PODCAST: Auspice Maria Ep. 5: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelization
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Full Transcript:
Welcome to the Auspice Maria podcast. I'm Bishop James Ruggieri of the Diocese of Portland in Maine.
We continue with our series on the mission of the Church, which I'd like to break down again into sort of three components or three areas. One, proclaiming the gospel. Two, bringing people to Christ. And three, building the kingdom of God.
I'd like to start, though, invoking the Holy Spirit's guidance and wisdom and inspiration as we pray, Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and we shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.
Last time we looked at how truth and love must go hand in hand in any authentic evangelization. Today I'd like to turn to something even more foundational, the role of the Holy Spirit in evangelization. The church is sent on mission by Christ, but the mission he entrusts to her is only made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit, there's no mission. Without the Spirit, there's no church.
Jesus gives his apostles a clear mandate. In Matthew 28 verse 19, he says, "go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations." But after the resurrection, the disciples do not immediately begin preaching. Instead, Jesus in St. Luke tells them, Luke 24 verse 49, "Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." In other words, what Jesus is saying is, "wait, wait." The mission is divine in origin as we clearly see, but the mission is not activated until Pentecost when the apostles receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
In Acts two, in those first four verses, we hear about the Pentecost event. Here's just a sort of a summary of those verses. "When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind. Then there appeared to them tongues as a fire and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim."
Now, interestingly, Peter, on that Pentecost Sunday, the same man who denied Jesus three times, Peter now stands before this very large crowd, diverse crowd, in Jerusalem and proclaims boldly that Jesus is Lord and Messiah. And in Acts 2 verse 41, we are told, "Those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3,000 persons were added that day."
I'm always struck by that incredible reality that occurred on Pentecost Sunday as a result of Peter's preaching. 3,000 people were baptized. That's really incredible. Supernatural. These disciples, now out in public proclaiming boldly this good news of salvation, Christ is Lord, were once afraid. They were hiding behind locked doors, but now they are proclaiming in public. Fear was not simply erased, but really it was overcome by the gift of courage, fortitude, one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. And it was also really aided and abetted by a new love. a burning love for Jesus, risen and alive, and a supernatural love for others, even strangers, whom now these disciples on fire with the Spirit, whom these disciples now long to share this good news of salvation.
One of the most striking marks of Spirit-filled evangelization is boldness. The word used in the Acts of the Apostles is "parrésia," which means freedom of speech, courage, fearless confidence. It implies not only the willingness to speak the truth, but to do so without fear of consequences.
In Acts chapter four, verse 31, we read, "And when they had prayed, the place where they were gathered shook. and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness. This boldness is not natural self-confidence. It's not charisma, personality charisma or extraversion. It's really a supernatural boldness, a divine courage infused by the Spirit, especially when the message may provoke resistance or persecution. And the religious leaders were stunned.
Acts 4 verse 13, "Observing the boldness of Peter and John, they recognized them as companions of Jesus."
They saw something in Peter and John that could not be explained by education or status, but they experienced and felt and saw a spiritual authority. And this same parrésia is offered to every baptized believer who opens himself or herself to the Spirit's prompting. This kind of evangelizing boldness is not confined to the apostolic era. It happens today, it can happen today. And often in some very concrete pastoral situations, just some pastoral scenarios.
Consider a grandmother whose adult children have stopped practicing their faith. This woman, saddened by this reality, begins to pray the rosary daily for them, for their hearts to once again be made open. And then, interestingly, during a quiet dinner with her grandson, whom she loves very much and who also is not practicing the faith, she shares with him how God helped her through the loss of his grandfather. Now she doesn't lecture him, she doesn't preach to him, she just shares from her heart a testimony guided by love.
Or consider this, a youth minister who has invited certain young people from her parish to a retreat. She knows them fairly well through her interactions with them in the parish, and she senses while on this retreat that one student is particularly spiritually open. Well, during adoration, which was happening on Saturday evening, she gently and lovingly invites him to go to confession. Confession was being offered during the adoration time. And this is something he hasn't done in years. He hasn't been to confession since his first Holy Communion day, preparing for first Holy Communion. So he goes to confession, a bit reluctantly, a bit nervously, but he goes. And that confession changes his life. Just the last perhaps scenario that we might consider about Spirit-led evangelization.
Consider a deacon visiting a family after a funeral. He's just sharing some fellowship, some food with them after the committal service at the cemetery. And he, just being in their presence, he just listens to them. They were telling stories of the deceased and anecdotes, and he just makes himself present. But then, in the midst of it all, as he's about to take his leave, he's moved to say and ask, would you like to pray with me now for your deceased, for your loved one. Can we pray together now? And in that moment, as he's praying very spontaneously, very sincerely from his heart for the deceased soul, the hearts of that family, which really they hadn't been practicing regularly, the faith, the hearts of the members of that family.
Now, these are obviously not flashy moments, but they're really spirit-led moments. Hopefully, you see that they weren't planned. The people involved in these scenarios didn't kind of concoct things so that they could strategically preach or message. They just were spirit-led, and these are spirit-led moments. When someone chose to act or to speak with courage and clarity, that again wasn't apparently their own. So, if the Spirit empowers evangelization, how can we live more open to Him? Just some suggestions. Pray daily to the Holy Spirit. Invite the Holy Spirit into your life. We could use that prayer that I used at the beginning of the podcast, Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Or we might simply just utter the prayer, Holy Spirit, lead me today. And perhaps even before conversations, if we're priests or deacons preaching, or maybe before something difficult that we have to do, it's really as simple as asking the Holy Spirit for guidance. All of that shows a docility and openness to the Holy Spirit.
