Bishop Barron's Sunday sermon on five signs of the Holy Spirit, delivered on the sixth Sunday of Easter
A Catholic bishop's sermon identifying five marks of the Holy Spirit's presence, drawn from the day's scripture readings as Pentecost approaches.
Summary
Bishop Barron delivers a Sunday sermon for the sixth Sunday of Easter, framing it as preparation for the feast of Pentecost. Drawing on all three readings of the day — Acts of the Apostles, the First Letter of Peter, and the Gospel of John — he identifies five specific signs that the Holy Spirit is present and active, both in the church broadly and in the life of individual believers. He argues that these signs are not confined to the early church or to professional religious figures, but apply to every baptized Christian in the present age.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction: The Sixth Sunday of Easter and the Approach of Pentecost
Bishop Barron: Peace be with you. Friends, we come to the sixth Sunday of Easter, which means we're coming to the end of the Easter season, which means we're coming toward the great feast of Pentecost — which, after Christmas and Easter, is the most important feast of the church year: the feast of the Holy Spirit. And that's why the church gives us now, as we're approaching Pentecost, these little hints, little anticipations of the Holy Spirit.
If you talk especially to our Eastern Christian friends, they'll chide us in the West because we tend to underplay the Holy Spirit. And there might be some truth to that, and there are a lot of reasons for it. But it certainly is not warranted in the scriptures. The scripture is filled with insight and celebration of the Holy Spirit. And this Easter season — I've said to you before — the whole of the Acts of the Apostles is all about the Holy Spirit. The risen Christ, the ascended Christ, now sends the Spirit into the church to continue his work.
What we see now in all three readings today is this marvelous manifestation of the Spirit — the signs of the Holy Spirit. I think it's good for all of us, because look, this is still the era that we're in. We're in act five of the great theodrama. We're in the final act of the theodrama, which is the age of the church. So what's true of the first Christians is true of us.
The First Sign: Bold Speech
So what do we find out about the Holy Spirit? We hear in the Acts of the Apostles of Philip and his missionary work. And here's something I think is really important and interesting about it — it's how Christians read what happens to them. Because of the persecution in Jerusalem, the early church is being persecuted. And your first instinct is to say, "It's just terrible. It's just a horrible thing. Why is God visiting this persecution upon us?" But look what happens because of it. Philip and others then flee from Jerusalem and they go around the Holy Land and they begin to proclaim. So it becomes a sort of happy fault. The persecution led to missionaries going out like seed all over first the Holy Land and then the world.
So anyway, he comes to Samaria, and we hear that he proclaims Christ to them. Now, just stay with that for a second. He proclaims Christ to them. We're never meant to keep Christ to ourselves. I know our etiquette in our Western societies is a privatizing etiquette. We tend to say, "No, no, your religion's fine. That's good for you, but keep it to yourself. We don't want you making a public display of your faith." That's repugnant to the Bible, everybody. That's repugnant to the nature of Christianity. Jesus said, "Go and proclaim, preach to all the nations."
One of the marks of the Holy Spirit, therefore, is bold speech. Let me say that again. One of the marks of the Holy Spirit in the church, broadly speaking, and in your life, is bold speech. Think from the apostles through the great missionaries and evangelists up to Billy Graham and John Paul II. Bold proclamation of the Lord is a sign of the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Now, again, I know you're tempted to think, "Well, all right, the apostles and Billy Graham and John Paul II — professional evangelizers — that's not me. I'm trying to make my way in the world." No, no, no. If you're baptized, maybe you won't be a professional evangelist like John Paul II. But if you're baptized, you have the task of prophecy. You have the task of declaring Christ boldly, unapologetically, with joy and enthusiasm. To what degree do we — and I'll accuse myself here — do we succumb to the etiquette of our modern Western culture, treating our religion as a kind of private hobby? No, no, no. That means the Holy Spirit is not in you.
So there's the first one: bold speech.
The Second Sign: The Miraculous
Here's the second one. It says, "The people heard Philip preaching, and then unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured." Now, again, I know in our context we probably look askance at this sort of language. We think, oh, that sounds kind of superstitious and a little bit crazy — demons and people being cured. But like it or not, from the Bible all the way through the great tradition to the present day, this is one of the marks of the Holy Spirit: amazing signs, especially in the order of healing.
The Spirit is not just going to do magic tricks for us. The driving out of demons — that's a spiritual healing. And then the curing of physical ailments — it's one of the marks of the Holy Spirit, of the miraculous. If you doubt me, there's a great book by a man named Craig Keener. He's a Protestant biblical scholar, a very smart fellow. It's a two-volume work — a big, fat thing — a two-volume account of miracles taking place today. Not long ago, but really strange, amazing, marvelous miracles, mostly of healing, that take place today. It's one of the marks of the Holy Spirit.
