Meditation for August 2008

In this month of August 2008, we have reached the seventh fruit of the Spirit as spoken of by St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians. Faithfulness is the seventh Spiritual fruit out of the nine listed: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Faithfulness is perhaps one of the most difficult of the Spiritual fruit to grow even with lots of tender loving care. We are not talking here about our faithfulness to God, which we also need to have but our faithfulness in our relationship in our everyday lives. This includes faithfulness to keep going with the task at hand no matter that we seem to keep failing or coming to dead ends; faithfulness in our friendships when we don’t understand why they act the way they do; and faithfulness to our own selves when we keep on making mistakes, making enemies, being unforgiving to the mistakes of others, and giving up too easily.
When situations or events come upon us that cause us to react unfaithfully these are the times we need the most faithfulness; these are the times that give us opportunity to encourage faithfulness to grow. These are not the times to say I give up—I can’t keep on with this task, I’m fed up with failure; I can’t keep up with this friendship; I can’t tolerate my poor behaviour; it’s just not in me to keep on tending this Spiritual fruit of faithfulness. No, these are the times to say, This is an opportunity to keep on with this task, to push one step further toward finishing and perfecting this task. This is an opportunity to build up my friendship, to understand what she is going through, to be faithful to her in her time of need. This is an opportunity to change my behaviour, to forgive my poor judgement in the way I act, to listen to my conscience and know that I can be faithful in improving my behaviour if I tend the Spiritual fruit of faithfulness in the difficult times.
Faithfulness is a fruit that withers quickly because it is subject to many attacks. It can be discouraging when faithfulness, which seemed to be maturing well, suddenly dies. It is hard to keep replanting this fruit, repotting it, rejuvenating it with spiritual nutrients. When this plant does not come to maturity we tend to blame the actions of others, or our own actions for its failure to come to spiritual fruition. These actions, however, do not cause the fruit’s failure but give opportunity for the fruit to grow through perseverance and patience. It is our failure to put these opportunities into practice that cause the fruit to wither on the vine.
So it is time to see these difficulties as opportunities to bring the Spiritual fruit of faithfulness to maturity and give thanks to the Holy Spirit that these opportunities continue to be given to us even though we would rather not face them and deal with them. This fruit of faithfulness is one of the most beautiful to grow on the Spiritual vine and well worth the perseverance and patience that it takes to bring it to maturity.

 © Judith Lawrence August 2008