GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. – Supernatural habits that perfect the infused virtues and render our faculties disposed to obey divine promptings more promptly and easily.
I. TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE
The revealed doctrine concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit is contained chiefly in the classic text of Is. 11:2, which the Fathers often commented upon, saying that it applies first to the Messiah and then, by participation, to all the just, because the Savior promised to send them the Holy Spirit.“Upon him the Spirit of God will rest, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and fear of God.” The Hebrew text does not mention the gift of piety; but the Septuagint and the Vulgate recall it, and after the third 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 distinction will be more precise in the New Testament, particularly when St. Paul says (Rom. 8:15): “You have not received a spirit of servitude to remain in fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption by which we cry: Abba! Father! This Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God,” and we must have filial piety toward him.
In Wis. 7:7–30, we also read: “I prayed, and the Spirit of Wisdom descended upon 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 in Is. 11:2, and that it is promised, to a certain degree, to all the just.
This revelation of the Old Testament acquires its true meaning in the light of the Savior’s words, when he promises to send the Holy Spirit (cf. Io. 14:26): “The Holy Spirit whom my Father will send you in my name will teach you everything, and you will remember everything that I have told you.” St. John adds (I Io. 2:20): “You, my little children, have received the anointing from the Holy One and know everything.”
Moreover, in Holy Scripture there are texts commonly cited as relating to each gift in particular, for example Lc. 24:45, concerning the disciples of Emmaus: “Then Jesus opened their spirit so that they might understand the Scriptures”; Ps. 110:10: “The fear of Jahweh 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 Jahweh; and understanding is the knowledge of the Holy One”; in Io. 8:12, Jesus says: “He who follows me does not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
II. TRADITION
The Fathers often commented on the cited texts of Scripture and, from the third century onward, generally taught 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, chap. 14; De doctrina christiana, bk. II, chap. 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. According to St. Augustine, contemplation is a supernatural wisdom. It proceeds from living faith, illuminated by a special inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which gives the enjoyment of God (cf. St. Augustine, De Trinitate, II, XII–XIV, and F. Cayré, La contemplation augustienne, Paris 1927, chaps. 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 the Greek and Latin Fathers’ testimonies concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as though this diminished the substance of scholastic speculation, and of Thomistic speculation in particular. It would be useful to resume the examination of the texts studied, with considerable erudition, by De Blic, and to subject them to further scrutiny, broadening the positive investigations. In any case, even on the basis of few data from Revelation, it is possible, in a period of particular intellectual maturity, to construct a speculative system. Vedi the sound 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, chap. 9, § 3) clarifies 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 Christian life, by means of which we can know whether the Holy Spirit dwells within us.” St. Paul indeed said (Rom. 8:16): “The Holy Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God.” He bears witness to this through the filial love that he inspires in us and through which he makes himself in some way perceptible to us (cf. St. Thomas, In Ep. ad Rom., 8:16). One of the finest testimonies of Tradition concerning the seven gifts is provided by the liturgy of Pentecost.
Finally, Leo XIII, in his encyclical on the Holy Spirit, Divinum illud munus, 9 May 1897, says toward the end that “the just person, who lives by Grace and acts through virtue as through new faculties, absolutely needs the seven gifts. Through these gifts the human spirit is raised up and enabled to obey more easily and more readily the inspirations and promptings of the Holy Spirit.”
III. THE THEOLOGY OF THE GIFTS
We shall briefly recall the clarifications concerning this matter found in the doctrine of s. Tommaso, substantially approved by Leone XIII in the encyclical cited above. In the Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ-2ᵃc, q. 68, he chiefly emphasizes 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 with charity and increase together with II.a) The gifts are specifically distinct from the virtues because they induce 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, just as sails enable a boat to follow the impulse of a favorable wind, greatly facilitating the rowers’ work. But in beginners the seven gifts, like sails that have not yet been unfurled, are impeded by scarcely noticed but frequent venial sins.
