The Gift of Piety

The Complements of Justice.—To each of the various virtues correspond certain complements, namely, Gifts of the Holy Ghost, Fruits of the Holy Ghost, and Beatitudes (see 159).

(a) The Gift that corresponds to justice is piety, for, like justice, piety is exercised towards another, and moreover piety is the completion of the virtue of religion, the highest development of justice. This Gift is defined as “an infused habit that renders the soul well disposed towards God as its kind Father, and makes it quickly responsive to the Holy Spirit when He moves it to acts of filial affection towards God.” As the virtue of piety is shown to earthly fathers, so the Gift of Piety is shown to the Father in heaven: “You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, in which we cry: Abba, Father” (Rom., viii. 15). Religion honors God as Lord, piety as Father; filial fear reveres His majesty, piety His lovingkindness. And as a child tenderly loves all that belongs to a good father, so piety makes the soul rejoice and be glad in the things of God, in the Saints, the Scriptures, the practices of religion, and the like.

(b) The Beatitudes assigned here are the fourth (Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill), which agrees with justice, and the fifth (Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy), which is suitable for piety inasmuch as one who finds his love and joy in God as Father will be compassionate to the suffering creatures of God. Like justice, both of these Beatitudes are exercised in reference to the neighbor (see 164).

(c) The Fruits that seem most appropriate here are good will and kindness, which find a sweet joy in purposing and performing services for others. Like justice, these acts have reference to others (163); like piety, they see in their neighbors the children of the same heavenly Father. Thus, justice when alone is guided by prudence; it pays what is due to God as Lord, to man as neighbor; it acts perhaps with pain, but from a sense of duty. But when justice is supernaturally perfected, it is the Spirit of Piety which guides, and which makes one to see in God one’s Father and in man the child of God; even that which is not owed is given from mercy, and there is a hunger and thirst for justice; and in the payment of duty to others there is at last a joy found in the very difficulty itself.

S. Th. II-II, q. 121.

894. The gift of the Holy Spirit which corresponds to justice is piety toward God. - "The gifts of the Holy Spirit are certain habitual dispositions of the soul, by which it is promptly movable by the Holy Spirit (by a special motion). But among other things the Holy Spirit moves (by a special motion) to this, that we have a certain filial affection toward God, according to Rom. VIII, 15: You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, in which we cry: Abba, Father. And because it properly pertains to piety to exhibit office and worship to a father, it follows that piety, according to which we exhibit worship and office to God as Father, by the instinct of the Holy Spirit, is a gift of the Holy Spirit (a. 1)... Just as through piety which is a virtue, man exhibits office and worship not only to his carnal father, but also to all joined by blood, according as they pertain to the father; so also piety according as it is a gift, exhibits worship and office not only to God, but also to all men insofar as they pertain to God" (ad 3).

Hence it is understood that it corresponds to justice, because it is toward another as justice is. Yet it is more excellent than justice, for it surpasses even religion, which is the chief among the parts of justice: for religion exhibits worship to God as first principle, but piety to God as father.

It is exercised in diverse degree.

"The first grade of the gift of piety is that by which we bear ourselves toward others so mercifully, liberally, or communicatively, as is required for salvation. For we are bound to communicate our spiritual and bodily goods to our neighbors for cause, place, and time. Therefore, when from that which abounds to us we give to others, and do not will to communicate so much that we ourselves sustain some want, then we have attained the first grade of piety.

But its second grade is to communicate even from our necessities to our brethren.

The third grade is when a man sometimes expends himself, as the Apostle says: I will most gladly spend and be spent myself for your souls."¹

¹ Dionysius Carthusianus, De donis, tr. III, a. 40.

895. To the gift of piety there corresponds the second beatitude: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth.

If the agreement of the gifts and beatitudes is considered according to matter and acts, the fourth and fifth beatitudes correspond better to the gift of piety, namely, the desire of justice and mercy toward others on account of God the common father. But the beatitudes are perhaps more fittingly considered according to their motives and according to the order of enumeration; and then the second has some agreement with piety, insofar as through meekness the impediments of the acts of piety are removed.

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.