‘This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit’ (John 15:8)

The major ‘Word of God’ retreats have just taken place, and we experienced a great deal of praise there, for praise is a fundamental aspect of the Christian life. In our prayer, we must learn to praise God – to praise Him by acknowledging His blessings in our lives, His gifts. It is so easy to become spiritually ungrateful – that is to say, to constantly complain in our prayers about what we do not have, whilst paying almost no attention to what we have already received, and thus forgetting to thank God for it. Not everything in our lives is bad; there are so many things for which we could thank Him; through prayers, gestures and so on, we can praise Him with songs of praise, perhaps whilst walking, humming a tune, or doing so whilst cleaning, cooking or carrying out a small task. These songs of praise can also help us stay connected to God throughout the day. When I learnt that I could give thanks to God in this way, it changed my prayer life.

True praise, however, is to bear fruit. Jesus says: ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’ In the world, people are sometimes honoured out of pure formality. They are showered with flattering words such as: ‘You’re magnificent, you’re wonderful.’  ‘You’re the one for this role, for this position. You deserve it.’ People bow to them repeatedly, give them broad smiles, but as soon as their backs are turned, they whisper against them and criticise them. If we are not careful, our praise will resemble this sort of behaviour. We praise God with our lips, but our behaviour and our attitude insult Him, despise Him, and sometimes even deny Him. Jesus teaches us how to praise the Father.  ‘My Father’s glory is that you bear much fruit’ (Jn 15:8). Through the way I live, I can inspire others to begin to praise God. ‘Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven’ (Mt 5:13–16).

Surely at one time or another in your life, perhaps during a retreat, you have had a very powerful experience of God; you made resolutions, realised the need to evangelise, to forgive or to perform acts of love – in short, to change; what has become of the fruits of those extraordinary experiences? Are they now nothing more than theories we know well? But which no longer influence our lives, or only very slightly? What fruits are you bearing at this moment in your life? It’s true, when you compare yourself to others, there are many reasons to think you’re better. After all, you’re not a pagan! You even do things for God which you could, in fact, list. But isn’t the time after the retreat an opportunity to ask yourself: ‘What does Jesus want me to be?’ Am I giving myself to Him in keeping with my calling? Are the fruits I bear numerous enough or ripe enough for who I am in His eyes; in relation to the talents I have received from Him? ‘To whom much is given, much will be required’.  Is your knowledge of God on a par with your practice of His Word? Jesus cannot be satisfied with you bearing 30 fruits when you are capable of bearing 100. Hence the need for us to make an effort to bear more fruit.

We often think, ‘Surely we shouldn’t go overboard! Let’s not make a big deal of it! We’re doing the best we can!’ In fact, we mustn’t go overboard – that’s true! We mustn’t go overboard in laziness, in weariness, in complacency with our current way of life, in spiritual lethargy, or in a frantic rush where we no longer give God His rightful place or time in our lives. We mustn’t go overboard in slavishly imitating others in what is wrong. We mustn’t go too far in our sin. The more we want to grow and bear fruit, the more we must seek God, and isn’t the time after the retreat a fitting moment for this, as 2 Corinthians 6:2 says? A time when I could take more seriously the resolutions I have made, the means at my disposal to grow and bear fruit; when I could take my participation in the group and in my community more seriously? When I could empty myself of this excess so that I may be filled by God?

If we do not bear fruit, our Christian life is barren; yet God does not want us to be discouraged, but to pick ourselves up again. Galatians 5:22–25 tells us: ‘But the fruit of the Holy Spirit is this: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control’. In fact, this is the fruit we must bear. Personally, when it comes to self-control, some time ago I realised I was becoming too impatient; especially when driving; whenever I came across an obstacle in my path – a cyclist, a ‘bend-skin’ who’d made a poor manoeuvre – I wouldn’t say anything, but I’d feel irritation boiling up inside me, along with inner criticisms such as: ‘Couldn’t he have done this or that? Honestly, those people… and the worst part was when I was held up by a big lorry on my way to work. It went on for a while. So I decided to fight against this kind of impatience. I now make an effort to be mindful so as not to be caught out by impatience, and when faced with obstacles, I stop and take the opportunity to say a little prayer and look at these people with love and patience; and that helps me a great deal. I also try to increase my acts of love, especially towards people from whom I don’t often feel loved. In this way, I have experienced what Saint John of the Cross said: ‘Where there is no love, put love there, and you will reap love.’ We must bear good fruit. A good tree is recognised by its fruit. Major retreats should help us to bear the fruits of love.

To bear much fruit, we must be united with Jesus: ‘Without me, you can do nothing’ (Jn 15:5). Just as a branch that is not united to the tree cannot bear fruit, so too, if you do not remain in me, you cannot bear fruit.  In our resolutions from the major retreat, a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus should take pride of place. For it is this intimate prayer that helps us to remain united to Him; this friendship that allows us to speak frankly with Him, to listen to Him telling me what truly pleases Him; otherwise I would remain there doing works that would be nothing more than works of the flesh, as explained in Galatians 5:19–21. Thus, the only way for us to bear fruit is to remain in Him. Teresa of Ávila puts it this way: ‘To pray is to converse regularly with the One who loves us’. After this great retreat, let us seek to bear much fruit by abiding with Jesus. Am I bearing much good fruit? Let us pray to the Holy Spirit.

Henri Bayemi