If, however, by man’s fruit we understand a product of man, then human actions are called fruits:  because operation is the second act of the operator, and gives pleasure if it is suitable to him.  If then man’s operation proceeds from man in virtue of his reason, it is said to be the fruit of his reason:  but if it proceeds from him in respect of a higher power, which is the power of the Holy Ghost, then man’s operation is said to be the fruit of the Holy Ghost, as of a Divine seed, for it is written (1 John 3:9):  “Whosoever is born of God, committeth no sin, for His seed abideth in him.”

Reply Obj. 1:  Since fruit is something last and final, nothing hinders one fruit bearing another fruit, even as one end is subordinate to another.  And so our works, in so far as they are produced by the Holy Ghost working in us, are fruits:  but, in so far as they are referred to the end which is eternal life, they should rather be called flowers:  hence it is written (Ecclus. 24:23):  “My flowers are the fruits of honor and riches.”

Reply Obj. 2:  When the will is said to delight in a thing for its own sake, this may be understood in two ways.  First, so that the expression “for the sake of” be taken to designate the final cause; and in this way, man delights in nothing for its own sake, except the last end.  Secondly, so that it expresses the formal cause; and in this way, a man may delight in anything that is delightful by reason of its form.  Thus it is clear that a sick man delights in health, for its own sake, as in an end; in a nice medicine, not as in an end, but as in something tasty; and in a nasty medicine, nowise for its own sake, but only for the sake of something else.  Accordingly we must say that man must delight in God for His own sake, as being his last end, and in virtuous deeds, not as being his end, but for the sake of their inherent goodness which is delightful to the virtuous.  Hence Ambrose says (De Parad. xiii) that virtuous deeds are called fruits because “they refresh those that have them, with a holy and genuine delight.”

Reply Obj. 3:  Sometimes the names of the virtues are applied to their actions:  thus Augustine writes (Tract. xl in Joan.):  “Faith is to believe what thou seest not”; and (De Doctr.  Christ. iii, 10):  “Charity is the movement of the soul in loving God and our neighbor.”  It is thus that the names of the virtues are used in reckoning the fruits. ________________________

SECOND ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 70, Art. 2]

Whether the Fruits Differ from the Beatitudes?

Objection 1:  It would seem that the fruits do not differ from the beatitudes.  For the beatitudes are assigned to the gifts, as stated above (Q. 69, A. 1, ad 1).  But the gifts perfect man in so far as he is moved by the Holy Ghost.  Therefore the beatitudes themselves are fruits of the Holy Ghost.

Obj. 2:  Further, as the fruit of eternal life is to future beatitude which is that of actual possession, so are the fruits of the present life to the beatitudes of the present life, which are based on hope.  Now the fruit of eternal life is identified with future beatitude.  Therefore the fruits of the present life are the beatitudes.