Galatians 5:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Why, then, does he call good works the fruit of the Spirit? Since evil works come from us alone, he calls them works. But good works require not only our effort, but also the love for mankind of God. Then, listing the good works, he first places their root, saying, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, mercy, faith."

Such and even greater blessings have been granted to us on this present day. Therefore I exhort you: let us celebrate in a manner worthy of the blessings granted to us. Let us not place wreaths on the gates, but adorn our souls. Let us not decorate the marketplace with coverings, but illumine the soul with the garments of virtues.

Thus we shall be able both to receive the grace of the Spirit and to gather the fruits that come from Him. What are the fruits of the Spirit? Let us hear Paul, who says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace" (Gal 5:22).

Observe the precision of his words and the sequence of his teaching. First he placed love, and afterward he mentioned what follows. He laid down the root and then showed the fruit. He established the foundation and then raised the building. He began with the spring and then passed to the streams.

The foundation of joy cannot be laid before we first consider the prosperity of others as our own and receive our neighbor's good things as our own. This cannot happen unless the power of love prevails in us. Love is the root, spring, and mother of every good thing.

Indeed, like a root, it brings forth innumerable branches of virtues. Like a spring, it produces many streams. Like a mother, it embraces in its bosom those who run to it. Knowing this, blessed Paul called it the fruit of the Spirit. Elsewhere he assigned to it such preeminence that he even called it the fulfillment of the Law.

"Love," he says, "is the fulfillment of the Law" (Rom 13:10). The Master of all, as a sure sign and trustworthy mark of His disciples, set before us nothing other than love, saying, "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love among yourselves" (Jn 13:35).

If we make ourselves dead to these passions so that they cannot act in us, we shall receive the fruits of the Spirit. These are "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, continence" (Gal 5:22-23).

In this the Christian must differ from the unbeliever. In this our distinguishing marks must consist, so that we do not glory only in the name or exalt ourselves in outward appearance. On the contrary, even if we possessed all the listed fruits of the Spirit, we should not be proud, but humble ourselves still more.

The timid and fearful apostles, after receiving the Spirit, rushed into the midst of dangers. Without fear they went against iron, fire, beasts, the sea's abyss, and every torture. Unlearned and simple men, they spoke with such boldness that they amazed their hearers.

From clay vessels the Spirit made them iron. He gave them wings and did not allow them to fall into any human weakness. Such is the grace of the Spirit. If it finds sorrow, it destroys it. If it finds evil desire, it eradicates it. If it finds fear, it drives it out.

The one counted worthy of it, it no longer allows to be merely a man. As though transferring him to heaven itself, it disposes him to think only of heavenly things. Therefore "no one said that any of his possessions was his own." They continued constantly in prayers, "with gladness and simplicity of heart" (Acts 4:32; Acts 2:46).

This is what the Holy Spirit especially requires: "the fruit of the Spirit is joy, peace, faith, meekness" (Gal 5:22-23). Yet, you say, people filled with the Spirit are often sorrowful. But this sorrow is sweeter than joy. Cain also sorrowed, but with worldly sorrow. Paul also sorrowed, but with sorrow according to God.

Everything spiritual brings the greatest benefit, just as everything worldly brings extreme harm. Let us therefore draw to ourselves the unconquerable help of the Spirit through fulfilling the commandments. Then we shall be in no way inferior to the angels.

They are what they are not because they are bodiless. Otherwise none of the bodiless beings would be evil. Everywhere the cause of everything is free choice. Therefore among the bodiless there were some worse than men and even than irrational creatures. Among those clothed in flesh there were some better than the bodiless.

Thus all the righteous, although they lived on earth and had a body, accomplished great deeds. On earth they lived as sojourners and strangers, but in heaven as citizens. Do not say, then, 'I am clothed in flesh. I cannot overcome it. I cannot undertake the labors of virtue.'

Do not accuse the Creator. If virtue becomes impossible for us because we bear flesh, then we are no longer guilty. But the choir of saints proves that virtue is not made impossible by this. The fleshly nature did not prevent Paul from becoming what he was. It did not prevent Peter from receiving the keys of heaven.

Enoch, while in the flesh, "was translated and was not found" (Heb 11:5). Elijah likewise was taken up with the flesh. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob shone while clothed in flesh. Joseph also, in the flesh, withstood that wanton woman.

