Fruits of Life?

[DPMartin]

Just what are the fruits of life? How is it that the Lord is pleased in His descriptions of trees, and also displeased as in some of the things He said using trees?

Could the clue be in this?

Mk:8:23: And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.
24: And he looked up, and said,** I see men as trees, walking**.
25: After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.

 

[JRKH]

I don’t see a particular connection.

The Fruits of Life, are what we produce. If good fruit then this leads to salvation, if bad fruit…well - no salvation.

Peace
James

 

[Lancer]

Two items for your consideration…hope these are helpful…focus on what you are asking.
Pax Christi

Catechism of the Catholic Church

III. THE GIFTS AND FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

1830 The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

1831 The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David.109 They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.

Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.110
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God . . . If children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.111

1832 The** fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve** of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."112

scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

POPULORUM PROGRESSIO

[progressive development of peoples]

ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PAUL VI
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLES

MARCH 26, 1967

Personal Responsibility

1. In God’s plan, every man is born to seek self-fulfillment, for every human life is called to some task by God. At birth a human being possesses certain aptitudes and abilities in germinal form, and these qualities are to be cultivated so that they may bear fruit. By developing these traits through formal education of personal effort, the individual works his way toward the goal set for him by the Creator.

Endowed with intellect and free will, each man is responsible for his self-fulfillment even as he is for his salvation. He is helped, and sometimes hindered, by his teachers and those around him; yet whatever be the outside influences exerted on him, he is the chief architect of his own success or failure. Utilizing only his talent and willpower, each man can grow in humanity, enhance his personal worth, and perfect himself.

Man’s Supernatural Destiny

1. Self-development, however, is not left up to man’s option. Just as the whole of creation is ordered toward its Creator, so too the rational creature should of his own accord direct his life to God, the first truth and the highest good. Thus human self-fulfillment may be said to sum up our obligations.

Moreover, this harmonious integration of our human nature, carried through by personal effort and responsible activity, is destined for a higher state of perfection. United with the life-giving Christ, man’s life is newly enhanced; it acquires a transcendent humanism which surpasses its nature and bestows new fullness of life. This is the highest goal of human self-fulfillment.
vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_26031967_populorum_en.html

 

[Earnest_Bunbury]

In Mark 8:24 the man began to see and then saw better, which the Haydock Bible commentary puts as meaning the progressive spiritual sight given by God over time as we cooperate with His Grace. I have bad eyesight, nearsightedness, and without glasses people look fuzzy like trees.

Fruits of life are merits we gain by this cooperation with God’s Grace, like the reward spoken of in the Bible:

…reward is with the Lord" (Wisdom 5:16). “Be not afraid to be justified even to death: for the reward of God continueth for ever” (Ecclus., xviii, 22). Christ Himself adds a special reward to each of the Eight Beatitudes and he ends with this fundamental thought: “Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven” (Matthew 5:12) In His description of the Last Judgment, He makes the possession of eternal bliss depend on the practice of the corporal works of mercy (Matthew 25:34 sqq.). Although St. Paul insists on nothing more strongly than the absolute gratuitousness of Christian grace, still he acknowledges merits founded on grace and also the reward due to them on the part of God, which he variously calls “prize” (Philippians 3:14; 1 Corinthians 9:24) “reward” (Colossians 3:24; 1 Corinthians 3:8), “crown of justice” (2 Timothy 4:7 sq.; cf. James 1:12). It is worthy of note that, in these and many others good works are not represented as mere adjuncts of justifying faith, but as real fruits of justification and part causes of our eternal happiness. And the greater the merit, the greater will be the reward in heaven (cf. Matthew 16:27; 1 Corinthians 3:8; 2 Corinthians 9:6).

Fruits of life are merits we gain by cooperation with His Grace in the virtues, both natural and infused by God, because Catholicism sees justification and sanctification not as a covering but as an interior perfecting that we can accept (with God’s actual grace which is available due to the Merit of Jesus’ death and resurrection) or refuse by rejecting this grace. It is the good we do for others and for ourselves with the right disposition, the right intention, and with the Spirit of God in us given at Baptism. We see the action of the Holy Spirit in us by the Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit shown in Lancer’s post.

The action of Jesus in using material such as spit, mud, water, etc. to confer grace on the mam in Mark 8:24 as well as John 9:7 to be able to see is the same grace given in the Sacraments of the Church, they convey the grace that they signify. Accepting these graces is also a fruit of life as it too has merit in the Eyes of God.

 

[DPMartin]

In Mark 8:24 the man began to see and then saw better, which the Haydock Bible commentary puts as meaning the progressive spiritual sight given by God over time as we cooperate with His Grace. I have bad eyesight, nearsightedness, and without glasses people look fuzzy like trees.

Fruits of life are merits we gain by this cooperation with God’s Grace, like the reward spoken of in the Bible:

Fruits of life are merits we gain by cooperation with His Grace in the virtues, both natural and infused by God, because Catholicism sees justification and sanctification not as a covering but as an interior perfecting that we can accept (with God’s actual grace which is available due to the Merit of Jesus’ death and resurrection) or refuse by rejecting this grace. It is the good we do for others and for ourselves with the right disposition, the right intention, and with the Spirit of God in us given at Baptism. We see the action of the Holy Spirit in us by the Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit shown in Lancer’s post.

The action of Jesus in using material such as spit, mud, water, etc. to confer grace on the mam in Mark 8:24 as well as John 9:7 to be able to see is the same grace given in the Sacraments of the Church, they convey the grace that they signify. Accepting these graces is also a fruit of life as it too has merit in the Eyes of God.

Earnest Bunbury
thanks for the reply

I don’t know that it is wise to think its all about our acceptance of God or even the things of God. God need not our acceptance in order for Him to be who He is, nor what He is, nor where ever He wants to be in His Domain of His Creation. I do believe that it is His Choice, of which He has demonstrated through out the Bible.

Because Catholicism sees justification and sanctification not as a covering but as an interior perfecting that we can accept, maybe why Catholic’s view acceptance of God as a patting on their own backs, hence their own merit, of themselves. God’s acceptance of you into His Presence and you still live, is His Choice to do.

Fruits of Life are of the source of Life, of which man is not, the source of Life. Therefore if a man take credit that he bear fruit of himself surly he would be in error already.