A second thing, perhaps, we can do to be more open to the Spirit is to live in the Spirit. St. Paul in Galatians 5 verse 25 says, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit." But really, practically, what does that mean? Well, it could mean cultivating a heart detached from sin, being intent on trying to move away from sin. Really, it's conversion, seeking to move away from sin and to live more in grace, in life, and in relationship with God. Part of this process of conversion is surrendering daily to our Heavenly Father's care. That's really an act of the Spirit. And it could mean, practically, specifically for us, regularly scheduling confession, not waiting for mortal sin to get to the sacrament of reconciliation but actually incorporating or making confession a regular part of our spiritual lives. Examination of conscience is a great way to just be more self-aware and more other aware.
Maybe another thing that living in the spirit could make us consider doing is letting go of grudges, deciding not to participate in gossip, and trying to quell our spiritual pride. Perhaps living in the spirit means fasting from media that really is sometimes so negative or perhaps inappropriately explicit that it acts like almost like a poison to our hearts.
I would really encourage us to limit our social media content, limit our intake of news because again, we want the spirit to occupy that center place in our hearts and in our minds.
I think importantly, living in the spirit means carving out silence so that we allow the spirit to speak, or we can pay attention to the spirit's promptings. Carving out silence. Silence is so important to the spiritual life. But it's also important, I think, to just living a well-integrated, balanced life. There's so much noise that we face every day. Sometimes it's exterior, sometimes it's interior. But if we can practice silence, I believe it can really only help us to be more attentive to the Spirit. Really, the Holy Spirit fills the space we make. If we are very cluttered, if our lives are very cluttered with distraction, if our hearts are cluttered with resentment or habitual sin, we leave little room for the Spirit to work.
Another way I think we can be docile to the Holy Spirit is to step out in faith. It's often that the spirit moves when we step out in faith. Remember those scenarios, the grandmother, youth minister, the deacon, they stepped out in faith. The grandmother took a leap of faith in sharing her story about her dealing with the loss of the grandfather of her grandson. The youth minister stepped out in faith when she invited that young man to go to confession that night during adoration on the retreat. And the deacon stepped out in faith by taking a moment to ask if the family wanted to pray with him. A family that maybe on the surface wasn't overly religious.
But when we step out in faith, for example, offering to pray with someone, inviting someone to mass, sharing how God is working in your life, not in any polished way. We don't have to prepare sermons before we speak to people, but really honest, sincere ways, and honest and sincere ways.
If I could say a word about just offering to pray with people, sometimes maybe this happens to you. It happens, I would say, somewhat regularly with me. People will ask me for prayers. "Bishop, will you pray for my mother who's sick?" "Will you pray for my son?" And obviously when I respect sort of, we could say the confidentiality or the personal nature of the request, I don't necessarily need to know what exactly is going on to pray for the person, but I think it's an ideal opportunity for me at that moment to say to the person, "we'll pray for your mom? Okay, we'll pray for her health. Let's pray right now. Let's just take a moment, let's pray a Hail Mary together right now for your mom's health."
It's simple, it's really non-threatening. I find praying the Hail Mary is very inviting to people. Some may know the prayer, most will know it, some may not know it, but even if they don't know it, it's probably not unfamiliar to a Catholic. I just think taking those, seizing those moments when people are asking for prayer, to pray right at that moment with them, is really allowing the Holy Spirit to lead that situation. You may feel awkward, and maybe you stutter a little bit, but that's okay. Please know that your efforts are not simply yours. When we are docile and trying to open ourselves more to the Spirit, we're doing things with the Spirit. The Spirit's at work already in you. And also, we can't forget in the person who's before us, just that gesture of asking for prayer. I mean, that's something probably the spirit is motivating.
Anyway, evangelization in the spirit, please remember, is not performance. It's not about sounding smart. It's not about really being overly theological with people, but really, evangelizing in the spirit is about being an instrument. St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2 verses 4 to 5, "My message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom, but on the power of God."
My brothers and sisters, I think, you know, people don't need these sort of slick presentations. They need witnesses who are authentic, who are alive in the spirit, people who have encountered Christ and are not afraid to share testimony of this encounter.
In Evangelium Gaudium, Pope Francis writes in paragraph 280, "Yet there is no greater freedom than that of allowing oneself to be guided by the Holy Spirit, renouncing the attempt to plan and control everything to the last detail. And instead of letting him enlighten, guide, and direct us, leading us wherever he wills. So let the Spirit enlighten, guide, and direct us."
And again, just sort of injecting this in the quote, my own sort of summary, but emphasis. Let the Holy Spirit enlighten, guide, and direct us, and lead us wherever he wills. And back to Pope Francis, he says, "the Holy Spirit knows well what is needed in every time and place. This is what it means to be mysteriously fruitful."
So my brothers and sisters, I just wanted to encourage you, let the Spirit take hold of you, seize you. Ask the Spirit to give you perissia, boldness. Also, ask the Spirit to make you docile, open, available, free.
I'd like to close with a prayer from St. Augustine, a man whose conversion and mission were both born of the Spirit's fire.
"Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work too may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I may love what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me then, O Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy."
Thank you for joining me today. I encourage you to ask the Spirit to speak through you this week. Next week, we'll turn to the power of personal encounter and evangelization. How Jesus meets people where they are. even with their hoarse voices, and how they are called to do the same. Until then, my brothers and sisters, let's pray. Come, Holy Spirit, and entrust us all to the maternal intercession of Mary, our mother.
"Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen."