And why do I speak of the flesh? Even if you placed chains upon the flesh, there would still be no harm. 'I am in chains,' says Paul, 'but the word of God is not chained' (2 Tim 2:9). And why do I speak of fetters and chains? Add prison and confinement, and all this will be no hindrance to virtue.

This is exactly what Paul taught. Chains for the soul are not iron, but slavish fear, love of possessions, and countless passions. These bind, even if the body is free. But you say, passions are born from the body. This is an empty excuse and a worthless pretext.

If these passions were truly born from the body, all would be subject to them. As no one can escape fatigue, sleep, hunger, and thirst, because these are natural, so no one would escape subjection to passions if they were natural. But since many escape them, it is clear that such defects are born from the soul's negligence.

Let us therefore cut off negligence and not accuse the body. Let us subject it to the soul, so that, having it obedient, we may attain eternal blessings by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto ages of ages. Amen.

Therefore, if we desire to enjoy joy, let us avoid vice above all else and follow virtue. Otherwise it is impossible to attain joy, even if we ascend the king's throne. Therefore Paul said, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace" (Gal 5:22).

Let us cultivate this fruit within ourselves, so that here we may enjoy joy and attain the future Kingdom, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

From love and joy he also enjoys peace of soul, because he is not troubled by thoughts or by outsiders. If he seems to show enmity toward someone, he does not war against the people themselves, but against their vices.

He loves them as brothers. He shows this enmity for their benefit, so that they may be corrected.

“Longsuffering, kindness, mercy, faith.”

According to Scripture, longsuffering seems to differ from meekness in this way. After long reflection, not hastily but slowly, the longsuffering man assigns a fitting punishment to the sinner. The meek man forgives altogether.

For example, Moses, who forgave Miriam and Aaron, was called meek above all those living on the earth (Num 12).

Kindness is something more general than mercy, άγαθοδύνη. The Lord is kind to all in general, but mercy benefits only the worthy, according to the saying: “Do good, O Lord, to the good” (Ps 124:4).

Concerning faith, he does not speak of simple faith, but of that which moves mountains. It believes without doubt that what is impossible for men is possible for God.

At the head of carnal vices Paul placed adultery (Gal 5:19). At the head of spiritual virtues he placed love. Will this not compel anyone who undertakes the study of divine Scripture to consider the rest also?

Adultery is love torn away from lawful marriage and seeking everywhere the satisfaction of its lust. But nothing is joined spiritually so lawfully as the soul with God. The more firmly it is joined, the more pure it becomes. For it is joined in love.

Therefore love is rightly opposed to adultery, for only love preserves purity. All uncleanness consists in impulses born of adultery, and to these is opposed the joy of serenity.

The worship of idols is the extreme adultery of the soul, when a most savage war is waged against the Gospel and against those reconciled to God. The ashes of adultery, though long only smoldering, can still burst into flame.

Opposed to this is peace, by which we are reconciled to God. When the same peace comes to men, we are healed of the vices of sorcery, hostility, contentiousness, zeal, stubbornness, and quarrelsomeness. Then we deal with those among whom we live in a restrained manner.

Longsuffering teaches us to endure such vices, kindness to heal them, and goodness to forgive them. Faith fights against heresy, meekness against envy, and self-control against drunkenness and revelry.

By this we should understand every possible good work. For he says, “against such,” that is, against these and against any like them.

And let us not think that peace is limited to the case when we do not quarrel with another person. No, the peace of Christ, that is, our inheritance, is with us when a tranquil mind is disturbed by no passions.

Stoicism was a Greco-Roman philosophical school, from the third century before Christ to the second century after Christ. It was distinguished by strict ethics and had a strong influence on a number of early Christian writers. See v. 23.

After this, even if he wants to turn to God and live virtuously, evil habits do not give him full freedom. They place every obstacle in his way.

Therefore, for such a man, the labors of piety are for the most part heavy and, for a time, without joy. This is because his hope is uncertain and evil habits resist him.

But after receiving it mystically, each person who does not fulfill the commandments comes under the action of sin according to the measure of his neglect. Having received power to act, he is at fault because through carelessness he does not perform the works.

Whether quickly or slowly, if we desire to be perfect, we must believe Christ completely and fulfill all His commandments, having received from Him the power for such a work.

As much as we fulfill God’s commandments in faith, so much does the Holy Spirit produce His fruits in us. According to St. Paul, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, and self-control (Gal 5:22).

