http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html, as of May 5, 2017); cf. Apostolicam Actuositatem (Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity), 3 (online at www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651118_apostolicam-actuositatem_en.html, as of May 5, 2017).
10 The Church teaches about three basic kinds of vocation: (1) the universal vocation to holiness; (2) state-of-life vocations (priesthood, religious, marriage, singleness); and (3) individual, personal vocations. In addition to a “state of life” vocation, many are also given individual, personal vocations. So, a married mother of two may also have been given a vocation to serve as a physician or as an artist, etc.
11 Pope St. John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis, 40.
12 Pope Pius XII, Guiding Principles of the Lay Apostolate, Second World Congress of the Lay Apostolate, October 5, 1957, emphasis added (online at https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12LAYAP.HTM, as of May 5, 2017).
13 Pope Pius XII, “Christians, Bearer of the Life of the Risen One,” Homily for Easter Sunday, 1952, Compendium on the New Evangelization (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2015), p. 14.
14 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q129, a4, Objection 3 (online at http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3129.htm, as of May 5, 2017).
15 Lewis, The Weight of Glory, p. 46.
Chapter 2
Where’s the Fruit?
“By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
John 15:8
My friend “Bill” works in a Southeastern parish that recently went through yet another pastoral turnover. Bill has been the carrier of the evangelization-and-discipleship flame in his parish for years as pastors come and go. It is common practice in his diocese for members of the priest personnel board to meet with parish leadership to get a better sense of the community before making the decision about which priest to assign as pastor.
The parish’s pastoral team — staff members, finance and pastoral council — prepped for the meeting. To help everyone focus, Bill outlined several specific areas of spiritual fruit that had emerged in their parish. Everyone was encouraged to pick one area and share a story that showed how their parish was moving from maintenance to mission.
As the parish leaders told their stories to the visiting board members, many were in tears. One woman talked about how she had once only felt capable of volunteering to make sandwiches for the homeless. After growing significantly in her relationship with Jesus, she felt called by Jesus to confront the city about opening a homeless shelter.
Another man told the story of some people visiting the parish who felt the Holy Spirit descend on them when they stepped onto the parish grounds. The visitors sensed that God was asking them to move to the parish from another state because of what he desired to do there. Others talked about how they were no longer afraid to have spiritual conversations with family members and strangers. Many talked about how the community needed to go out of the parish and learn how to better proclaim Jesus.
One person reported hearing from Protestant friends who said, “They have their eye on us.” Another individual shared how she had left the Church and was hurt and upset with the Church. She attended Mass at the parish and was welcomed in an extraordinary way. As a result, she underwent a conversion, was discipled in the parish, and is now a staff member.
The stories went on and on. One of the visiting board members openly wept and said that she felt like she had just been on a retreat experience. Bill told me afterward that he did not have to say a single word.
Toward A Culture of Discipleship
Bill’s story shows the remarkable changes that a parish and its people can experience when there are many disciples, and as a result, the culture of the whole parish changes. Significant fruit, even amazing fruit, is borne. People can’t help but recognize the change.
I couldn’t hide my own surprise a few years ago in front of the leaders of a parish in another part of the county who were also experiencing an extraordinary amount of fruit. I had to tell them: “You do realize this is not normal, right? We have worked in hundreds of parishes and this is not normal.”
Their response was perfect: “It’s normal here.”
A Little Theology of Fruit-Bearing
When embarking on a journey, it is extremely useful to consult a map in advance. Think of this chapter as a very brief introduction, a Catholic map of fruit-bearing.
Theology is the exploration of God’s self-revelation, without which we could not know God. But what the Church calls God’s “economy” refers “to all the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life” to humanity in time and space (CCC 236). God’s economy is about subjective, or applied, redemption — that is, how God’s grace pours into our world and changes our individual lives, families, neighborhoods, parish communities, and whole cities. In the economy of God, when we walk obediently with Jesus as his disciple in the midst of his Church, you and I gradually become God’s “handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared” (Ephesians 2:10) and through which he reveals himself and communicates his life to the world. We become fruit.
In John 15, “fruit” (Greek: karpos) as a metaphor refers to a “deed, action, result, profit, or gain.”1 In other words, it is something real and concrete that most ordinary people can recognize as good or bad. The word “fruit” in Catholic Tradition is used to refer to a spectrum of related but different things:
1. The interior spiritual consolations that a person may experience as he or she follows Jesus as a disciple.
2. Fruits of the Spirit. Catholic Tradition follows the Vulgate (St. Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible) in listing twelve fruits: attributes or characteristics of the Christian life: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity.2
3. All personal internal and external acts of obedience and cooperation with grace.
4. What God accomplishes or offers others through our acts of obedience (the fruit of our fruit, so to speak).
(It is important to note that the impact of God’s provision made available to others through our acts of obedience depends also upon the spiritual openness of the one receiving it and that person’s response. The recipient has to choose to cooperate with the grace received through your obedience.
So, for instance, if a Christian author obeys the Holy Spirit’s prompting and writes a book urging people to help the homeless, that book is a fruit of her obedience. But, for her obedience through that book to fully bear fruit, somebody else has to read it and respond to the call of the Holy Spirit by actually taking action to help the homeless. The fruit of another’s response to the graces channeled through our “yes” can affect many lives. The fruit of the fruit of our fruit cascades out and touches many, including people we will never know.)
5. The person that you and I become through this lifelong process of cooperating with God’s love and grace is also fruit; the “everlasting splendor” that