As I record these words, I'm standing about a two-minute walk from the main building of the Mayo Clinic, the greatest hospital in the country, one of the greatest in the world. Does Christ, usually in his providence, arrange that he works through secondary causes? Yes. Christ heals through the genius and the skill and the knowledge of surgeons and diagnosticians and so on. And that's great. That's of the Holy Spirit too. But are there sometimes — especially, I find, when the gospel is being proclaimed in a new place, or maybe there's a special need of some kind — that the Holy Spirit in a remarkable way manifests himself? If you're a Catholic, you think of a place like Lourdes. Yes, Christ usually heals through the instrumentality of secondary causes, but sometimes he does so in this remarkable way. That's a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
The Third Sign: Joy
Here's the third thing. And I love this in the reading about Philip and his evangelizing of Samaria. It says, "The rejoicing in that place rose to fever pitch." I didn't check the Greek exactly, but I love that rendering in English: "The rejoicing in that place rose to fever pitch."
The flag of the Holy Spirit, if you want to know, is joy. The flag that the Holy Spirit is in you is joy. And you see it now in the lives of the saints, many of whom led difficult lives and faced enormous challenges — yes, absolutely — but the joy of the Holy Spirit comes bubbling up from them nevertheless. What does God want for us? He's not there to oppress us. He's not there to be some onerous burden upon us. No — "I have come that your joy might be complete." That's what he wants. He wants us flourishing, alive, joyful. And the more the Holy Spirit is in you, the more you're going to manifest joy.
I was reading recently a biography of William F. Buckley, the great political pundit, someone I've admired for many years. I remember watching him as a kid, being fascinated by his debating style and all that. And Buckley is known for his incisive wit and his intelligence. But you know what comes through in the biography? His joy. It was very difficult to be around him without laughter. Witness after witness will say that when they were with Buckley, there was laughter. Well, of course — he was a man of deep Christian faith, deep Catholic faith. Joy.
St. Paul names it, in fact, as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. When I was helping young men discern the priesthood years ago, when I was teaching at the seminary, I'd point to that. Is this life for me? Well, does it make you joyful? Yes, it does. Well, good — that's a good indicator. Or: is this life for me? Well, you seem sad all the time. That might be an indicator this is not for you. When the Holy Spirit is in you, joy is going to reach — now maybe not a fever pitch every day — but joy will be a steady accompaniment of your life.
So: bold speech, the miraculous, joy.
The Fourth Sign: Intellectual Engagement with the Faith
Here's a fourth one. This is from our second reading. St. Peter tells us in his first letter, "Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope." Let me say that again — it's a very important line. He's saying to his Christian disciples, "Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope."
What is it about you Christians? What is this faith of yours? Where is that joy coming from? How are these miracles being performed? What's going on with you people? Those questions were asked 2,000 years ago. They're still being asked today. St. Peter says, "Be ready to give a reason for the hope that's in you."
Intellectual curiosity. Intellectual seriousness. Thinking deeply about the faith. St. Anselm says, "Fides quaerens intellectum" — faith seeking understanding. John Henry Newman says that Mary, who ponders these mysteries in her heart, is the model of all theologians. One of the marks of the Holy Spirit is an eagerness to think deeply about the faith — to read about it, to study it, to muse over it, to entertain objections to it, to learn how to respond to those who are opposed to it. Apologetics, theology, scripture study — all of it.
Now, I've railed against this for a long time, but when I was coming of age there was a deep anti-intellectualism in the church, and it was a disaster — a disaster at every level. Go right back to First Peter. One of the signs of the Holy Spirit in you is a willingness to engage the faith in an intellectual way. Newman says that one of the signs that the church is properly unfolding and properly living its life is intellectual curiosity and engagement. Don't underplay that, everybody. Joy and miracles, bold speech — all that — but deep thought is a sign of the Holy Spirit too.
The Fifth Sign: Love
Here's the last one. I'm going to rely on the gospel, which throughout this season we've been reading from the high priestly prayer of Jesus the night before he dies. Listen to this: "On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father."
What do we find here? This is typical of that discourse — it's this coinherence, this weaving together. I'm in you, you in me, we in them, they in us. What's being described here is the heart of the Christian thing, everybody. The Father sent the Son all the way out to godforsaken us, that he might gather us into the love that the Father and Son share, whose name is the Holy Spirit. All of this — the Germans have that lovely term, ineinander, the one in the other — this circumincession, this coinherence. That's a mark of Christianity.
What's the name for all this? Love. The Holy Spirit is the love that connects the Father and the Son. St. John tells us God is love. Therefore, when the Spirit is dwelling in you, what's dwelling in you is love — the love that God is. The Father and the Son, loving each other, have drawn you into their life. That's Christianity.
So the sheerest, fullest, most beautiful sign of the Holy Spirit is love. Do you will the good of the other? That's what it comes down to. That's the clearest sign that the Holy Spirit is in you.
And God bless you.