There are three noetic places into which the intellect enters as it changes within itself: the natural, the supernatural, and the unnatural.

When it enters its natural place, it finds itself to be the author of evil thoughts and the cause of the passions, and it confesses its sins to God.

When it is in the unnatural place, it forgets the righteousness of God and wars against men, as though they wronged it unjustly.

But when it is raised to the supernatural place, it finds within itself the fruits of the Holy Spirit indicated by the Apostle, “love, joy, peace,” and so forth (Gal 5:22).

It knows that if it prefers bodily cares, it cannot remain there. Having gone out from there, it falls into sin and into the grievous accidents that follow it. This may not happen immediately, but in its own time, as the righteousness of God knows.

Therefore, when someone abstains from sin, it is not he who abstains. This is the fruit of the Spirit, which is self-control.

Let the self-controlled man not think that the self-control he keeps is the work of his own strength. It is the work of the grace of Christ.

Through the Holy Spirit, Christ gives self-control to those who first desired to be freed from the passions and delivered from sin. They began to resist sin, yet were always conquered by it through their weakness and weighed down by it.

To such people, I say, Christ grants self-control. By the self-control through which they now abstain from every sin, they may know from what great evil they have been delivered.

And when the very movement toward evil, that is, sympathy with it, has been taken from them, they may humbly glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sent Him for the deliverance of His people.

Since love is indicated first among the works of the spirit, blessed Jerome exclaims: “What virtue should fittingly hold first place among the fruits of the spirit, if not love? Without it the other virtues are not counted as virtues, and from it all good things are born. In both the law and the Gospel, primacy is given to it” (see Deut 6:5; Mt 22:37).

And St. John Chrysostom says: “Who can teach one who has everything within himself, and has love as the most perfect teacher of wisdom?

“As gentle horses, which do everything of themselves, have no need of the whip, so the soul that does good by the action of the Spirit has no need of the prescriptions of the law.

“Thus the Apostle here also rejects the law with marvelous wisdom. He does this not because it is bad, but because it is lower than the wisdom given by the Spirit.”

What do we have that we have not received from the hand of faith? What we believe, that shall be. We believe, and we can move mountains. We do not believe, and not one iota will pass. Lazarus believed and was raised from the dead. Judas did not believe and could not avoid losing his life.

The believer does not need the aids of nature. Without faith, every action of nature is useless. The breadth of faith cannot easily be grasped. It is not confined within the narrow limits of a dead concept of the Godhead and human nature. For such an ark, embracing all the mysteries of God, even the broad minds of the heavenly beings above are not sufficient.

Let us proceed further and further, but only with the eye of God, not by the steps of men. The inward beauty of faith is fair. The highest and most excellent gifts do not always prove that a man is a Christian and pleasing to God. For the Kingdom is not in word (1 Cor 4:20).

To turn a rod, to pass through the sea, to draw water from the rock, and to speak with fiery tongues are acts of God, but not always acts of His good pleasure. They are of God, but the Lord is not in the fire. They are of God, but do not rejoice in this. Remember also that Miriam was a prophetess, Saul was a prophet, and Balaam spoke a parable.

Faith may be likened to a beautiful tree enriched with marvelous fruits. These fruits are so unique that one who has tasted them can say only this: they grew from incorruptible seed in the fields of heavenly Eden, and were prepared by the right hand of the Most High.

"The spiritual fruit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, continence" (Gal 5:22-23). Let us consider why these fruits are called spiritual.

Love is a turtledove, a hen, an eagle, the Spirit who hovered above the water. It sighs with those who sigh, like a turtledove. It calls together the little chicks of scant understanding, like a hen. It rises on high to God, like an eagle. It orders all things well in the likeness of God.

Love possesses God and is also mistress of all human things. Everything belongs to it. It rejoices over every happiness as over its own. It grieves over every misfortune as over its own. Behold the first fruit of faith.

Do you think that unbelievers love anyone? They love neither God, nor the world, nor men, nor themselves. They do love the world, but in such a way that through this they hate themselves. They love themselves, but in order to destroy themselves. They love others, but only those who love them.

Innocent love looked down from heaven. The Pre-eternal One, suffering on Golgotha and thirsting for the forgiveness of sins for His crucifiers, is the first and only teacher of the science of love. The spiritual fruit is love.

