Question VI: On the gift of piety

To Justice corresponds the Gift of Piety. On which see St. Doctor de septem donis Spiritus sancti, De Dono Pietatis, cap. 2. et 3. Et 3. part. Centul. sect. 45. Et in Compend. Theol. verit. lib. 5. cap. 43.

D. Thom. explains art. 1. that this gift consists in the worship owed to God, exhibited to Him as Creator and Parent, just as the Virtue of Piety regards the worship of parents. And just as by the virtue of piety we worship not only parents but also relatives, so also by the gift of Piety we worship the saints and their relics.

Yet this doctrine is not without difficulty. First, because if the reason of Father, considered in God, constitutes the special reason of a gift of the Holy Spirit, it will also constitute the special reason of a virtue; for the Gift and the virtue are not distinguished on the side of the object (Quod) but from the mode of tending, in that the former is borne to that object by a special motion of the Holy Spirit, rendering man apt to pursue it promptly; while the latter is borne by its own and innate reason. Whence it follows that if that reason of Paternity in God suffices to constitute the gift, it also suffices to constitute a virtue distinct from religion, which would render to God a special worship under this reason — and yet no such virtue is found.

Further, either the gift is borne to God as parent according to creation and as giver of being, or as giver of grace. If the first, this reason is included in the object of religion, which regards God as the first principle. If you say the second, since the reason of Paternity and Filiation according to grace is a certain special reason of friendship, it seems rather to pertain to Charity, as Tannerus argues disp. 6. quaest. 2. dub. 3.

Wherefore, following the Seraphic Doctor, he places the gift of Piety in this, that it render man easily mobile to the worship owed to God, both as to the first principle, and therefore to the Creator, and also as to the ultimate end, and therefore as to the Justifier, the Redeemer, and the Glorifier, to be worshiped — with this interim distinction, that the Gift moves by a special drawing of the Holy Spirit, while religion guides by the proper drawing of reason.

By the Metaphor, however, of the Day, St. Doctor explains this cap. 2. de septem Donis, cited. For first there is, as it were, the Dawn and beginning of this gift, when man, looking upon his state and his necessities, irradiated by God, is moved by piety to seek his principle and end. The light grows to noon, while we, illumined by the Holy Spirit, rise in due worship toward God.

St. Doctor places a twofold worship, §. sed notandum. Interior, and Exterior. Interior worship is that by which one offers himself to God as the principle of his creation and the end of his beatification, and of all things that he has received from Him. This reason dictates, because the inferior ought to be subject to the superior, on whom it depends and by whom it is lacking in many ways, and therefore it needs His influence.

Nature also inclines to this, which rational nature sufficiently shows, since it does not rest fully except in God. Hence D. Augustinus lib. 1. confess. cap. 1. says: Lord, my heart is unquiet until it comes to you.

He ADDS, indeed, that although the supreme worship is to be exhibited to God, yet some worship, he says, is also to be exhibited to the Saints and their relics, as D. Damascenus teaches lib. 4. de fide, cap. 12.

In the third chapter, indeed, he pursues the goods flowing from the Gift of Piety into the soul. See it.

To the Gift of Piety are adapted the fourth and fifth beatitudes. Blessed are they who hunger: Blessed are the merciful, etc., if they are considered properly according to acts and objects: See D. Bonavent. 3. part. Centil. sect. 46. et lib. 5. Compendii, Theol. cap. 47.

From the fruits, conjecture easily the benignity of this virtue. See St. Doctor in the place cited of the Centiloquium.

The GOODS flowing from piety into the soul are considered in the exercise of the virtues, whether toward God or toward neighbor; for this virtue begets in minds a pious sense and affection, so that whatever is hard or rigid found in the ministries of the virtues may be laid aside; and with serene and sweet countenance and conversation one compassionates and succors the ills of others: hence Hugo says lib. 3. de claustro animae, quoted by the Seraphic Doctor, cap. 3. de 7. donis: Piety invites the desperate, Charity draws the unwilling, mercy pacifies the angry; cheerfulness renders one secure, affability familiar, etc. Hence piety is said to be useful for all things; because it underlies the other virtues as a kind of spiritual seasoning, so that they are rumination in the palate of the mind with a savory taste; nor from this similitude of piety and mercy should these two Virtues be confused with one another. For, as the Seraphic Doctor says loco cit. centil. cap. 45., mercy attends in neighbor to conformity in nature and necessity in misery, which it succors according to the rule of prudence; Piety, however, attends in neighbor to the divine image, with the prior dictate of divine law, according to the rule of the gift of knowledge; so that Piety inspires not only a benevolent affection toward Creatures marked with the Divine image, but also toward those which are as it were vestiges of divinity; whence St. P. Francis, most gentle toward the crueler beasts, because they were creatures of God, exercised toward them the offices of compassion, and by the example and benefit of piety compelled them to lay down their ferocity.