GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. - Supernatural habits, which perfect the infused virtues and dispose our faculties to obey the divine motions more promptly and easily.
I. TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE
The revealed doctrine on the gifts of the Holy Spirit is contained principally in the classic text of Is. 11:2, which the Fathers have often commented on, saying that it applies first to the Messiah and afterwards, by participation, to all the just, because to them the Savior promised to send the Holy Spirit.
« Upon him will rest the Spirit of God, a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of fortitude, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of God ». The Hebrew text does not mention the gift of piety; but the Septuagint and the Vulgate recall it, and after the 3rd century tradition affirms that the gifts are seven. Moreover, in the Hebrew text, Is. 11:3, the fear of God is mentioned a second time, and in the Old Testament the terms « fear of God » and « piety » have approximately the same meaning. The difference will be more precise in the New Testament, in particular when St. Paul says (Rom. 8:15): « You have not received a spirit of servitude to be still in fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption through which we cry: Abba! Father! This same Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God », and we must have for him a filial piety.
In Wis. 7:7-30, one also reads: « I prayed and the Spirit of Wisdom came down into me. I preferred this wisdom to scepters and crowns... With her all good things came to me. Through the ages she spreads into all holy souls and makes them friends of God. For God loves only those in whom wisdom dwells ». It is observed that this is the first of the gifts of the Holy Spirit cited from Is. 11:2, and that it is promised in a certain measure to all the just.
This revelation of the Old Testament acquires its true meaning in the light of the words of the Savior, when he promises to send the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn. 14:26): « The Holy Spirit whom my Father will send you in my name will teach you all things, and you will remember all that I have said to you ». St. John adds (1 Jn. 2:20): « You, my children, have received the anointing from the Holy One and know all things ».
Furthermore, there are in Sacred Scripture the texts commonly cited as relating to each gift in particular, for example Lk. 24:45, concerning the disciples of Emmaus: « Then Jesus opened their minds so that they might have understanding of the Scriptures »; Ps. 110:10: « The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. Truly intelligent are those who observe his law »; Ps. 21:8: « I will give you understanding, I will show you the way you must follow, I will be your counselor, my eye will watch over you »; Ps. 118:97: « How I love your law, Lord. It is the object of my thought all day long; with your commandments you make me wiser than my enemies... I have more understanding than the elders, because I observe your commandments »; Prov. 9:10: « The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Yahweh; and understanding is the knowledge of the Holy One »; in Jn. 8:12, Jesus says: « He who follows me does not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life ».
II. THE TRADITION
The Fathers often commented on the texts of Scripture cited and, from the 3rd century onward, generally teach that the seven gifts are present in all the just, who are the temple of the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul affirms (I Cor. 2:16-17; 6:19; II Cor. 6:16; cf. A. Gardell, Dons du St Esprit, in DThC, IV, II, cols. 1728-81).
In 382 Pope Damasus speaks of the sevenfold Spirit, who rested upon the Messiah, and enumerates the seven gifts (cf. Denz-U, 83). This doctrine is explained above all by St. Augustine in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, De Sermone Domini in monte, bk. I, ch. 14; De doctrina christiana, bk. II, ch. 7; Sermo 347. He emphasizes the correspondence between the ascending gradation of the evangelical Beatitudes and the descending enumeration of the gifts according to Is. 11:2. Thus fear represents the first degree of spiritual ascent, and wisdom its crowning. Contemplation, according to St. Augustine, is a supernatural wisdom. It comes from living faith enlightened by a special inspiration of the Holy Spirit that gives the enjoyment of God (cf. St. Augustine, De Trinitate, II, XII-XIV, and F. Cayré, La contemplation augustienne, Paris 1927, chs. 2 and 3). Recently Fr. J. De Blic (Pour l'histoire de la théologie des dons avant st Thomas, in Revue d'ascétique et de mystique, 22 [1946], pp. 117-79) has pointed out, in opposition to Gardell, the scarcity of testimonies from the Greek and Latin Fathers on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as if this diminished the solidity of scholastic and particularly Thomistic speculation. It would be useful to take up again the texts examined, with much erudition moreover, by De Blic, and to make a further survey of them, broadening the positive research. In any case, even on the basis of few data of Revelation, in a period of particular maturity of thought, it is possible to construct a speculative system. See the just observations of I. Colosio, in Vita cristiana, 16 (1947), pp. 622-27.
According to the Council of Trent (Denz-U, 799): « Justificationis causa efficiens est misericors Deus, qui gratuito abluit et sanctificat (I Cor. 6, 11) signam et ungens Spiritu promissionis Sancto, qui est pignus haereditatis nostrae » (Eph. 1:12 ff.). The catechism of the Council of Trent (part 1, ch. 9, § 3) specifies this point by enumerating the seven gifts from Is. 11:2, and adding: « These gifts are for us like a divine source from which we draw the living knowledge of the precepts of the Christian life, by which we can know whether the Holy Spirit dwells in us ». St. Paul has in fact said (Rom. 8:16): « The Holy Spirit himself testifies to our spirit that we are the children of God ». He attests this by the filial love that he inspires in us and through which he makes himself in some way felt by us (cf. St. Thomas,
In Ep. ad Rom., 8, 16). One of the most beautiful testimonies of Tradition on the seven gifts is given to us by the liturgy of Pentecost.
Finally, Leo XIII in the encyclical on the Holy Spirit: Divinum illud munus, 9 May 1897, toward the end, says that « the just man, who lives by Grace and acts by virtue as by new faculties, absolutely needs the seven gifts. Through these gifts the spirit of man is raised up and is able to obey more easily and more promptly the inspirations and promptings of the Holy Spirit ».