Joy is the blessed calm of conscience that comes from the appeased, reconciled Godhead. The unbeliever has never felt joy in his heart. 'Cursed is everyone who does not abide in all things written in the Law' (Gal 3:10). What calm can there be for the cursed? What joy for the lost?

Perhaps they do rejoice, but not with their own joy. Smiling fortune, the applause of flatterers, and the blessing of those around them are another's joy. We have seen Romans enraptured by victories. Yet to look indifferently at corpses, and to be enraptured by rivers of blood and by kings drawing chariots, is to surrender to inhuman frenzy, not to joy.

Only those who have seen Jesus, and who rejoice with great joy that none of those entrusted to Him was lost except the son of perdition, learn how one ought to rejoice. The spiritual fruit is joy.

To do nothing, say nothing, and think nothing contrary to the statutes of the God-man is what a peaceful heart means. Is this how the impious live without faith? There is no peace in the impious, and no peace from the impious. It comes from the grace-filled upper room of Zion, where true divine peace was first proclaimed by heavenly lips. The spiritual fruit is peace.

Longsuffering is a uniform abiding in belief in what is worthy of all acceptance, and in love for what most worthily attracts our love. The sons of nature are not so. The favor of fortune puffs up their minds, and slight adversity brings them to despair.

From where could longsuffering come to them? They have not seen the Suffering One on Golgotha. They have not asked about His lineage, rank, and power. They did not know that there were two crosses there. On one, suffering was borne for sinners. On the other, sinners being saved suffered. From Golgotha came forth the law of longsuffering. The spiritual fruit is longsuffering.

A heart that willingly desires to give itself for the true benefit of mankind is a good heart. 'I do not wish to save myself without saving my countrymen,' Moses cries (cf. Ex 32:32), and Paul repeats (cf. Rom 9:3). Such a well-disposed heart belongs only to Moseses and Pauls, because they saw the Good One, listened to what is good, and always abode in Him who does good.

Yet one may say without doubt that among the patriots who build, enrich, and exalt such populous societies of the nations, there has not been and will not be such a creative right hand. Autumn trees, twice dead, are not clothed with leaves and are not adorned with fruits. Waterless clouds do not pour out life-giving rain. In traitors there is no soul that gives good. The spiritual fruit is goodness.

A soul that quietly touches the wounds of the suffering, pouring wine and oil upon stinking sores, is a merciful soul. The Levite who turned away from the sufferer and the Samaritan who poured wine and oil upon his wounds presented two different pictures, compassion and hardness toward man.

Why did the Levite pass by? Because he did not know what to do with the sufferer. He had not seen the Samaritan pouring healing oil. This Samaritan is that very heavenly Physician, who out of His own tender mercy came down to the suffering world, sick and stretched across the whole earth. He healed multitudes of incurable diseases by the anointing of His priceless Blood.

Before His coming, who was there to show mercy? The sons of men were hard of heart (cf. Ps 4:3), without feeling, stiff-necked, and did not look upon the unfortunate one being consumed. All suffer at the same time in one infirmary, and therefore, it seems, they ought to suffer with one another.

Yet everyone, by inhuman forgetfulness of others, wishes to show that he himself has been healed. Hard of heart are the sons of men. The spiritual fruit is mercy.

To uphold all things by the word of His power and to be lifted up on the tree of Golgotha is a wondrous example of inimitable, incomprehensible, and directly divine condescension. But let us draw back from the unapproachable. It is enough for the meek human soul, which sketches within itself Jesus, the sufferer from above, to forget the divinity promised by the ancient serpent, and to remember continually that it is naked, blind, and poor.

The sons of the giants, groaning under the waters of the flood, did not think so. The Most High covers the earth with the sea, while they build hundred-gated Babylon. The Most High takes up arms, and the lower one takes up a shield. The Heavenly One shows wrath, and the earthly one resists.

They do not know meekness, because they had no one from whom to learn it. Their leader, Lucifer, the heavenly exile, arms himself against the Almighty. Their forefather, the firstborn of Adam and disciple of the morning star, raised murderous hands against his brother of the same womb. Their second leader, Nimrod, attempted to renew the ancient warfare of Satan.

I do not wish to speak of foxlike humility, which is harsher and more dangerous than the wildest violence. But to learn humble-minded meekness, forgetful of one's own good qualities, one must go by another road. Go down into Judea. Enter the praetorium. Look upon Him who is questioned there by Pilate. Listen to how He answers the lawless voice. Otherwise, how can we depict its beauty, never having seen it? The spiritual fruit is meekness.

