This morning Harry came over to share some coffee and chat about things. After we said Morning Prayer together, we managed to talk about Quaker Elton Trueblood and then our conversation turned to St. Paul’s listing of the “fruit of the Holy Spirit” in Galations 5:But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.
How, we asked ourselves, does one come to produce or enjoy such fruit? Harry suggested that the Spirit’s fruit isn’t “produced” by anything we do. I nodded in agreement: the fruit of the Spirit is simply the outward evidence of an inward indwelling or abiding in Christ.
After Harry left to distribute a carload of noontime “Meals on Wheels,” I had occasion to read again in my dog-eared copy of George Maloney’s Inward Stillness. And wouldn’t you know it! In Chapter 2, “A Silenced Heart,” Maloney makes this observation:
After Harry left to distribute a carload of noontime “Meals on Wheels,” I had occasion to read again in my dog-eared copy of George Maloney’s Inward Stillness. And wouldn’t you know it! In Chapter 2, “A Silenced Heart,” Maloney makes this observation:
This [silent indwelling of God] is a gift from God’s Spirit. It flows as fruit from deep union with God outwardly to effect not only a deeper silence of the mind but a silence that affects also the very way we look at others, smile, the way we walk and talk. St. Paul described the fruit of such silence of the heart as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.” . . . When the heart is silent and the whole [person] is integrated, then she enters into the Kingdom of Heaven that is within. (31-32)
Those who practice contemplative living, prayerful listening, and frequent restful quietness within God’s presence, know from experience that Maloney speaks truthfully. When in Great Silence we quietly say goodbye to our self-nurturing egos and self-flattering illusions of importance, something wonderful happens. Quietly, often slowly but surely, the Holy Spirit begins the reshaping of our interior selves. Transformation takes place.
As we move through our days within this awareness of the Spirit’s creative use of silence—sometimes intense, sometimes not—we learn, as Maloney says, “to stand before God in honesty, humility, silent to our own need to tell God what we have been doing for Him” (33). In other words, any sense that we are doing something important simply goes by the bye. Instead, we become aware that God is doing something quite remarkable within us. Our actions—when done in love, joy, peace, and patience--are really the fruit of the Spirit.
Literally doing nothing, we center “upon God as the Source of all our energies,” as Maloney puts it. The point is this: we really don’t have to work real hard to bear fruit. Rather, it’s through “abiding” in God that we are set free to release the fruit of Spirit.
Isn’t that right, Harry?
As we move through our days within this awareness of the Spirit’s creative use of silence—sometimes intense, sometimes not—we learn, as Maloney says, “to stand before God in honesty, humility, silent to our own need to tell God what we have been doing for Him” (33). In other words, any sense that we are doing something important simply goes by the bye. Instead, we become aware that God is doing something quite remarkable within us. Our actions—when done in love, joy, peace, and patience--are really the fruit of the Spirit.
Literally doing nothing, we center “upon God as the Source of all our energies,” as Maloney puts it. The point is this: we really don’t have to work real hard to bear fruit. Rather, it’s through “abiding” in God that we are set free to release the fruit of Spirit.
Isn’t that right, Harry?
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