Holy Spirit's first fruits Love and Joy

FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER Saturday Mass Introduction. This week we are immersed in the Media of the National Elections. The talk is of the hung Parliament, the swings of balances, and the whole aim for the solution to the deficit in the crisis of finances. Political disarray and uncertainties worry. The Scriptures say, “Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number”. (Acts 16: 1-10). As we prepare to off the Holy Mass worthily, we pray for the Country in the presence of God. In our sense of the state of the political disarray we pray: Heavenly, Father hear us, and grant the Holy Spirit’s first of the fruits of love and joy. Through Christ, Our Lord. The reading speaks of, “The fruits of the Spirit says Scripture, are love and joy”. Second Reading From The Life in Christ by Nicholas Cabasilas (Lib. 2: PG 150, 561) In this reading Cabasilas meditates on two of the fruits of the Spirit, love and joy, and explains why we can never be fully satisfied by the good things of this life. God wishes to be the sole object of our love and source of our joy. The soul's resting place is Christ, for he alone is goodness and truth and all that is lovable. Therefore nothing prevents those who rest in him from loving with all the love which he placed in their souls in the beginning, or from rejoicing to the full extent of their natural capacity, which is increased by virtue and the waters of rebirth. We cannot love or rejoice in the good things of this life, which are falsely so-called, for if anything does seem good it is only a poor image of what is genuinely good. But in Christ nothing prevents us from showing a love wonderful beyond description, and a joy no words can express. This is because God has ordained that each of these emotions should be directed toward himself, so that we should love and rejoice in him alone. And it follows from this, I think, that because the object of these emotions is the infinite Good, our love and joy are proportionate to that infinity and commensurate with it Let us consider the greatness of this love and the proof of its excellence. In return for all his goodness to us God requires only our love. If he receives this from us he cancels our debt If the divine Judge regards love as balancing innumerable blessings, what doubt can there be of its surpassing excellence? But it is clear that the plenitude of love is fully matched by the plenitude of joy. Joy corresponds in every way to love, and the fullness of the one follows from the fullness of the other. It can be seen, then, that the human soul has a great and wonderful capacity for love and joy, and that this is experienced most fully in the presence of the beloved who is the true beauty. This is the joy the Savior calls perfect. And so when the Spirit comes to dwell in us, bringing his fruits, the first to appear are love and joy. The fruits of the Spirit says Scripture, are love and joy. This is because the first thing God does when he comes to us is to make us aware of his presence, and anyone aware of the presence of the supreme Good cannot fail to love and rejoice. Responsory Matthew 22:37; Galatians 5:22 This is the first and the greatest commandment: - You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. with all your soul, and with all your mind, alleluia. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control - You shall love ...