# Seek the Mark of the Spirit - Bishop Barron Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 18 Sep 2026, 13 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74728394/seek_the_mark_of_the_spirit_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon_1.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Happy Pentecost Sunday to everybody. This
[0:03] Speaker 1: great celebration of the Holy Spirit, the third person of
[0:07] Speaker 1: the Trinity. And I want to suggest to you that
[0:10] Speaker 1: meditating upon the number three will tell us a lot
[0:12] Speaker 1: of what we need to know about the Holy Spirit.
[0:15] Speaker 1: Think of the number one. That's the symbol of unity.
[0:19] Speaker 1: Unity is good. Everyone's for unity. However, if the one
[0:24] Speaker 1: is sort of unilaterally emphasized, what do you get? You
[0:27] Speaker 1: get oppressive unity. You get a unity that excludes any
[0:32] Speaker 1: sort of diversity, any sort of individuality. Think of everybody
[0:36] Speaker 1: just in lockstep, moving robotically. Think of, I remember as
[0:40] Speaker 1: a kid, those films from Maoist China. Everybody in the
[0:43] Speaker 1: same outfit, the same little hat, the same little red book. Well,
[0:47] Speaker 1: no one wants that kind of uniformity or that oppressive,
[0:50] Speaker 1: totalitarian unity. So that's the shadow side of the one.
[0:55] Speaker 1: So the one gives rise, then, to the two. The
[0:58] Speaker 1: two is the symbol of diversity, of otherness. There's you
[1:01] Speaker 1: and there's me. There's this and there's that. Okay, good.
[1:05] Speaker 1: Everybody likes diversity. That's a good thing. Individuality, self-expression, not
[1:09] Speaker 1: everyone's the same. Great. We've overcome totalitarianism. However, if you
[1:16] Speaker 1: unilaterally emphasize the two, you get conflict. I've got my prerogative.
[1:23] Speaker 1: It's not yours, and you're doing your thing. It's not mine.
[1:26] Speaker 1: Here's my way of thinking, my way of acting, and
[1:28] Speaker 1: it's not yours, and don't you tell me what to do.
[1:31] Speaker 1: So two, it's good. It corrects a problem with the one,
[1:35] Speaker 1: but it gives rise to its own problems. Conflict. Okay. Therefore,
[1:42] Speaker 1: the three. What's the three? Three is the unity in diversity.
[1:51] Speaker 1: It's the reconciliation. Reconciliation. of opposites. It's communio, cum unio,
[2:00] Speaker 1: one with. It's saying one and two. It's saying if
[2:07] Speaker 1: you want the best of unity and the best of diversity.
[2:13] Speaker 1: Who's the Holy Spirit? The love that connects the Father
[2:17] Speaker 1: and the Son. God is three, not monolithically one, not
[2:23] Speaker 1: simply a play of dualism, God is three persons, lover, beloved,
[2:30] Speaker 1: and shared love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the Spirit,
[2:35] Speaker 1: par excellence, is the expression of this threeness, this communio,
[2:41] Speaker 1: this reconciliation. Okay. Now, with all that in mind, I
[2:45] Speaker 1: know it's a little bit abstract maybe, but we'll make
[2:47] Speaker 1: it real concrete real fast by looking at this great
[2:50] Speaker 1: reading from Acts chapter 2, which the Church gives us today.
[2:56] Speaker 1: The tongues of fire descend, the great wind, and the
[2:59] Speaker 1: disciples receive the Holy Spirit. And now look at the
[3:02] Speaker 1: upshot of it. Now, there were devout Jews from every
[3:06] Speaker 1: nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. They're there for the
[3:09] Speaker 1: great feast of Pentecost. At this sound, the crowd gathered,
[3:14] Speaker 1: and each one heard him strangely speaking in his own language.
[3:18] Speaker 1: And then look how carefully St. Luke lays it out
[3:20] Speaker 1: to us. We are Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians. We're from Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt,
[3:30] Speaker 1: the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers
[3:33] Speaker 1: from Rome. He very carefully lays out exactly where all
[3:39] Speaker 1: these different people are from, different backgrounds, different cultures, different countries,
[3:45] Speaker 1: different languages. Here's an interesting thing. If I had a
[3:48] Speaker 1: map behind me, I could show you. But imagine Jerusalem
[3:50] Speaker 1: right at the center. As he lays out these different places,
[3:54] Speaker 1: it's as though we're creating a sort of ellipse around Jerusalem.
[4:01] Speaker 1: His point is, all of these many come together as
[4:07] Speaker 1: one through the power of the Holy Spirit. Mind you,
[4:12] Speaker 1: the Spirit doesn't negate their manyness. It doesn't say, oh,
[4:17] Speaker 1: the Mesopotamians, Judeans, and the Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites
[4:21] Speaker 1: all give up their national identities. No, no, no. They're confirmed.