A spirit that reigns as master in its own house, safely ruling the unbridled crowd of its companion's desires, is a continent spirit. This virtue too is a branch from the tree above. Before this tree sprang up, there were no such fruits in the universe.

We remember that the son of Sophroniscus also taught men to forget the body. He taught as a rational man, but not rationally. What master of a house, while caring for the inhabitants, will not care for the dwelling itself? They also report that the pupils of Lycurgus lived in a way almost inhuman toward themselves. But this was in order to become accustomed to inhumanity committed against others.

O continence! Beginning with those who tasted the forbidden fruit, there had not yet been a continent man. Moses did not begin to fast until, with the sharp eyes of grace, he saw several centuries beforehand in the Judean wilderness the Son of Mary not tasting food for forty days (cf. Ex 34). The spiritual fruit is continence.

The fruits of the Spirit are spiritual fruits. Without faith itself there would have been no fruits. These wonderworking fruits were the only, sweetest, and incorruptible food of this struggler of God, Sergius, now triumphing in the garden of paradise and exalted in the earthly dwellings.

He knew that natural food is changed into the flesh of the one who eats, but that divine manna transforms the one who partakes of it into the divine nature. He believed, because faith moves mountains. He loved, because God is love. He rejoiced, because in God there is no darkness at all.

He loved peace, because Christ is our peace. He was longsuffering, because he saw patience upon the head of God. He showed mercy, because he was saved by mercy. He was meek, because he was informed that rivers of grace flow downward, not upward. He was continent, because he was wholly possessed by God.

Behold the path set before the faithful. Behold the path. Let us walk in it. Amen.

When grace descends within us and gives life to our spirit, all dispositions and aspirations akin to it are set in motion. Yet they do not at once come into strength. They are cultivated by labors of action according to the attraction of the spirit. For rejected selfhood, with the army of its passions, stands there opposing them face to face, and hinders their free outpouring.

Against each good disposition there is its own passion. As the passion is slain, the good disposition arises. The same thing happens as when a man frees himself from a swamp or from clinging grasses that have fastened around him. He frees one hand, then the other, one foot, then the other.

So it is with the Christian and the passions. Through struggle with himself, and through ascetic labors, he cleanses one good disposition after another from the passions, until he has cleansed them all. Then they appear in their proper fullness, strength, and beauty.

Without labor and ascetic struggle, this cannot be attained. Yet labor and sweat by themselves give nothing firm and lasting. The desire, the seeking, and the labor are ours. The fruit is secretly produced in the heart by the Spirit of God, under the covering of our labor, which in itself is fruitless.

For example, an angry man struggles with himself and seeks meekness. But the meekness itself is cultivated and strengthened in the heart by the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is why Saint Paul heads this list of good dispositions in this way: 'The spiritual fruit is.' In Greek, 'spiritual' is πνευματος, of the Spirit, that is, the fruit of the Spirit.

Saint Chrysostom says: 'Evil works arise from us alone. Therefore the Apostle calls them works of the flesh. But good dispositions require not only our effort, but also the love for mankind of God,' that is, the grace of the Spirit. 'For with the cooperation of the Spirit, the soul advances in each of these works,' says blessed Theodoret.

All our commentators say the same. In listing the very excellences with which the Spirit adorns the heart of the faithful Christian, the Apostle does not place them in direct correspondence with the passions and desires listed above. Yet here too there are two kinds, as there.

Against irritation and its offspring the Apostle sets several benevolent dispositions. Against all the works of desire, he sets one virtue, continence. Our commentators do not enter into a detailed examination of these virtues. Only blessed Jerome makes several remarks on each.

Love. As all passions come from self-love, which draws everything toward itself, so all good dispositions come from love. Love has trampled down selfhood and is ready to sacrifice everything for the good of others, without thinking of itself.

'What virtue could more fittingly hold first place among the fruits of the Spirit than love? Without it, the other virtues are not counted as virtues, and from it all good things are born. In the Law and in the Gospel the chief place is given to it: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself' (cf. Deut 6:5; Mt 22:37, 39), says blessed Jerome.

Saint Paul, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, says that without love everything is nothing. Then he describes the works of love thus: 'Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not boast, is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil. It does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails' (cf. 1 Cor 13:4-8).

