As one viewer of Bishop Robert Barron’s Holy Spirit video commented, “Bishop Barron has a habit of explaining these often complex theological topics, and bringing them ‘down to earth’ for us.”
Here is the transcript of the first three minutes of the 12-minute Youtube video Holy Spirit and below is a link the the video.
“One of my favorite texts in the New Testament is Galatians, chapter 5, because people ask you all the time, when you are a priest: ‘How do I know what God wants me to do?’ ‘How do I know what the will of God is?’ ‘How do I know I’m walking the right path?’ and I’ll tell them: Look in Galatians, chapter 5. Because what you find are two wonderful passages, one dealing with the works of the flesh, as Paul calls it, and he lays those out, but then he says, in contrast to those, you find the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In other words, what are the signs that the Holy Spirit is in you?
“So I’ll tell people: Look at this passage and tell me – are these things happening in your life? Then you’re on the right path. Then you’re probably walking the path in the Holy Spirit. If they’re not, then you’re probably not on the right path. So it’s Galatians, chapter 5 and, beginning with verse 22, Paul says this: ‘In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.’ Nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.
“Who’s the Holy Spirit? Let’s back this up a little bit. Who is the Holy Spirit?
“We say the Holy Spirit is the love that connects the Father and the Son. So the Father from all eternity knows himself. In that great act, he generates an image, imago, this image of God. This perfect image of the Father is the Son. The Father and Son look at each other and, as Fulton Sheen put it, they sigh their love for each other. And that shared breath, that shared love, is the Holy Spirit.
“Now salvation is all about the Father sending the Son all the way out to the very limits of God’s forsakenness so that we might be gathered into the love that the Father and Son share, and which we signal every time we do this, i.e., make the sign of the cross. You say that God the Father so loved the world he sent his only Son all the way down, that we might be gathered into the Holy Spirit. That is, when a Christian talks about the spiritual life, he’s not just using the language vaguely the way a lot of people do today. ‘I’m spiritual.’
“So here’s the question that Paul is asking: how do you know that you’re in the Holy Spirit? Well, you can’t see and control the Holy Spirit, you know, he’s like the wind that blows where he will. Right, but you can see the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the consequences or effects of the Spirit. That’s why this text is so important.
“So what I want to do is just look at some of the major themes Paul talks about.
“The first fruit of the Spirit is love; now to no one’s surprise, because that’s what the Holy Spirit is. So, if you have the spirit in you, it’ll show up as love. Now love is not a sentiment or feeling. Primarily, love is an act of the will. Love is to want the good of the other and to do something about it, not, as I’ve often said, is it indirect egotism which is ‘I’ll be nice to you that you might be nice to me.‘ ‘I’ll wash your back if you wash mine.’It’s not that: love is breaking out of this black hole of the ego. It’s it’s getting out of the gravitational pull of the ego and really living for the other. If you’ve got that, then you’re in the Holy Spirit. If your life is characterized by that, then the Holy Spirit is breathing through you.”
Click here to play the 12-minute video.
