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THE FUEL OF GOD: THE HOLY SPIRIT · Padre Alberto (Father Albert)

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So I had a 1969 BW bug. It was my first car.
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It was the first car my parents came or had when they came from
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Cuba as exiles and I inherited it.
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I think I took it when I was around 15.
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My father had finally replace the old BW bug with a kind of
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newer Buick, which is a big deal for him to get a Buick, a car
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with air conditioning. Imagine.
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And I got to tell you something about that bug.
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You can never really tell how much fuel you had in your tank.
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I'm not kidding. You fill the tank and the meter
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kind of went like this. It got empty and you still
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didn't know if it was empty. So guess what?
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I ran out of gas a bunch of times.
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I remember when I taught myself how to drive in that car because
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it was stick shift. You know, I know a lot of you
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don't know how to buy stick shift, but you know, it was the
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original stick shift. My mom never drove shift shift
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and she was the one that was available when I came home after
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school. My dad was still working.
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But my dad said to me that morning, I said, Dad, I'm going
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to try today. I had my restricted driver's
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license, you know, they call it a permit now, I think, you know,
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And there I was. And I said to my mom, Mom, you
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sit right there. What are you going to do?
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You know how to do it. Dad taught me how to do this.
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He said to me, son, you put your foot in the clutch and you
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slowly bring it out. You got your 1st gear and then
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you slowly put it in and then you go.
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I said OK, easy enough. I got in there.
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Of course a bump, but a bump. But a bump never changed the
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clutch. It survived, but after I taught
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myself how to drive, I realized that the big thing was keeping
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the gas in the tank and knowing how much gas I had.
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Because the truth is, it never quite read how much I had.
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And after the 8:00 service this morning, I found out from one of
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my great parishioners, one of our great volunteers, Phyllis
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Favera, that she had a 61, which had no gas gauge.
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So she could relate. But how many of you here had
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ever run out of gas? OK, thinking you're going to
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make it. All right.
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So I'm 15/16/17 now. You know, high school kid
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probably driving way too much. And I finally bought one of
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those little plastic things you get at the gas station, you
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know, so I could push my car off the side of the road and go to
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the close gas station and fill the tank.
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Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, Whitsunday, which is
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50 days after Easter. And the truth is that the
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church, for the first time, the disciples of Jesus receive the
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gift of God's Holy Spirit. And the best way I could
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describe this gift, this is the fuel of the church.
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This is the fuel of God's church because it's by the gift of the
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Holy Spirit that everything that happens in the name of God
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happens. Today we're going to baptize
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Luke and his beautiful family is here, and we will ask that the
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Holy Spirit descend upon the waters of baptism.
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Every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, we get to that fancy
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funky Greek word epiclesis, which means the invocation of
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the Holy Spirit. Let these gifts be unto us, the
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body and blood of Jesus Christ. When we're confirmed right, the
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Bishop comes and puts his hands on our heads and anoints us and
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says receive the Holy Spirit At ordination, the cadabra, Father
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Matt and I, they impose hands on our head, invoking the Holy
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Spirit for day ministry and in all of our lives as Christians,
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it's by the gift of the Holy Spirit that everything happens,
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whether it's a sacrament or a sermon, or maybe you're feeding
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the poor in God's name, or you're out carrying out some
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ministry or helping a sick person.
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Everything we do in the name of Jesus is done by the gift of
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God's Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the fuel of our
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spiritual lives. It's the source and the promise
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that Jesus gave to the church. I will be with you always.
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I will not leave you comfortless.
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I will send you the Holy Spirit. So the gospel we just heard
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proclaimed is the promise of Jesus to the disciples who still
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really didn't get it yet. They were about to receive the
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only true source of fuel for their spiritual lives that would
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keep them going through the persecutions, through the ups
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and downs, through the struggles.
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Now, I'm here to tell you, my friends, 21st century
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Christians, that in 2025, we too have received that promise.
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We too have received that spirit, the spirit that the
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disciples received. And as we gather today, we must
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be aware that the church depends on this gift.