The virtues, including the infused virtues, act according to a human mode resulting from the human rule. The gifts enable us to act according to a superhuman mode resulting from the divine rule or from the special inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For example, prudence, even when infused, proceeds from discursive deliberation, and in this it differs from the gift of counsel, which enables us to receive a special inspiration of a supradiscursive order, as, for example, to answer without any lie an indiscreet question while preserving a secret. Thus, while faith simply adheres to revealed truths “propter auctoritatem Dei revelanti,” the gift of understanding makes us penetrate them, and that of wisdom enables us to savor 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 livelier, more penetrating, more experiential, and more savorous manner, and toward which we must strive with greater impetus (Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ-2ᵃc, q. 68, a. 2). The gifts provide a remedy for our ignorance, for the dullness of the spirit, and for hardness of heart. The gift 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; and that of wisdom, the virtue of charity.
c) Finally, the seven gifts are connected with charity, according to the words of s. Paolo in Rom. 5, 5: “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us,” and who does not remain passively within us. Therefore he does not descend into us without his seven gifts, which thus accompany charity and consequently, like it, are lost through 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), and which is
distinct from the graces gratis datae, such as prophecy or the gift of tongues.
And just 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 possesses a high degree of charity without possessing, in a proportionate degree, the gifts of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. But since these gifts are at the same time speculative and practical, in certain saints they appear chiefly in a contemplative form, while in others they appear in a practical form more directly suited to action, like a light that does not shine forth but is diffused and 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. In the case of wisdom, it gives the enjoyment of divine things, making use of the connaturality founded upon charity; in the case of understanding, it gives penetration into the mysteries of faith, the greatness of God, and our misery; the gift of knowledge reveals to us the emptiness of earthly things when understood in themselves, or their marvelous symbolism when considered in relation to God, as rays of the sun of justice; and the gift of counsel indicates, through this operating grace, the path to be followed hic et nunc. As for the gift of wisdom, the highest of all, it is clear that it directs all the others from above, at least latently, just as charity inspires all the virtues.
Some theologians, such as Scaramelli in the eighteenth century, have supposed that each gift is related both to ordinary acts and to extraordinary acts. This conception was already found in s. Tommaso (Questia unica de virtutibus cardinalibus, a. 4), because one and the same “habitus” cannot be essentially related to specifically distinct acts, one of which is unrelated to the other, since 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 at first latent and later becomes 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 accompanying them. Thus infused or mystical contemplation derives from faith enlivened by charity and enlightened by the gifts of understanding and wisdom; in short, it derives from living faith, which has become penetrating and a source of enjoyment, and is an almost experiential knowledge of the revealed mysteries and of the Holy Spirit present within us, who also makes himself felt by us. That is to say, infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith does not derive from the graces gratis datae, such as prophecy, but from “the grace of the virtues and of the gifts.” It therefore lies on the normal path of holiness. This is above all what was taught by s. Agostino, s. Gregorio Magno, s. Tommaso, s. Bonaventura, Taulero, s. Giovanni della Croce, s. Teresa, and their disciples: Filippo della S.ma Trinità, Giuseppe dello Spirito Santo, Giovanni di S. Tommaso.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the influence of Scaramelli’s thought led to the abandonment of this doctrine. In modern times it has once again been wholly adopted and accepted by several contemporary theologians (Arintero, Saudreau, Lamballe, Joret, Gardell, De la Taille, Peeters, Maréchal, Gabriele di Santa M. Maddalena, Cayré). In practice, however, when directing souls, at the moment when they must normally pass from simplified meditation to contemplation, it is necessary to avoid haste and first ascertain in these souls the existence of the three signs indicated by s. Giovanni della Croce in the Notte oscura (l. I, chap. 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 discursively.” These are the signs of initial infused contemplation, and attention must be paid to them in order to avoid two opposite deviations, namely, proceeding either too late through negligence and spiritual indolence, or too early through haste and presumption, along the normal path of holiness.