Galatians 5:13-26
Fruit of the Holy Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Matthew 26:36-46
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
There is evil and suffering in our world today...And as we read the daily headlines, it does not seem to be getting any better...But evil and suffering are not eternal things...God is...And His Son, Jesus is...Jesus teaches us the eternities...
If the world is be as God wants it to be, we need to be like His Son, Jesus...He is Completely Full of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit...Jesus possesses what St. Paul said, the entire fruit of the Spirit...And that includes love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...He is full of Grace and Truth...He is Completely Forgiving...Those who belong to Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires...And He went to the cross and died through the Garden of Gethsemane...He prayed to His Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me...Yet not as I will, but as you will...He prayed for another way, but He went and died on the cross suffering for our evil sins, following the will of His Father...Jesus came to this world and became a Man in order to spread the good news to other men and to show the kind of life He has and showed us the deeds that He would do...Jesus shows us the potential of what we are capable of if we follow the fruit of the Holy Spirit...
C. S. Lewis wrote this, “Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ...If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always existed and always will exist...Christ is the Son of God...If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God...We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us...He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has — by what I call "good infection."...Every Christian is to become a little Christ...The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”...
So for the world to be a better place, we need the fruit of the Holy Spirit attributes in our soul, as the One who came to save us has...We have to become more like little Christs...