The Gifts of Understanding and Knowledge

The Gifts of Understanding and Knowledge.—As was said above (see 159), the Gifts of the Holy Ghost are intended as means for perfecting the theological virtues. There are two Gifts that serve the virtue of faith, namely, the Gifts of Understanding and Knowledge.

(a) Faith, being assent, must have a right idea of what is proposed for acceptance; but, as it is obscure (see 799), and as there are things apart from faith that may corrupt our notion of it, the Gift of Understanding is conferred, a simple perception and divine intuition through which one receives a correct notion of the mysteries of faith.

(b) Faith, being the starting point of all supernatural activities, must be the norm by which we judge of what we should think and do in the affairs of life; but, as it is a simple act of assent (see 799) and as the creatures of the world are a temptation and a snare (Wis., xiv. 11), the Gift of Knowledge is given, through which one receives a correct judgment about the things of this world. These then take on a new and fuller significance in the light of the teachings of faith.

The Gift of Understanding must not be confused with the Beatific Vision. (a) A perfect penetration of the mysteries, which enables one to perceive their essence and causes (e.g., the how and the why of the Trinity), is given by the Beatific Vision; but such understanding removes all obscurity, and is therefore insociable with faith. (b) An imperfect penetration of the teachings of faith, which does not take away the obscurity and mysteriousness, is given by the Gift of Understanding, and is therefore sociable with faith. The effects of this Gift are: it distinguishes the truths of faith from false doctrines; it conveys a clear view of the credibility of the mystery of faith against all difficulties and objections; it gives knowledge of the supernatural import of the secondary truths of faith, that is, of those revealed happenings and facts that are not themselves supernatural (Luke, xxiv. 32); it gives understanding of the practical aspect of a mystery—for example, that the intratrinitarian relations of the Divine Persons are a model for the regulation of the Christian life, in knowledge and love of divine things.

The Gift of Knowledge, which like the other Gifts is had by all the just, must not be confused with sacred knowledge or theology, nor with the extraordinary gifts of infused knowledge and the charism of knowledge.

(a) The Gift of Knowledge resembles theology in that it reproduces objectively what reason does when it argues from the visible world to the invisible Creator; but, while subjectively theology is the result of study in which one passes successively from premise to conclusion. Knowledge is the result of a divine light that may be found even in the illiterate, and it takes in at a glance all that is contained in a process of argumentation. Through this Gift the wonders of nature, the events of history, the arguments of philosophy, lead one firmly and spontaneously to the Last End and the supernatural realities of faith.

(b) Infused knowledge may have for its object things purely natural (such as truths of philosophy and the ability to speak foreign languages), while the Gift of Knowledge is concerned only with faith, judging what is to be believed or done according to faith.

(c) The charism of knowledge (I Cor., xii. 8) is a grace given one for the benefit of others, by which one is able to communicate to them successfully the teachings of faith; the Gift of Knowledge, on the contrary, proceeds from the habit of sanctifying grace, and is intended for the benefit of its recipient.

To each of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost correspond Beatitudes and Fruits (see 159).

(a) To the Gift of Understanding corresponds the Sixth Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” For by Understanding the mind is pure from wrong ideas of truth, and sees that God is above all that the intellect can comprehend. The two fruits that proceed from Understanding are faith (i.e., conviction about revealed truth) and ultimately joy, in union with God through charity. (b) To the Gift of Knowledge corresponds the Third Beatitude: “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” For by Knowledge one judges rightly about created things, grieves over the wrong use made of them, and is comforted when they are turned to their proper end.

St. Thomas, II-II, q. 8 and 9.

730. The gift of understanding, under the interior instinct of the Holy Spirit, serves for penetrating by supernatural light those things which we cannot penetrate by natural light, and which stand in faith as principles from which other things are deduced (q. 8, a. 1).

Moreover, during the state of the way we are not able to penetrate those things in themselves; but we penetrate that other evident truths are not contrary to them (a. 2).

But this happens according to a threefold grade.

"The first grade of the gift of understanding is that through it man knows that one must adhere to the truths of faith as much as is necessary for salvation, by considering some reason of the Christian faith, on account of which he knows himself to believe. For the Holy Spirit shows to everyone having grace at least some reason of faith through the clarity of the gift of understanding, on account of which he knows that one must adhere to faith. For some are moved on account of the testimonies of the prophets concerning Christ and the new law. Some from consideration of the holiness and faith of preceding fathers... Some from consideration of miracles... Some from special inspiration or divine visitation or something similar, which they experience in themselves or which happens to them.