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We depend on this gift, but this gift is manifested in very
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special ways. It's manifested through gifts.
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And I want to share with you what the Bible tells us about
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what are the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
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The first one is wisdom. Wisdom.
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Wisdom helps us to see things the way God sees them.
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Not just with our vision, our very limited vision are we able
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to see things with wisdom from on high.
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It's that funky word discern. God helps us to discern, to
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understand the will of God in making choices and that our
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choices be pleasing to God. As we seek to carry out God's
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will, we need wisdom from on high.
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Understanding is a second gift. It grants insight into God's
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ways. In other words, when we read the
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Bible, what's the first thing we should do?
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And I always tell people this, the first thing we should do
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before we read the Bible is come Holy Spirit.
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Because when we read the Bible, we should be in tune with what
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God wants us to read in his Holy Word.
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God's Word is living. It's not just a text like a
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newspaper that you read in black and white and it's there.
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No, it's more than that. It's God's living word.
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So we must discern what is God telling me as I read God's Word?
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That's the gift of understanding.
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This is Word counsel. It provides guidance and
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direction in our life. It helps us to navigate the
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difficult decisions in our life. The gift of counsel, fortitude.
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You know what that means, right? Strength.
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Strength from on high, resilience in the face of
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adversity. It gives us strength to stand
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firm in our faith when it is difficult and when we feel weak,
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because often times we will, we will feel weak.
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The other gift is knowledge. Knowledge enables us to
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understand God's truth and to learn from our mistakes in the
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past. I love talking to older people,
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right? It's just that now I'm one of
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those older people, so I love if they're 56 and older, you know,
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I like talking to older people. And when I talk to older people,
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I always learn so much. I was very blessed to have my 4
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grandparents living, you know, into the time that I entered
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seminary as an adult. So I was able to spend a lot of
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time listening to my abuelos and I learned a lot from them.
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And I thank God for them. Because when you have this gift
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of knowledge, you understand it's not enough.
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It's not just what you have in here, it's how you take life's
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lessons and apply them to reality.
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A fool is someone who does not learn from their own mistakes,
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and we only become fools when we keep repeating them without ever
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realizing that we can be better. It reminds me of my first
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assignment as a priest when a wonderful Irish missionary
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priest said to me, Hello, Albert, be a fool for Christ,
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but for Christ's sake, don't be a fool.
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Knowledge. This, this one is needs to be in
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style, by the way. It needs to come back in style.
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It seems like something old. I can't stand those churches
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that advertise themselves and say we're not your grandmother's
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church. Well, I like my grandmother's
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church myself, right? There's nothing wrong with my
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grandmother's church. My grandmother lived a godly
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life, her whole life going to church, and that's OK for me.
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But piety seems like an old word.
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Piety. It fosters reverence and respect
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for God. It encourages devotion, it
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encourages service. When we are pious, when we when
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we develop piety in our life, we realize it's not just about us.
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We live in a world where everyone wants to be at the
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centre of the world. Have you noticed social media?
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Every post from some people, social media is the picture of
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themselves looking in some way right.
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It's like, man, we already saw you stop.
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Can you show us something else? Not just your face.
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In the morning, at noon, in the in the evening.
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You went to the gym, you took a picture.
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You went to the bathroom, you took a picture.
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Well, no. Well, please don't show me more
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pictures of yourself. We've already memorized your
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wrinkles. Piety means God is at the
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center, not me. So when we realized that God is
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at the center, we're able to devote ourselves with reverence
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to God. And this last one is tricky
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because we hear the Word and spooky, I'm afraid fear of the
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Lord. It isn't about being afraid.
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When the scripture says fear of the Lord is the gift of the Holy
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Spirit, it's not talking about being afraid.
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God does not want you to be afraid.
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How many times did Jesus say do not be right?
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No, it's about awe, AWE, awe. It's about inspiring a sense of
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respect for God, realizing how big God is and how small we are.
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It's about humility, true humility.
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Humility is not something you put on.
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Humility is not something you act out.
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There are too many Christians who think they can act out
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humility. It's not about grabbing your
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fist and thumping your chest. Humility is about an attitude
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inside. It's a willingness to obey and
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follow God's way even when you think you're right.
