Wednesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel Jesus warns his disciples about false prophets. In order to give some advice on how to discern the credibility of those proclaiming a message, the Lord instructs the disciples to know them by their fruits—that is, know them by the good works of faith active through love.
But, just as this adage pertains to the general conduct of one’s life, it can also give good criteria to make sense of the different movements in our interior lives and to discern what spirits are at play. When we experience a certain movement of the soul, as St. Ignatius tells us, we must observe that its beginning, its progress, and its completion are all good. In other words, we must pay attention not only to the initial idea but also to the fruit of the movements in order to recognize their true character. Just because a thought may seem like a holy idea at first does not mean that its inspiration is truly from God, particularly if it does not finish with holiness. For instance, it can seem like a holy thing to fast two days a week; but if doing this leads us to be prideful and prevents us from fulfilling our vocational duties, then the source of that movement must have been bad. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. And so, a good inspiration from God will bear good fruit in us.
If we find ourselves wondering what that good fruit looks like, St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians lists these fruits of the Holy Spirit directly: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). And so, let take some time at the end of each day to examine where these fruits arise in our souls. And, when we see an abundant harvest of these good fruits, let us be reassured that the Holy Spirit is the one at work there and that we can continue happily down that path with the grace of God leading us.