The second grade of the gift of understanding is subtly to contemplate all or certainly the chief truths of faith: and thus to be solidified in the truths of faith so much more robustly, the more diligently one weighs the foundations of faith, to such an extent that one greatly marvels that God has deigned to approve the Catholic faith so abundantly and most evidently. Therefore to this grade of the gift of understanding it pertains clearly and promptly to advert to the origin of faith, how Christ up to the passion and death had few believers... To know sincerely these and infinitely many similar things, I think, belongs to the second grade of the gift of understanding.

To the third grade it belongs that someone by a most purified keenness be able to consider the proper reasons and foundations of the individual articles of faith, and thus be able delightfully to contemplate the individual truths of faith separately with a most subtle and most certain eye of the mind, namely, contemplating that the faith of the most blessed Trinity is reasonable... both on account of evangelical testimonies and apostolic documents, and on account of most beautiful persuasions received from the natures of things. Furthermore, by contemplating the reasons of faith concerning the incarnation of the Son of God, the oracles of the prophets, the testimonies of the apostles, reasonable considerations by which it is proved that this was fitting, and thus concerning the individual articles or particles of faith by considering their proper foundations, and how they assert almost nothing concerning Christ, without its being proved to have been foretold by the holy seers..."¹

¹ Dionysius the Carthusian, De donis, tr. II, a. 34.

To this gift corresponds the sixth beatitude: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. For the gift of understanding cleanses the mind from phantasms and errors by which we would badly receive or understand those things which are proposed concerning God: but the more we are purified from them, the better we see God, as is possible in this life.

"For there is a twofold cleanness: one indeed preamble and dispositive to the vision of God, which is the cleansing of the affection from disordered affections; and this cleanness of heart is made through virtues and gifts which pertain to the appetitive power. But another cleanness of heart is that which is as it were completive with respect to the divine vision, and this indeed is the cleanness of the mind cleansed from phantasms and errors, so that namely those things which are proposed concerning God are not received by way of bodily phantasms, nor according to heretical perversities; and the gift of understanding makes this cleanness. Likewise there is a twofold vision of God: one indeed perfect, by which the essence of God is seen; but another imperfect, by which, although we do not see of God what He is, nevertheless we see what He is not; and so much the more perfectly in this life do we know God, the more we understand Him to exceed whatever is comprehended by the intellect. And each vision of God pertains to the gift of understanding: the first indeed to the consummated gift of understanding, according as it will be in the homeland; but the second to the begun gift of understanding, according as it is had in the way" (a. 7).

To the gift of understanding responds the fruit of the Holy Spirit, faith, that is, the certitude of faith which produces delight in the mind; but in the will there responds the fruit of joy (a. 8).

731. The gift of knowledge, under the interior instinct of the Holy Spirit, serves for judging rightly and certainly according to the truth of faith concerning human and created things, by discerning what concerning these things is to be believed from what is not to be believed (q. 9, a. 1 and 2).

"The gift of knowledge obtains a threefold grade.

The first consists in this, that man know all created things with respect to the divine nature to be passing and vain, and understand that they are neither to be loved on account of themselves, nor to be sought as ultimate end, and that he adhere to them less than to God; and this grade of the gift of knowledge is required for salvation, and is judged common to all having charity.

We ought to advance to the second grade of this knowledge, namely, that concerning individual created things, one by one and through their proper reasons, we know that affection is not to be fixed in them, nor as in final goods is it to be bound in them, but that one intend or use them neither more nor less than is required for interior salvation.

Finally, the third grade of the gift of knowledge is to be so exercised, experienced, and perfect in those things which concern the active life, that in every... doubtful event and perplexed case he knows how to judge most truly, most promptly, and most salubriously, to elicit the causes of sins, to abandon the reasons of a more negligent and sluggish life, to induce contempt of temporal things, to attend to a most serious and indefatigable conversation of spiritual progresses."²

² Dionysius the Carthusian, De donis, tr. III, a. 25.

To the gift of knowledge corresponds the third beatitude: Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be consoled. For he who judges rightly concerning creatures does not find perfect good in them, but rather mourns concerning them, and orders them to the divine good; from which consolation follows (a. 4).

732. Observations. - 1. By faith we adhere simply to revealed truths; by the gift of understanding we penetrate them.

2. The gift of knowledge differs from the gift of understanding: the latter proceeds by way of simple apprehension, "so that those things which are of faith may be penetrated or grasped by understanding"; the former by way of judgment, "so that man may have right judgment concerning them and esteem that one must adhere to these and withdraw from their opposites" (q. 8, a. 6).

