Doubt III: Whether the gift of understanding consists in the contemplation of the Creator and of the creature

QUAERIT the holy Doctor what the proper act of the gift of Understanding is, and what its object. He supposes, moreover, that knowledge of God can be had in three ways. First, by a simple and immediate assent, and this belongs to faith. Second, by the assistance of reason, namely by perceiving the instinct of the Holy Spirit, whereby one is led to the assent of faith. ¶ Third, by a simple intuition, and this belongs to that beatitude which consists in the cleanness of heart, whose prerogative it is to see God.

Since, therefore, the reasons, or motives, by which one is helped toward understanding the things believed, are taken not only from the conditions of the Creator, but also from the conditions of spiritual creatures, which among creatures hold a closer assimilation to the Creator; hence it is that the gift of Understanding, whose act is to be raised up to the contemplation of the Supreme Truth by a light that not only makes one assent, but also to understand the things believed through fitting reasons, is directed not only to the contemplation of the creative essence, but also of spiritual creatures.

From these considerations he deduces what the act and the object of the gift of Understanding are. Its object, indeed, is the eternal True, insofar as it is intelligible, not only according to its proper conditions, but also according to the properties of creatures that are like God, as the Master says. But its act is to contemplate the very Truth believed, so that it may be believed more devoutly and loved more ardently.

Whence it follows that its act is speculative, because it looks to the assent of faith, but also practical, because it looks to the articles as ordered to Charity; for faith works through love, as the Apostle says, Gal. 5. Therefore the gift of Understanding extends itself to certain things to be done, not indeed so as to be principally occupied with them; but insofar as in our actions we are ruled by the eternal reasons, in the beholding and consulting of which, according to Aug. 12 de Trin. cap. 7., the soul adheres to the superior reason, which is perfected by the gift of understanding, as St. Thomas also teaches. The holy Doctor confirms this with St. Thomas, from that Psalm 110: Intellectus bonus omnibus facientibus eum — a good understanding to all that do it.

He ASSERTS, therefore, that the object of this Gift is the CREATOR, even as He shines forth in spiritual creatures, which are the Images of God.

It is PROVED from the holy Doctor, first, from the Master in littera, saying that Understanding concerns not only eternal things, but also things invisible and spiritual, arisen in time.

SECOND, from St. Dionysius, cap. 1. de coelesti hierarchia, circa medium, where he has: It is impossible that, so long as we are on the way, the divine ray shine forth upon us unveiled; but the creature that is spiritual is that veil showing God in an image: Therefore, if the understanding is directed to the Creator, it must also be directed to the knowledge of the creature.

THIRD. There is no perfect love of God unless God is loved in Himself and in His image: Therefore likewise there is no perfect gift of Understanding unless God is known through it both as to His conditions and as to the conditions of the creatures that are like Him.

FOURTH, Understanding and Faith belong to the same mind, according to St. Gregory 1. Moral. cap. 18., who says that: God gives understanding when He enlightens the mind concerning the things heard; but Faith regards not only the divine essence in itself, but also in its comparison with the creature: Therefore the gift of Understanding is ordered to the contemplation of both. See the holy Doctor in Dicta loc. cit., where he opens the Books in which the CREATOR is read in creatures, which Gulielmus imitates in his discourses, written in Italian.

You will OBJECT first. The gift of Wisdom is concerned with eternal things: but the gift of Science is concerned with created things, according to St. Aug. 12. de Trinitate, cap. 14. Therefore either the gift of Understanding is superfluous, or its act is not concerned with those two.

The holy Doctor ANSWERS that the gifts of Wisdom and of Understanding are concerned with eternal things in different ways: for the gift of Wisdom regards eternal things according to the eternal reasons, insofar as those eternal reasons are the way to the taste and experimental knowledge of divine sweetness; but the gift of Understanding deals with eternal things according to the eternal reasons, which are the way to the knowledge of the truth, whereby it is thus rendered by the Holy Spirit mobile toward perceiving the truths of faith. Hence St. Bernard appropriates the gift of Understanding to faith: but the gift of Wisdom he appropriates to Charity, whose prerogative it is to dispose one to the tasting of God.

