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwelleth." For that place is an immortal soul in grace:
Lava quod est sordidum,
Riga quod est aridum,
Sana quod est saucium.
Notes
1 Acts, xvii. 28.
2 John, xiv. 23.
3 John, xv. 16.
4 Ps. i. 3.
5 Gal., v. 22-23.
6 I-II, Q. lxx, art. 2.
7 Ibid., art. 1.
8 Luke, xiii. 7.
9 See Lallement, "Doctrine Spirituelle."
10 St. Bernard, "On the Canticles."
11 Cant., ii. 3.
12 Ibid., art. iii, ad. 4.
13 Rom., viii. 24.
14 Summa. I-II, Q. lxix, art. 1.
15 Ps. lxxxiii. 6.
16 Ibid., art. 2.
17 Ibid., art. 1 and 3.
18 Eph. iv. 30.
19 I Thess., v. 19.
20 Ps. xcii. 5.
This item 3626 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