3. Those gifts, like faith, are per se primarily speculative, yet secondarily practical (a. 3). Thus St. Thomas, in the present place, retracts what he had written to the contrary in I-II, q. 68, a. 4 (a. 6).

4. Two vices are opposed to the gift of understanding: blindness of mind, and dullness of sense. The latter "concerning understanding imports a certain weakness (or obtuseness) of the mind concerning the consideration of spiritual goods; but blindness of mind imports an omnimodal privation of the knowledge of them" (q. 15, a. 1). Dullness arises from gluttony; blindness from lust.

Ignorance is directly opposed to the gift of knowledge.

Faith is followed by understanding, which penetrates those things which, covered with shadows, are proposed to be believed, and, with the help of reason, makes the things believed in a certain way seen; hence the Holy Doctor quaest. 3. ad 1. says that Understanding is related to Faith as Wisdom to charity; for the latter deals about eternal things according to eternal reasons in order to the vision of truth; the former is occupied about the same things, according to the same reasons too, but in order to the taste of love; science differs from those because it is occupied about creatures through created reasons, as I shall say below.

But since it is clear that Understanding is implied together with faith, since faith only simply assents, and captivates the mind into its service: but Understanding proceeds further, and is as it were a knowledge by vision, as the Seraphic Doctor says in Diaeta, tit. 6. cap. 3. de Dono Intellectus, therefore I shall treat of this by doubts.

I ASSERT. It is proved from St. Bonaventure in the places alleged, especially de Dono intellectus, cap. 2. and St. Thomas art. 1. Understanding imports a certain intimate cognition; for to understand is said as it were to read within, and this is clear to one considering the difference between the cognition of the Intellect and of the senses; for sensitive cognition is occupied about sensible things outside; but intellectual cognition, as nobler and subtler, penetrates even to the interior quiddities of things, because the object of the intellect is whatever is, from Aristotle 3. de anima, text. 37. Whence human cognition begins from sense, nor is it perfected unless it arrives at the Intellect, which truly knows what a thing is. For it is said in the book de spiritu, et anima, cap. 11. that: Whatever the senses perceive outwardly, the imagination represents inwardly, reason investigates, the intellect judges, intelligence comprehends, and leads to contemplation, which memory preserves. But it must be adverted that intellect is sometimes taken as it is the natural power of the soul, and thus the author of the Book de Spiritu, et anima speaks of it, while he says, that the intellect is the power of the soul by which it perceives invisible things, with which Aristotle de anima concurs. And this intellect is for the most part blinded: Whence Psal. 81. They did not know, nor understand. Sometimes the Intellect is taken as the intellectual virtue, or the habit of the first natural principles, which subsist beneath the light of the intellect, as is clear from Aristotle 6. Eth. cap. 6. But neither of these is the Gift of the Holy Spirit, although it is from God, and accordingly even from the Holy Spirit.

Since however man is ordered to beatitude as to a supernatural end, as appears from his image; therefore one must posit an intellect, or some light, as the supernatural habit of supernatural principles, which are the articles of faith, and in consequence the operation of certain [virtues] which are ordered to the end, because: Faith works through love, as the Apostle says Galat. 5. and this supernatural light is called the gift of Understanding, which names a certain excellence of cognition, penetrating supernatural things, which cannot be had by natural light.

But it is DESCRIBED in the book de spiritu, et anima, loc. cit. Intelligence is that power of the soul which is immediately subjoined to God: for it discerns the highest truth itself.

AGAIN it is defined there cap. 37. The Intellect is that power of the soul by which, as far as is possible to man, the Divine things are known, for penetrating the heavenly secrets, which cannot be penetrated except through his spirit, who also searches the deep things of God. Whence the Apostle says 1. Cor. 2. But to us God has revealed by his Spirit, who searches all things, even the deep things of God. This is St. Bonaventure literally, and almost St. Thomas.

The Holy Doctor proves the same thing by the testimonies of the Scriptures, and of the Fathers. Prima Ioan. 2. The anointing of the Spirit teaches us. Ioan. 16. When the Paraclete shall come, he will teach you all truth. He proves the same in Diaeta loc. cit. from 2. Timot. 2. The Lord will give you understanding in all things. He proves the same in 3. dist. 34. p. 1. art. 2. quaest. 2. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom, and of understanding.