III. THE THEOLOGY OF THE GIFTS
A brief recall is given of the clarifications on this point in the doctrine of St. Thomas, substantially approved by Leo XIII in the aforementioned encyclical. In the Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ-2ᵃc, q. 68, he emphasizes above all three points: a) that the gifts are "habitus" specifically distinct from the virtues; b) that they are necessary for salvation; c) that they are connected to charity and increase with it.
a) The gifts are specifically distinct from the virtues, because they lead us to follow docilely and promptly not the direction of right reason enlightened by faith, but that of the Holy Spirit. They are permanent qualities, infused "habitus," which render man promptly obedient to the Holy Spirit, as sails put the boat in a position to follow the push of a favorable wind, greatly facilitating the work of the rowers. But for beginners the seven gifts, like sails still furled, are hindered by venial sins that are little noticed but frequent.
The virtues, even the infused virtues, act according to a human mode that results from the human rule. The gifts put us in a position to act according to a superhuman mode that results from the divine rule or from the special inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For example, prudence, even infused prudence, derives from discursive deliberation, and in this it differs from the gift of counsel, which puts us in a position to receive a special inspiration of a supra-discursive order, for example, to answer without any falsehood an indiscreet question, while keeping a secret. Thus, while faith simply adheres to the truths revealed "propter auctoritatem Dei revelantis" and the gift of understanding makes us penetrate them and that of wisdom makes us relish them. Thus the gifts are specifically distinct from the virtues.
b) They are necessary for salvation, because the human mode of the purely infused virtues leaves us in a state of inferiority with respect to our supernatural end, which it is fitting to know in a more vivid, more penetrating, more experimental and savoring manner, and toward which we must aim with greater ardor (Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ-2ᵃc, q. 68, a. 2). The gifts provide a remedy for our ignorance, for the dullness of the spirit, for the hardness of the heart. That of knowledge shows us the emptiness of earthly things, that of fear preserves us from presumption, that of counsel perfects our prudence, that of piety the virtue of religion, that of fortitude the virtue of fortitude, that of understanding the virtue of faith, that of wisdom the virtue of charity.
c) Finally the seven gifts are connected with charity, according to the saying of St. Paul in Rom. 5, 5: "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" and who does not remain in us passively. Therefore he does not descend into us without his seven gifts, which thus accompany charity and which, consequently, are lost, like it, with mortal sin. They thus belong to the spiritual organism of sanctifying Grace, which for this reason is called "the Grace of the virtues and of the gifts" (cf. Sum. Theol., 3ᵃ, q. 62, a. 2), which is distinct from the gratis datae graces such as prophecy or the gift of tongues.
And as all the infused virtues grow together like the five fingers of the hand, the same must be said of the seven gifts. Thus it never happens that a Christian has a high degree of charity without having in proportionate degree the gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, but as these gifts are at the same time speculative and practical, in certain saints they appear especially under a contemplative form and in others under a practical form more directly suited to action and like a light not shining, but diffused, that illuminates everything.
The special inspiration received through the gifts is an "operating Grace" (Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ-2ᵃc, q. 3, a. 2) which varies according to the specific character of each of the seven gifts. Through that of wisdom it gives the enjoyment of divine things (making use of the connaturality founded on charity); through that of understanding it gives the penetration of the mysteries of faith, of the greatness of God and of our misery; through the gift of knowledge it reveals to us the emptiness of earthly things if understood for themselves or their marvelous symbolism when they are considered in relation to God as rays of the sun of justice; through the gift of counsel this operating grace indicates the way to follow hic et nunc. As for the gift of wisdom, the most elevated of all, it appears clear that it directs all the others from on high, at least in a latent manner, as charity inspires all the virtues.
Some theologians, such as Scaramelli in the 18th century, supposed that every gift is related both to ordinary acts and to extraordinary acts. This conception was already found previously in St. Thomas (Quaestio unica de virtutibus cardinalibus, a. 4), because one and the same "habitus" cannot be essentially related to specifically distinct acts, of which the one is not related to the other, and the unity of the "habitus" would not be safeguarded; whereas if there are specifically distinct acts, there must be specifically distinct "habitus."
But the truth is that the superhuman mode of each gift is first latent and becomes subsequently manifest and frequent. When these two conditions are realized, they characterize the mystical life which is nothing other than the eminent exercise of the infused virtues and of the gifts that accompany them. Thus infused or mystical contemplation derives from faith vivified by charity and enlightened by the gifts of understanding and of wisdom; in short, it derives from living faith become penetrating and a source of enjoyment, and it is an almost experimental knowledge of the revealed mysteries and of the Holy Spirit present in us, who also makes himself felt to us. That is to say that the infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith does not derive from the gratis datae graces, like prophecy, but from "the grace of the virtues and of the gifts." It is therefore on the normal way of holiness. This is above all what St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, Tauler, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa and their disciples taught: Philip of the Most Holy Trinity, Joseph of the Holy Spirit, John of St. Thomas.
In the 18th and 19th centuries the influence of Scaramelli's thought determined the abandonment of this doctrine. In our times it is again fully adopted and admitted by several contemporary theologians (Arintero, Saudreau, Lamballe, Joret, Gardell, De la Taille, Peeters, Maréchal, Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, Cayré). But, practically, in directing souls, at the moment when they must normally pass from simplified meditation to contemplation, one must avoid precipitation and beforehand ascertain the existence in these souls of the three signs indicated by St. John of the Cross in the Dark Night (l. I, ch. 9): "(1) you find no sensible consolation either in the things of God or in created things; 2) habitually remembering God with solicitude and fear of turning back; 3) inability to meditate in a discursive manner." These are the signs of initial infused contemplation, and attention must be paid to them in order to avoid two opposite deviations, namely of proceeding either too late through negligence and spiritual indolence, or too early through precipitation and presumption, on the normal way of holiness.
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Reginaldo Garrigou-Lagrange