Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon - Seek the Mark of the Spirit

Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon - Seek the Mark of the Spirit

Bishop Robert Barron 

Seek the Mark of the Spirit - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon 

Friends, Happy Pentecost Sunday! On this great celebration of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, meditating upon the number three will tell us a lot of what we need to know about the Spirit, whose distinctive mark is not oppressive unity, nor conflictual diversity, but unity in diversity. The Church is one Body with many parts, animated by one Spirit manifesting many spiritual gifts.

Daily Gospel Reflection – Pentecost Sunday 

June 05,2022 

Pentecost Sunday 

Gospel: Jn 20:19-23 

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” 

*United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 

Bishop Robert Barron 

Friends, in today’s Gospel, on the evening after his Resurrection, the Lord appeared to his disciples and greeted them, saying “Peace be with you.” 

According to the Gospel accounts, the risen Jesus typically did two things: he showed his wounds and he pronounced a word of peace. The wounds of Jesus are a continual and salutary reminder of our sin. The author of life appeared in our midst and we killed him, and this gives the lie to any attempt at self-justification or exculpation. 

But the risen Lord never leaves us in guilt; instead, he speaks the word “Shalom,” peace. This is the peace that the world cannot give, for it is the Shalom that comes from the heart of God. 

In his letter to the Romans, Paul said, “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

How does Paul know this? He knows it because we killed God, and God returned in forgiving love. He knows it because the enemies of Israel have been defeated.