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And to have enough humility to know we need God, we need God's
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grace. We need God's guidance.
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So all these gifts of the Holy Spirit, my friends, they're
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there for us. I got a secret to share with
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you. You got them all, you hear me?
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You got all of them not under the Christmas tree, not for your
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birthday. You got them the day of your
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baptism. You got them the day of your
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confirmation. You got them every time you open
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yourself to the presence of Jesus in your life and invited
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him in, every time you come to the altar and receive the Holy
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Eucharist, you receive an extra dosage of God's Holy Spirit and
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the grace of God is with you. You have received these gifts.
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Our problem is we don't recognize them in ourselves and
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we don't recognize them in others.
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We're very blessed in this parish to have some amazing
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spiritual powerhouses. And I'm not going to call them
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out by name, but you know who they are.
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And every once in a while, when I have to make a decision as
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your parish priest, I'll call some of those powerhouses.
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They may not realize it or not that they are what they are, but
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I'll call and say, hey, what do you think about this?
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And I listened for a while. It helps me in my discernment.
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I kind of get a sense sometimes they go in the opposite
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direction that I'm in. Sometimes they make me make AU
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turn in the middle of the street because I'm thinking I'm going
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in this direction. And they say, you know, I should
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think about. But you cannot do that unless
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you recognize the gifts of God's Holy Spirit, not just in
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yourself, but in others. And then you've got to be able
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to allow the Holy Spirit to work because the Holy Spirit works in
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the community. It works in us, it works in the
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church. At times, we're at odds with the
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institutional church. And I know that there's people
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who say, Oh my God, Can you believe they're doing that now?
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Are you kidding me? They're doing this now.
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And at times, you know, we all find ourselves in conflict with
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certain decisions and certain practices that we don't feel
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100% comfortable with. And that's OK.
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It happened to the apostles of Jesus.
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It happened to their successors. It's happened throughout the
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centuries. What makes US1 as God's church
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is not total agreement with everything, at least not in our
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Anglican Episcopal ethos. That's not the way we function.
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What makes US1 is that we realize we're one in the Spirit
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in spite of our diversity, and it's good for us to be able to
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come together as church to figure things out.
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When the apostles of Jesus recognized that he had risen,
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they weren't ready to go out. Do you remember what happened
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all these weeks? Have you been hearing these
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gospels? This is the last day in Easter.
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Have you been hearing the Gospel the last 50 days?
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How many times did they tell us? And they were hiding for fear,
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right? For fear of the authorities, for
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fear of the religious folks, for fear of the of the empire,
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whatever they were afraid to be associated with being followers
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of that Jesus who came to revolutionize everything.
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When were they able to go out? When they received the gift of
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the Holy Spirit. Then they were able to
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understand each other as we heard in God's Word today, all
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these different languages from all these different places,
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right, Jackie, you read that and they were from a bunch of
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different places. They had no reason to understand
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each other. Why did they understand each
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other? Because they were wonderful at
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languages. No, they understood each other
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because they were one in the Spirit.
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That's what we're called to today, 2025.
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Yes, it is possible as people of faith, in spite of all the
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craziness in our world, to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us, to
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instruct us, to lead us, and that God's holy gifts of the
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Holy Spirit may be in all of us. What do we do before cell
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phones? So many of you know this prayer.
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By the way, I want us right now to big give a big round of
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applause to all the women who went to Curcio last weekend.
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Big round of applause for our ladies.
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The rhetora was from our parish. Many of the team members were.
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As I'm looking around, I see you, many of our pilgrims, many
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of our volunteers behind the scenes.
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They were from our parish. Let's say it together, if you
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know it. If not, just close your eyes and
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pray with us. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the
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hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your
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love. Send forth your Spirit and they
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shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.
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Let us pull our by. The guide of the Holy Spirit
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then instructs the hearts of the faithful.
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Granted by the same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever
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rejoice in his consolations through Christ our Lord.
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Amen. Come, Holy Spirit, come.