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The Beatitude and the Fruits That Correspond to Counsel
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McHugh–Callan, Moral Theology
Vol. II, Pt. II, Q. II, Art. 1. The Virtue of Prud…, The Beatitude and the Fruits That Correspond to Counsel
The Beatitude and Fruits that Correspond to the Gift of Counsel
The Beatitude and Fruits that Correspond to the Gift of Counsel.—(a) Counsel directs one to all the means that are useful for the attainment of life eternal, but especially to acts of mercy, for, as St. Augustine remarks, without mercy shown to others we cannot be freed from our own evils. Cognate to Counsel, therefore, is the Fifth Beatitude: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matt., v. 7).
(b) Counsel is practical, and hence its ultimate result will be action of some kind. The acts which its farseeing view puts especially into exercise are acts of mercy, and acts of mercy have sweetness and agreeableness when accompanied by a sympathetic love of the afflicted and a cheerful and generous service of their needs. There belong to mercy, then, the two delightful acts or fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Gal., v, 22, and called goodness (i.e., internal benevolence) and kindness (i.e., external beneficence).
Merkelbach, Summa Theologiae Moralis
Vol. II, Special Moral Theology: On…, Treatise: On the Cardinal …, First Part: On Prudence It…, Question Two: On the Parts…, Article IV: On the Gift of Counsel
St. Thomas, II-II, q. 52.
32. What the gift of counsel is. - The gifts of the Holy Spirit are dispositions by which the soul is rendered well and easily movable by the Holy Spirit, especially in arduous things which pertain to salvation. Therefore the gift of counsel (gave van goddelijken raad) is a certain light by which, as if by counsel received from God, man sees what is to be done in order to salvation. Whence just as through prudence or eubulia man is one counseling well, so through the gift of counsel he is capable of taking counsel well; in the same way as in human affairs those who do not suffice for themselves in the inquiry of counsel seek counsel from wiser men (a. 1, ad 1).
Man needs to be moved by God Himself, through a supernatural inquiry of reason, concerning the means to the supernatural end: for human reason is not able to comprehend all individual and contingent things. But for such motion acquired or infused prudence is not sufficient, nor are the other virtues. Therefore a special habit must be posited, so that man may be moved by God through a supernatural inquiry of reason concerning the means to the supernatural end; this we call the gift of divine counsel.
It is distinguished a) from faith, which, although it is secondarily practical, is practical only remotely by way of universal rule, not proximately and applicatively to a work here and now to be placed in singulars;
b) from science and wisdom, for a similar reason. For they treat of things to be done scientifically and speculatively, namely of practical principles in common, and are not immediately concerned with singular contingents;
c) from the supernatural virtue of prudence also, chiefly in that prudence moves in a human mode, as a dictate proceeding from deliberation dependently upon human reason, nevertheless illustrated by faith; but the gift itself moves in a divine mode, according to the instinct of the Holy Spirit, immediately dependently upon divine reason, from connatural supernatural affection and union with the supernatural end: from this union, namely, and connaturality, man is rendered fit and perfect for judging concerning things to be done for the supernatural end. Thus the gift of counsel is a completing co-principle of the infused virtue of prudence.
A threefold grade is distinguished in its use.
"The first grade of the gift of counsel is that by which man is receptive of the counsels of the Holy Spirit as to those things which are necessary for salvation, namely for observing the precepts; indeed he who is not adorned with this grade of counsel is in a state of condemnation... The second grade of the gift of counsel is that by which we incline the ear of the mind to the evangelical counsels of Christ... The third grade... perfectly to fulfill the counsels themselves of Christ."
- Dionysius the Carthusian, On the Gifts, tr. III, a. 7.
33. The gift of counsel corresponds to prudence as helping and perfecting it, because it is concerned with the same things to be done here and now for the sake of the end.
"The inferior moving principle is chiefly helped and perfected by this, that it is moved by a higher moving principle... But it is manifest that the rectitude of human reason is compared to divine reason as an inferior moving principle, which is moved, to a superior one...: for eternal reason is the supreme rule of all human rectitude. And therefore prudence, which imports the rectitude of (practical) reason, is most of all perfected and helped according as it is ruled and moved by the Holy Spirit; which pertains to the gift of counsel... Whence the gift of counsel responds to prudence as helping and perfecting it" (a. 2).
But it is rightly called divine counsel, and not judgment or command: "To judge and command does not belong to one moved, but to one moving. And because, in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the human mind does not have itself as moving, but rather as moved..., hence it is that it was not fitting that the gift corresponding to prudence be called command or judgment, but counsel, by which there can be signified the motion of the mind counseled by another counseling" (ad 1).
34. The gift of counsel is in all the just, at least as to those things which are necessary for salvation (a. 1, ad 2). And it remains in the fatherland, where man is perfectly directed by the Holy Spirit; but there it will have another act. For there it is not according to some inquiry and doubt about things to be done (which does not befit the perfection of the fatherland), but partly insofar as the cognition of those things which they already know are to be done is continued by God in the blessed, for example, in praising God or praying for others; partly insofar as they are illuminated concerning those things which they do not know about things to be done. For they do not know all things which pertain to the governance of things and are not of the essence of beatitude, but that which is revealed to them as it pleases God, as is explained by St. Thomas, I, q. 12, a. 8 (a. 3).
The fifth beatitude is said to correspond to the gift of counsel: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. For counsel is properly about those things useful for salvation; but mercy is most useful. And "therefore the beatitude of mercy specially corresponds to the gift of counsel, not as eliciting but as directing" (a. 4). And although the counsel of the Holy Spirit directs in all acts of the virtues, nevertheless it specially directs in works of mercy, for the reason already given (ad 1).
Bontempi, Palladium Theologicum V
Tr. I, Disputation XXI: On the Gi…, Question IV: Whether the fifth beatitude corresponds to the gift of counsel
D. Augustine Lib. 1. de sermone Domini in monte, cap. 9. says: Counsel befits the merciful, because the unique remedy is to be rescued from such great evils, to forgive others, and to give.
It is proved therefore from D. Thom., because Counsel is of those things which are useful to the end; as among all means piety is useful to all things, as is said: first Timot. 4. Therefore to the gift of counsel, as directing, Mercy corresponds, since the best Counsel is that you do to another what you would wish done to yourself.
It is proved also from D. Bonaventure in Diaeta, tit. 7. cap. 4. that to that Gift this Beatitude corresponds, at whose Precept it operates; but at the precept of Counsel mercy operates; therefore. For Counsel shows how we can be made better by the evils of others, by compassionating them; just as to be enriched by poverty, to be healed by infirmity, and to be relieved by a burden, according to that Counsel of the Apostle: bear one another's burdens, which Mercy, obedient, strives to bear the burdens of all, and the more it is burdened, the more it gains, and the more quickly it runs to the prize of the supernatural fatherland.
Moreover, as Human Counsel persuades to lend more willingly to the King, for the reason that he can the more securely repay the Capital, repair the losses, pay the profits and the usuries; So the merciful are counseled by this gift, that they take care to bestow their goods more abundantly on the poor; through whose hands the liberal King, God, receives them, who is accustomed to keep the Capital for his Merchants (says the Seraphic Doctor here), by preserving grace, repair the losses, by remitting sin; pay the usuries, namely by bestowing glory and eternal life.
To this counsel the virgins prudently obeyed, carrying oil, namely of Mercy and compassion, in their vessels, as the Saintly Doctor explains; wherefore, that they may traffic according to this counsel, Christ exhorts Matthew 25.: Go, and sell all, and give to the poor.