All the following virtues indicate only various sides of love. Joy. This is certainly joy in the Holy Spirit, in the order of spiritual life. For there is no joy for the impious (cf. Isa 57:21). Ordinary joy comes from receiving earthly goods. Spiritual joy comes from sensing well-being in the spirit.

As the feeling of health is inseparable from the healthy man, so spiritual joy is inseparable from one who lives by the spirit and does not fulfill fleshly desires. This is the joy of one saved, who sees clearly that he has escaped destruction. It cannot be inflated. It is born of itself and abides.

The Apostle's command, 'Rejoice always' (1 Thess 5:16), may be even more a sign that, if you do not rejoice, you do not stand in the proper order. According to Palladius of Helenopolis in the Lausiac History, in the monastery of Abba Apollo there were up to five hundred brethren. They all always rejoiced, despite the great privations of the desert.

They rejoiced with such joy that no one on earth can point to bodily joy and gladness like it. Among them no one was gloomy or sorrowful. Abba Apollo usually said, 'Those on the path of salvation, who are to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, ought not to grieve. Let the Gentiles groan, let the Jews weep, let sinners sorrow, but those who walk the right path should rejoice' (Lausiac History 47).

Peace. He who has trampled down the passions has a peaceful disposition of heart, an untroubled and radiant state of spirit. In the heart, through consciousness, he stands before God, rejecting all that is wrong and walking in what alone is right. This inward peaceful disposition appears outwardly as peace with all and as the spreading of peace around him.

There are such grace-filled persons that, as soon as they appear in any circle, peace and concord are at once established. 'These are the blessed peacemakers, whom the Lord distinguished by calling them sons of God. They are peaceful even with those who hate peace (cf. Ps 119:6). Therefore God dwells in them, for His place is in peace' (cf. Ps 75:3), says blessed Jerome, not word for word.

Longsuffering. Like an unbreakable wall, it guards peace, joy, and love, receiving from them both tempered strength and indissoluble cement. The world lies in evil. Living in it, one cannot be free from the wounds of evil. Sorrows and deprivations do not strike as deeply as slanders and attacks from evil people.

For the enemy, these are the strongest weapons for troubling those who live in the spirit. He usually approaches them with this weapon when he sees that they no longer yield in anything to the desires of lust. Seeing that he cannot take them by this path, he directs evil people against them.

Thus, if someone has escaped lust, the enemy tries to hold him by anger and hatred toward those who offend him. By this he takes away the salvation being worked in him. For he who is angry with his brother is liable to Gehenna (cf. Mt 5:22).

Against these snares, the grace of God raises in the heart an unconquerable wall, longsuffering, by which all the arrows of the evil one are repelled. Longsuffering stands wholly on the conviction that slanders and attacks from others are not their work, but the enemy's work. Therefore it does not rise against people in anger, but arms itself with hostility against the enemy, while preserving a good disposition toward people.

In this way longsuffering outwits the enemy. Therefore Wisdom says of it, 'A longsuffering man abounds in understanding, but the fainthearted is exceedingly foolish' (cf. Prov 14:29).

Goodness, χρηστοτης, is 'pleasantness, conduct that disposes one to fellowship, sweet speech, attractive manners,' says blessed Jerome. Those who live in the spirit bear a special seal. Everything in them is orderly, timely, fitting to place and persons, both in word and in deed. This is not determined by the mind, but comes directly from the heart.

They are dear to everyone, and for all they are like oil on wounds. This is almost always without any external advantages. Nobility of birth, education, and wealth have no share in this quality. It comes from the richness of the spirit, covered by deep humility.

Mercy, αγαθωσυνη, is heartfelt compassion and sympathy, with readiness to do everything for another's good. As a mother grieves over her children, so mercy grieves over all Christians. Their good is its own good. It does not remember itself.

It is ready to undress itself in order to clothe another, to leave itself hungry in order to feed another, to give its own healthy body to the sick man and take his sickness upon itself. Above all virtues, it will be praised at the judgment.

Faith is not the content of dogmas, but assurance in God. It is assurance that He will never abandon us in anything, that He holds and guides us by the best path and will bring us to a good end. It knows that everything is from Him and everything is for good, even if it is unpleasant.

It knows that no one can say or do anything unless God permits it. In everything His will is holy. Therefore it lives peacefully, surrendered to the will of God. This faith brought forth the martyrs, and after them voluntary sufferers and desert ascetics. Everywhere it inspires piety and life in the spirit.