The Formed Life Bears Fruit of the Holy Spirit
The Rev. Dr. Thomas L. Holtzen, Ph.D., Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Nashotah House
A few years back, I was invited to give a theological paper in Indiana. Trapped for three hours in stop-and-go traffic heading into Chicago, by the time I finally arrived and checked into my hotel room, it was quite late. Already exhausted, I looked at the clock—10:00 p.m. I thought that was odd because I hadn’t switched time zones so I looked at my wristwatch, which told me it was 9:00 pm. Finally, it registered that Indiana didn’t recognize Day Light Savings Time (this was pre-2006, when Indiana did adopt DST). At that moment, I realized I was stuck in an in-between time. While the good people of Indiana would point out that they had not changed their clocks, I had somehow lost an hour in the middle of summer—what an odd feeling.
The Christian life can be a bit like that. The Christian lives in an odd place. It is an in-between time, a time between the first and second advent of Christ. We are promised a future redemption and even a sinless perfection in heaven, but we struggle with sin in the here-and-now. If we’re not careful, that constant struggle of the Christian life against sin can wear us down. So how are we to live in this in-between time? At Nashotah House, we believe the key is Christian formation.
St. Paul aptly described Christian formation to the Galatians as “Christ be formed in you” (Gal 4:19). He went on to further describe this formation later in the same epistle as “life in the Spirit.” Such a formed life, he tells us, bears the fruit of the Holy Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law” (Gal 5:22–23). This is what St. Paul called living by “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2). Yet, like all freedoms, the freedom from sin through Christian formation is hard-won—first by Christ overcoming sin and death, and then by his overcoming sin and death in us through life in the Spirit. This formation does not happen merely by wishful thinking.
Here at Nashotah House, we endeavor to live by and impart to students the means to living in the in-between time: Christ being formed in us through Word and Sacrament. Central to this formation is habitus—the recognition that what we do physically shapes our spiritual nature. Physically listening closely to God’s Holy Word in the lessons of the Daily Office and the Eucharist allows the Word to soak into our lives. Giving genuine, daily attention to our prayer life forms and shapes us into a different sort of people whose habitual desire is to seek the face of God. Daily confessing our sins and daily receiving Christ’s life-giving body and blood in the Eucharist cleanses our souls from sin and gives us the grace to conform our lives to Christ. These physical acts are not just rituals but the work of God deep within our souls. Learning to live by habitus is learning how to be changed spiritually by what we do physically. We see this most solemnly in the Eucharist. The physical act of the celebration of the Eucharist is a gospel act; as St. Paul stated, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26).
We continue to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, in Word and Sacrament, in the in-between time, until that day when the Sacraments cease and we see God face to face (1 Cor 13:12). Then, and only then, will Christ be fully formed in us in the visio beatifica (beatific vision), for as St. John said of this, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).