The Following of Jesus

FOLLOWING JESUS – ACCORDING TO THE LETTER OR THE SPIRIT If one were searching for a single formula to determine who is Christian and who isn’t, one might look at the Epistle to the Galatians, Chapter 5. In it, St. Paul tells us that we can live according to either the spirit of the flesh or the Holy Spirit. We live according to the spirit of the flesh when we live in anger, bitterness, and judgment of our neighbor, factionalism, and non-forgiveness.  When these things characterize our lives we shouldn’t delude ourselves and think that we are living inside of the Holy Spirit. Conversely, we live inside of the Holy Spirit when our lives are characterized by charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, longsuffering, constancy, faith, gentleness, and chastity. If these do not characterize our lives, we should not nurse the illusion that we are inside of God’s Spirit, irrespective of our passion for truth, dogma, or justice. This may be a cruel thing to say, and perhaps more cruel not to say, but I sometimes see more charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, and gentleness among persons who are Unitarian, New Age, or Baha’i (and are often judged by other churches as being wishy-washy and as not standing for anything) than I see among those of us who do stand up so strongly for certain ecclesial and moral issues but are often mean-spirited and bitter inside of our convictions. Given the choice of whom I’d like as a neighbor or, more deeply, the choice of whom I want to spend eternity with, I am sometimes pretty conflicted about the choice: Who is my real faith companion?  The angry zealot at war for Jesus or cause?  Or the more gentle soul who is branded wishy-washy or “new age”? At the end of the day, who is the real Christian? (Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI)