A Brief Homily by (†) Bishop Augustinos Kantiotes Published by The Holy Womens' Coenobitic Monastery of St. Augustine Florina, Greece
The fruit of the Spirit is love... (Gal. 5:22)
Yesterday, my beloved, but also today, our holy Church celebrates the feast of Pentecost. This feast has been characterized by important teachers and Fathers, as the birthday of the Church. But while the things of this world have a beginning, a middle and an end, the Church doesn't have an end. We can say: of His kingdom there will be no end (Lk. 1:33). No matter how much it is warred against, the Church will remain invincible, because the power of the Holy Spirit dwells in it.
The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Divinity, as God, is invisible. But it became tangible through its various manifestations on the day of Pentecost. Today it is tangible in two forms, according to Luke the Evangelist; not like at Christ's baptism when it appeared in the form of a dove (apolytikion Theophany, see Lk. 3:22). This time it came as flaming tongues and as the sound of a rushing, mighty wind. Why? It is symbolic. It appeared as flaming tongues to indicate that the only weapon Christianity has at its disposal is powerful speech, the living word of God in the mouths of the holy apostles. It was felt as rushing wind, because just as a strong wind uproots things, the Holy Spirit uprooted the ancient tree of idolatry, which none of the philosophers of the past could uproot. The simple preaching of the fishermen of Galilee, who had been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, uprooted idolatry.
But to uproot something is negative, and the Gospel isn't only negative. Yes, it uprooted the ancient idolatric practices that were rooted in peoples' hearts, but in its place it planted another tree, the tree of Christianity. That the Gospel has the power to uproot age-old systems and unlawful, corrupt regimes, and plant the heavenly tree of Christ, isn't just a theory. In some people, the change is clearly obvious. An age-old tree is the old man (Rom. 6:6, Eph. 4:22, Col. 3:9), the sinful man. But from the moment a person believes in Christ and repents, he changes. A soul that is watered by the streams of the All-holy Spirit, blossoms and bears fruit. And a tree, Christ said, is recognized by its fruit: (see Lk. 6:43, Mt. 7:16) the apple-tree by its apples, the pear-tree by its pears, the orange-tree by its oranges. And a Christian? A Christian is recognized by the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
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What are the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Today's Gospel and Apostle readings were about the Holy Spirit (see Mt. 18:18, Eph. 5:9), but the Apostle Paul especially mentions it in his Epistle to the Galatians (5:22). He specifically enumerates nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.
• The fruit of the Holy Spirit, he says, is:
✔ The first fruit is a very sweet word, which has almost vanished from this earth. It is a word which encompasses the whole essence of Christianity: love. Love, not just in words but in deeds. The model of love is our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified Love. It is a love that reaches sacrifice on the cross.
✔ The second fruit of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul says, is joy. Truly, wherever there is love, joy follows. A soul full of spite makes a person's face glum and their gaze sorrowful.
✔ A natural result of joy, is the peace that follows. Whoever lives according to God's will, is at peace with the Heavenly Father, is at peace with his neighbour, and most of all, has a peaceful conscience - he doesn't feel guilty.
• So the first triad of those fruits are love, joy and peace. The second triad is: longsuffering, kindness and goodness.
✔ What does longsuffering mean? When someone does something bad to you, it means not to enforce the Jewish law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (Ex. 21:24), but to endure it, and to believe that even the greatest criminal can be transformed into a good person.
✔ The other fruit is kindness, i.e. to a have a big heart, as expansive as the sky, which embraces the whole world without exception
✔ The third fruit of the second triad is goodness, i.e. to believe in good not only theoretically, but to actually enforce it in your life.
• And finally, the third triad.
✔ Faith. Not an abstract sense of faith, but true faith. A faithful person is trustworthy. His 'yes' is 'yes' and his 'no', 'no' (Mt. 5:37), light is light and dark, dark (see Is. 5:20), he calls the day, day and the night, night. He is reliable and honest.
✔ Another nice fruit is gentleness, which is associated with humility. A gentle person has a tranquil and peaceful face, like a calm ocean.
✔And the third fruit is self-control, which the Fathers of the Church praised, and our ancient forefathers said: The greatest victory isn't that which Alexander the Great achieved; it is to be victorious over ourselves, over our passions and vices.
Behold, therefore, the nine fruits. Three triads, corresponding to the Holy Trinity.
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And now I ask you, my beloved: do these fruits exist today? If they do, then there is Christian life. If they don't exist, let's not despair, lets consider that wild trees can become domestic and fruitful. This isn't a literary and poetic expression, it's a reality. Christianity produced the greatest change in the world. Other changes are temporary and superficial, they don't have depth. A person's heart must change, and to change, it needs a power greater than ours. We have such examples. One of them is the Apostle Paul. He was a wild tree who became fruit-bearing, influencing the whole world. Another example is St. Augustine of Hippo. He was also a wild, barren tree, but with faith in Christ, he became a tree whose fruit is savoured even today, by the whole world.
Plato likened a person to a tree; but while trees have their roots in the earth, a person has their roots in the heavens. A human is primarily a metaphysical being, a heavenly tree, since his soul is nourished by heavenly things.
Today people have become wild. Their souls are barren, they resemble the Sahara, full of cacti and thorns of malice. But take courage, my brethren. Place your hope in the Holy Spirit. I firmly believe that the most wild trees and the harshest systems and the most atheistic regimes can be transformed into fruitful trees. How, in what way? In agriculture, there is a method called grafting. With a small piece of bark or a small branch, which is called a graft, the wild olive tree is transformed into a domestic one. The spiritual graft which transforms a person, is faith in the Lord.
On this holy day, let each of us examine ourselves to see what sort of a person we are. Let us examine what sort of a family we are. What sort of a society are we? What sort of a nation are we? Perhaps we are wild trees? If we are, we need to change. A person is a mutable being, he can change. With the power of God, he can be transformed from wild to domestic, from a criminal to a prophet and a teacher of the Gospel. It is my wish that we all become fruit-bearing trees to bring forth those nine fruits; the first triad: love, joy, peace; the second triad: long-suffering, kindness, goodness; and the third triad: faith, gentleness, self-control. Let us examine ourselves. Do we have these virtues? If we don't and we are barren trees, then woe to us! What did the Lord say? Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Mt. 7:19). An axe and fire is awaiting us. The barren trees are condemned. A world-wide war, the Armageddon of humanity, will uproot everything, whether it be individuals, groups of people, or whole systems.
May the Paraclete overshadow us so that each one of us can bring forth worthy fruits in our lives; as individuals, as families and as a nation, through the prayers of the Panagia and all the saints, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
(†) Bishop Augoustinos
A transcribed sermon, which was given at the church of St. Panteleimon, Florina, Greece, on June 15th, 1981