Question II: What is the usefulness, and necessity, of this gift

IT IS TO BE NOTED first with St. Bonaventure de Dono Sapientiae, cap. 2. from St. Bernard lib. de natura, et dignitate amoris Divini, cap. 7. that: As the body has its five senses, by which it is joined to the soul, life mediating; so the Soul has its five spiritual senses, by which it is joined to God, Charity mediating; and as all the senses, without the sense of Taste, are weakened and dulled in their operations; so all the spiritual senses are weakened and languish in their works without the sapiential taste, which makes spiritual things relishable and flavorful. This savor, as St. Bernard says, serm. 85. in Cant., we lost in the eating of the sour apple, infected with poison, from which our cravings now have a taste for us. But this sense is repaired through wisdom, so that divine things become sweet to us; whence the powers of the soul are revived, as St. Bernard says above, cap. 10. Therefore the sense of Hearing it excites to hearing the word of God; the sense of Smell to following the Beloved, so as to say: We shall run in the odor of your ointments; the sense of Touch to holding the Beloved firmly, so as to say: I held him, and I will not let him go. I will bring him into my father's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me. Cant. 3.

THEREFORE all the spiritual senses are excited by the taste of wisdom to the highest appetible thing, as St. Augustine lib. 10. Confess. cap. 6. teaches.

Of this wisdom James says, cap. 3.: The wisdom that is from above, first indeed is chaste: because it avoids the corruptions of sin; indeed peaceable, and modest, keeping the mean in all things, etc.

Therefore the gift of Wisdom not only teaches one to contemplate divine things with right judgment, but also teaches to regulate human acts in a more excellent manner than the wisdom that is an intellectual virtue teaches. St. Augustine 12. de Trin. cap. 14. brings the reason, saying: The higher part of reason is deputed to wisdom; the lower, however, to knowledge. But the higher reason is for meditations supernal, namely divine, to be beheld and consulted. To be beheld, indeed, insofar as divine things are contemplated in themselves. But to be consulted, insofar as through divine things it indicates concerning human ones, directing human acts by divine rules, so that man be assimilated to God not only according to the image, but also according to the operations, as far as he can. Hence St. Augustine, de serm. Domini in monte cap. 9. says: Wisdom is the contemplation of truth, pacifying the whole man, and taking on the likeness of God. Wisdom is more precious than all works, and all things that are desired are not worth comparison with it.

From what has been said the Holy Doctor, with St. Thomas art. 3., deduces that Wisdom is practical. Hence the Apostle Coloss. 4. says: Walk in wisdom: hence it is elicited also, toward which operation it orders, namely, that the divine things sapidly tasted be judged by a palate cleansed, not infected, and that we famished ones aspire avidly to them, the infection of the evil humor having been removed, in the manner in which, after the gall has been purged by savoring sugar, necessary foods afterwards taste good to us. The same St. Augustine has, 12. de Trin. cap. 14.

The reason is, because the higher any virtue is, the more things it extends to, as is had in lib. de causis, prop. 10. Therefore since wisdom, which is a gift, is more preeminent than wisdom intellectual acquired, which is directed to contemplation, it follows that it extends also to action, as Tannerus also argues num. 39.

You will say that Sap. 8. has: No bitterness is in her conversation (namely, Wisdom's), nor tedium in her company, but joy and gladness. Yet in action tedium and bitterness are found, as St. Gregory lib. 6. Moral. cap. 28. says: In contemplation the principle, which is God, is sought; in operation, however, one labors under heavy necessity of the bundle.

It is answered that the bitterness which is in action does not come from Wisdom; but rather is turned by it into sweetness, as Tannerus observes number 40., from St. Bonaventure on that passage of Wisdom, and St. Thomas.