SIMILARLY the gift of Science is concerned with created things in a different way; for it regards being according to created reasons, whence it deals also with bodily creatures, which have the character of a vestige: but the gift of Understanding deals only with creatures according to the eternal reasons. And therefore it is concerned only with spiritual creatures, in which the eternal reasons shine forth as in an image.

You will OBJECT secondly. Wisdom and Science differ, because the latter is concerned with temporal things, but the former with eternal things. Therefore the gift of Understanding cannot be concerned with both these opposite characters, which are the objects of diverse good habits.

The holy Doctor ANSWERS by denying the consequence; because Wisdom and Science, as I have said, are concerned with those objects as opposites; but the gift of Understanding regards created things as ordered to the eternal reasons, and the one is on account of the other, and thus they are one object. Hence the holy Doctor deduces that the gift of Understanding is below wisdom and above science, and thus in the middle.

You will OBJECT thirdly. Either the gift of Understanding consists in knowing only, or in knowing and being affected. If the first: Therefore it is not meritorious, because a cognitive act is not meritorious. If the second: Therefore it does not differ from Wisdom.

The holy Doctor ANSWERS that Wisdom and the gift of Understanding are related in different ways; for the former consists in the experience of divine sweetness, the latter in a knowledge extended to practice, as a way to the taste; just as the knowledge of faith is ordered to the delight, or love, of Charity, which indeed paves the way to infused wisdom, since it is founded upon the assent of faith, and moreover orders it to the taste of wisdom. Nevertheless, in the gift of Understanding too there is a certain delight in the truth, which is a kind of beatitude. To this he recalls in Dicta ad Psal. 33. Gustate, et videte quoniam suavis est Dominus — Taste, and see that the Lord is sweet. To taste belongs to wisdom; to see, to understanding; and he cites St. Gregory, homil. 19. in Ezech. The sum of this difference is that the gift of Understanding is properly penetrative; but the gift of Wisdom is properly savoring.

You will OBJECT fourthly. If the gift of Understanding regards creatures, so that from them it may rise to the knowledge of God, it must regard not only spiritual but also bodily creatures; for in these also the Divine Goodness shines forth.

The holy Doctor ANSWERS that in bodily creatures the goodness of God shines forth only obscurely, as in a vestige, but in spiritual things more clearly, as in an image; and because the gift of understanding concerns a contemplation clearer than is the knowledge of faith, hence it is that it regards only those creatures in which God shines forth more clearly; but these are those which have the character of an image.

You will OBJECT fifthly. Gifts that are combined with one another are concerned with the same thing: such is the gift of Understanding, which is combined with the gift of Wisdom: Therefore. But the gift of Wisdom is concerned only with eternal things, therefore also the gift of Understanding.

The holy Doctor ANSWERS that, because the gift of Wisdom consists in taste, but the gift of Understanding in the light of reason, and affection ascends higher than reason, and union than knowledge, as St. Dionysius says, hence it is that the gift of Wisdom has not so much need of the assistance of creatures as the gift of Understanding has. Therefore the latter is concerned also with creatures, as assistances for ascending to God. And so, when it is said that gifts which are combined with one another have the same object, this is true of the principal object, not of the assisting one.

You will object sixthly. The gift of Understanding is concerned with creatures insofar as they lead to the knowledge of the Creator: Therefore it contemplates God through a mirror: Therefore it does not differ from Faith.

The holy Doctor answers that faith and the gift of Understanding contemplate God in a mirror in different ways; for there are various degrees of the cognition of one who contemplates. Faith, therefore, renders one able to assent to the articles of faith immediately, though preceded by the knowledge, through creatures, of that which is signified by such a name. Thus it moves one to assent to the article of the Trinity, though preceded by the knowledge of the number three. But the gift of Understanding further illuminates one to know the motive on account of which the Trinity ought to be posited in the Divinity; namely, because it sees in the rational creature the going forth of the Word from the mind by the way of generation, and of Love from both, by the way of connection. And so the reason is evident why there ought to be diverse habits.

From these considerations you have what the object of the gift of Understanding is, and what its act, and what the difference of this gift from the other habits.