[4:26] Speaker 1: But yet they form this harmonious pattern around the center. Ah,
[4:33] Speaker 1: that's the work of number three, right? It's not crushing, monolithic,
[4:39] Speaker 1: totalitarian unity— Nor is it simply conflictual diversity. It's the
[4:46] Speaker 1: one and the many coming together, the communio. Whenever I
[4:51] Speaker 1: read this passage, I think of St. John Paul II.
[4:54] Speaker 1: One of the many marks of genius of his papacy
[4:57] Speaker 1: was World Youth Day. I've been to three now, World
[5:01] Speaker 1: Youth Days. It's always a marvelous experience. The very best
[5:03] Speaker 1: one I had was in John Paul City of Krakow
[5:05] Speaker 1: in 2016. What was the genius? Get all these kids
[5:11] Speaker 1: to come from all over the world, in their different languages,
[5:16] Speaker 1: in their different garbs, with their different customs. And an
[5:20] Speaker 1: image I have is they're all carrying their national flags,
[5:23] Speaker 1: singing their national songs. Good. Good. No one's imposing a
[5:27] Speaker 1: monolithic unity on them. No, John Paul reveled in this
[5:31] Speaker 1: cultural diversity. But they're all coming together around Christ. to
[5:39] Speaker 1: serve him and his purposes. They find communio. They're one with.
[5:46] Speaker 1: Unity in diversity. That's the mark of the Spirit, everybody.
[5:49] Speaker 1: And so, apply this. When you walk into a community,
[5:53] Speaker 1: you walk into a church, you walk into a city,
[5:55] Speaker 1: you walk into a culture, and you start noticing there's
[5:59] Speaker 1: too much one going on around here. There's too much
[6:02] Speaker 1: of a everything the same, all the particularities being crushed.
[6:06] Speaker 1: Or you say, it's too much Two. It's too much diversity.
[6:10] Speaker 1: Everyone's flying apart. Remember the devil's name, Diabolos, the scatterer.
[6:17] Speaker 1: Those are marks of the dark spirit. It's the three.
[6:22] Speaker 1: It's the Holy Spirit that brings the many together as one.
[6:27] Speaker 1: That's the sign. Now, with that in mind, let's turn
[6:32] Speaker 1: to reading number two for today. St. Paul to the Corinthians,
[6:36] Speaker 1: first letter. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but
[6:43] Speaker 1: the same Spirit. There are different forms of service, but
[6:47] Speaker 1: the same Lord. There are different workings, but the same God,
[6:52] Speaker 1: who produces all of them and everyone. To each individual,
[6:56] Speaker 1: the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.
[7:00] Speaker 1: That's everything I've been talking about, right? There are many
[7:04] Speaker 1: different kinds of spiritual gifts, Sure, Paul often enumerates them.
[7:10] Speaker 1: You know, speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues and words
[7:12] Speaker 1: of knowledge and administration and service and charity. Yeah, they're
[7:16] Speaker 1: all works of the Spirit. But there's one Spirit that
[7:20] Speaker 1: brings them together, gives them shared and common purpose. Something
[7:25] Speaker 1: I've noticed now over the years in the Church— I
[7:27] Speaker 1: hate it when this happens— someone who's got a real
[7:30] Speaker 1: spiritual gift. Let's say it's to serve the poor. And
[7:33] Speaker 1: they've given themselves to that, and it's just great. But
[7:37] Speaker 1: then they fall into the problem of the one, which is, well,
[7:41] Speaker 1: that's what the Church is all about. That's what everybody
[7:45] Speaker 1: should be doing. And if you're not doing that, you're
[7:46] Speaker 1: not really with the program. So you guys who are
[7:49] Speaker 1: fussing around in sacristy, using it at the liturgy, and
[7:53] Speaker 1: you're just playing dress-up, that's not what it's about. It's
[7:55] Speaker 1: about working with the poor. Or those of you who
[7:59] Speaker 1: are fussing around with books and ideas, and you're writing
[8:02] Speaker 1: learned articles on it. I mean, come on. Who cares
[8:04] Speaker 1: about that? Get out there in the streets with the poor. No, no, no.
[8:07] Speaker 1: That's too much of the one. You're taking a real
[8:10] Speaker 1: spiritual gift. Yes, indeed, serving the poor. But you're now
[8:14] Speaker 1: making it monolithic. Or turn this around. The same thing.
