When I start reading what St. Paul has to say about the Holy Spirit, I soon get to thinking about pie.
Why’s that, you ask? Because there’s a lot of talk about fruit and filling. (Yeah, no one else laughs at that either…).
St. Paul had a lot to say about the Holy Spirit – the Spirit’s function in the life of the church, the gifts, or charisms, given to us by the Spirit, the way the more charismatic of the charisms should be lived out in worship and community, and the fruit and the filling ("Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit..." Ephesians 5:18). He said he accompanied his proclamation of the Good News of restoration in Christ with signs of the power we're given as heirs of the Gospel. As he wrote to the church in Corinth, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (I Corinthians 2:4-5)
It is the Spirit’s power that makes our message and our ministry effective at opening hearts and making peace and calling forth justice. Beyond power in the moment, though, the Spirit also equips us with the gifts and characteristics we need as saints of the Living God. There are personality traits that Paul called “the fruit of the Spirit”: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23a).
Human beings are capable of such attributes without God, I’m sure – but not often, and rarely in a sustained manner. When we truly allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and transform us, we find ourselves manifesting these fruits in a way that surprises us and the people around us. We can tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and Prozac when someone who's always been downcast becomes a person of joy. Likewise, when someone known for her temper develops forbearance, you know God must be up to something.
What if we were to make a list of these “fruits” Paul names, and add things we feel are missing, like humility. Then we can do an inventory noting the levels of each of these we feel we possess – give it a number or fill in a circle with a rough percentage. Have you experienced more of any of these since you became more conscious about following Christ? Which are the attributes you particularly crave? We could revisit the list periodically, check our "levels."
I believe God desires that each of us experience this fruit. And I don’t think we get the fruit without the filling. And one way we get Spirit-filled, allowing God to sow the seeds of these traits in us, is to intentionally invite the Spirit to take up residence in us. That prayer is as simple as “Come, Holy Spirit!” It is a prayer I utter frequently before and during worship, and at other times when I realize I’m trying to do something on my own, or when my spirits are low. If we could get to the point where that prayer rose up in us all through the day, as well as spending lengthier times of quiet just bathing in the Spirit’s love and peace, I think we’d find ourselves both filled and fruitful.
In my experience, the Spirit is an eager guest, but one who awaits our invitation. She does not insist or break down the door. He doesn’t even knock all that hard, just is happy when we say, “Oh, I forgot you were there. Please come in... Want some pie?”
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