Faithfulness Is Relationship   

The fruit of Faithfulness appears when it is evident that everything one does is an act of living out one’s personal relationship with God. And this relationship is one of faith; that is, knowledge of God as Person—Three Persons with whom one has entered into a covenant relationship. 

Faith is the gift of sharing in God’s own act of knowing himself. Jesus said, “No one knows the Father except the Son” (Matthew 11:27), because to know God as he is, you have to be God. To know the Father as Father, you have to be the Son. When he added, “and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him,” he was promising to make us sons and daughters of the Father “in the Son” by sharing with us his own divine life. 

The Christian relationship with God is the New Covenant “in the blood of Christ,” who died to give us divine Life by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:26). The Fruit of the Spirit is to act in Faithfulness to that Covenant, that relationship of divine union with God in knowledge and love. 

This is diametrically opposed to “Phariseeism,” the religion of law-observance. Faithfulness appears in those whose religion is spirituality: warm, loving, intimate interaction with God as Three Persons. It is the fruit of responsiveness to the Holy Spirit, the “bond of unity” who makes us one with the Father, Son, and Spirit, as they are One with each other. Faithfulness is a relationship made visible. 

To experience Faithfulness, focus on relationship.  

— Fr. David M. Knight

View today’s Mass readings on the USCCB website here

Easter season is the time to focus on the Holy Spirit. Starting on Easter Sunday, we will look carefully at how the Spirit is proclaimed, invoked, and presented to us in the Mass. Lex orandi, lex credendi: “As the Church prays, so she believes.”

After that, we will reflect on the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:2; Galatians 5:22), and at how the Spirit enters the life of those who believe.

As you read these reflections, ask for the gift of Understanding. Ask to really understand what you believe, what you see and hear at Mass. Go deeper into understanding the Mass than you ever have before. We experience the Faith when we become aware of its mystery. We hope you reflect deeply on the Mass and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and find yourself more and more drawn into the mysteries of our Lord in the Mass and in His Gifts.