[8:19] Speaker 1: If you say, look, I'm an intellectual, and that's what
[8:21] Speaker 1: it's all about, is studying and learning and writing books
[8:26] Speaker 1: and articles. You people out there on the streets, that's
[8:28] Speaker 1: just social work. No, no, no, no. You're trying to
[8:31] Speaker 1: impose your one spiritual gift on everybody. Or the same
[8:35] Speaker 1: with the liturgists. Oh, the liturgy is a source and
[8:37] Speaker 1: summit of the Christian life. That's what it's all about. Well, okay,
[8:40] Speaker 1: but there are other spiritual gifts, too. Many gifts, but
[8:44] Speaker 1: the same Spirit. Again, different forms of service. I've just
[8:49] Speaker 1: been naming them, but the same Lord. Different workings, but
[8:53] Speaker 1: the same God. See, this is the number three again,
[8:56] Speaker 1: isn't it? It's not crushing monolithic unity. It's not just
[9:00] Speaker 1: vociferous diversity. It's the one and the many. And then
[9:05] Speaker 1: his famous image. He uses a lot. The body is one,
[9:09] Speaker 1: though it has many parts. There's the image again. So
[9:12] Speaker 1: all the different parts of the body, each one doing
[9:14] Speaker 1: its own thing, with its own individuality and distinctiveness, but
[9:19] Speaker 1: in service of the common good. Okay. Okay. That's the
[9:23] Speaker 1: mark of the Spirit. All right. And finally, let's look
[9:27] Speaker 1: at the Gospel for Pentecost, which is so rich. It's
[9:32] Speaker 1: Easter night. Easter night. The disciples, they still don't really
[9:36] Speaker 1: know what's going on. Imagine how frightened they were. Their
[9:39] Speaker 1: master has just been brutally put to death by hostile authorities.
[9:45] Speaker 1: And they must have thought, look, we're next. So in
[9:48] Speaker 1: their great fear, they gather. But Jesus comes and stands
[9:53] Speaker 1: in their midst and says, peace be with you, and
[9:56] Speaker 1: shows them his hands and his side. As I've said before,
[9:58] Speaker 1: that's salvation. everybody. We killed God, and God returned in
[10:04] Speaker 1: forgiving love. That means there's no sin that God can't forgive.
[10:08] Speaker 1: That means nothing can separate us from the love of God,
[10:12] Speaker 1: as Paul puts it. That's what they got. He says,
[10:16] Speaker 1: Peace be with you, and as the Father has sent me,
[10:20] Speaker 1: So I send you. And when he had said this,
[10:22] Speaker 1: he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.
[10:29] Speaker 1: This is the whole church, everybody. As the Father sent me,
[10:35] Speaker 1: so I send you, and I'm going to give you
[10:39] Speaker 1: from the Father and from me the gift of the
[10:45] Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. The Spirit, the love that connects the Father
[10:50] Speaker 1: and the Son. The Father, the Son, and as Fulton
[10:52] Speaker 1: Sheen said, they sigh forth their love for each other.
[10:59] Speaker 1: The one, the two, the three, communio, the one and
[11:03] Speaker 1: the many coming together, the love that God is. That's
[11:07] Speaker 1: what Jesus breathes into his disciples, and by extension, breathes
[11:13] Speaker 1: into us. Because they're a stand-in here for the life
[11:19] Speaker 1: of the Church, aren't they? Jesus, up and down the centuries,
[11:25] Speaker 1: breathing the Holy Spirit into the Church. As the Father
[11:30] Speaker 1: sent me, so I send you. What's our job, everybody?
[11:36] Speaker 1: In a world that's riven by too much oppressive unity,
[11:42] Speaker 1: too much oppressive diversity, our job— having receive the Holy Spirit,
[11:48] Speaker 1: the power of the three, our job now is to
[11:51] Speaker 1: be bearers of that Holy Spirit to the world. Okay,
[11:57] Speaker 1: you've got your marching orders then. When you go out,
[12:00] Speaker 1: think of that now. When you wake up in the morning,
[12:02] Speaker 1: when you go out and you say, look, here in
[12:04] Speaker 1: my world, there's too much of this kind of crushing unity.
[12:08] Speaker 1: I've got to get in the way of that. Or
[12:10] Speaker 1: here in my world, there's too much of this rancorous unity. diversity,
[12:15] Speaker 1: too much of this battling. My job, as I've received
[12:21] Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, I should breathe forth that spirit of
[12:26] Speaker 1: love into the world. That's it. That's it. It happened
[12:32] Speaker 1: Pentecost long ago, when the tongues of fire came. And
[12:37] Speaker 1: though they were from all over the world, they heard
[12:39] Speaker 1: them speaking in their own voice. Good. It was true
[12:42] Speaker 1: for St. Paul. the many manifestations but the one Spirit.
[12:48] Speaker 1: It's true for us. You've received the Holy Spirit. Now
[12:55] Speaker 1: breathe it forth to your world. And God bless you.

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