St. Bonaventure elegantly discourses on the most noble and delightful cognition which the Gift of understanding communicates, under the metaphor of a banquet, de septem donis, cap. 7. Where he first asserts that by the gift of Understanding celestial dishes are set forth, and he reports St. Gregory lib. 1. Moral. cap. 32. saying: Understanding prepares a banquet in its day: because in that it penetrates what is heard, refreshing the heart, it illuminates its shadows: Therefore in the penetration of the things heard, the truth having been found, the mind is refreshed. The reason is, because it does not suffice the mind to taste the coverings of truths, but the kernel. Since therefore the gift of Understanding, according to Gregory, penetrates all the coverings of divine truth, both in the Scriptures and in doctrine, it reaches even to the intimate truth to be tasted, by a certain intellectual experience, which belongs to the most perfect, as Bernard says in Cantica; therefore the gift of Understanding refreshes the mind most sweetly. Speaking of this taste of experience, Bernard in the book de amore Dei cap. 10. says: The taste of the experience of the Scriptures, and of the Sacraments of God, which is in Christ, gives us sense, that we may understand the Scriptures. Whence the Lord after the resurrection opened the sense of the disciples, that they might understand the Scriptures, at the end of Luke. See the Seraphic Doctor delighting divinely in this bread having all savor of sweetness, Sap. 16. For he feeds them with the bread of life, and understanding. Eccles. 15.

I ASSERT. It is proved from St. Thomas here, and St. Bonaventure de 7. donis, cap. 7. by that of Luke at the end: He opened their sense, that they might understand the Scriptures. I shall prove the same in the following doubt.

It is PROVED from St. Bonaventure loc. cit. by the discourse of the Lincolnian upon the beginning of the Mystical Theology, which he uses as St. Thomas does, because the gift of Understanding raises [the mind] to the senses of the Scriptures, and the understanding of the Mysteries, in a manner proportioned to the way; yet where God does not seem to be [seen] without Symbols, even in the anagogic senses, not to mention the literal, allegorical, and moral; for he still enters with Moses into the cloud, as is said Exodus 24.

THEN he proves it, because this gift raises the mind as much as is necessary for merit; Therefore it is said Luke 10. Moreover one thing is necessary; and accordingly, as much as it does not detract from faith in the way, it raises the mind, as necessary for the ordinary mode of merit.

Which doctrine of St. Thomas solves the objections of those striving [to prove] that the gift of understanding, as clearly showing the object of faith, is repugnant to be shown.

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.

I ASSERT first that Understanding is in all who have sanctifying grace.

It is proved from St. Bonav. in Diaeta from that Psalm 110: Intellectus bonus omnibus facientibus eum — a good understanding to all that do it.

It is proved from the holy Doctor de septem donis, cap. 1. from the progress of our conversion, as assigned by the Council of Trent sess. 6. et 14., from which he also deduces the order of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit; for, as St. Anselm says, lib. de simil. cap. 130.: First the Holy Spirit makes the mind fear through the gift of Fear; and compassionate with itself through the gift of Piety; and He manifests the things that are to be done through the gift of Science, and carries them out firmly through the gift of Fortitude; these three gifts belong to the appetitive power, and in this they differ from the gift of Understanding, which belongs first to the intellective power, according to St. Thomas, art. 6., and concerning those He makes us consult through the gift of Counsel, whereby there is an application of means to individual works, as St. Thomas says. Then the Holy Spirit kindles the mind to understand why this and that should be done, so that the affection of charity may follow: for this follows the perfect discovery of the truth; and this is from the understanding. Therefore even natural understanding itself is called, 3. de anima, text. 18., a Light penetrating to the innermost essences; nor indeed can the will be rightly ordered to the good unless some knowledge of the truth pre-exists, because the object of the will is the good understood, as is said in 3. de anima, text. 34. et 49. From these things it follows that the gift of Understanding is given together with grace, as the ultimate disposition to wisdom, or the Divine Savor. Therefore St. August., lib. 2. de doctrina christiana, cap. 7., speaking of the seven gifts, says of the gift of Understanding: After the fifth step, namely the gift of Counsel, through which the soul is raised up from the appetite for the filth of lower things, it ascends to the sixth step, that is, to the gift of understanding, where it cleanses that very eye by which God can be seen by those who die to this world; who see insofar as they die to the world.

The holy Doctor observes, however, cap. 4., that a threefold truth is irradiated by the gift of Understanding: the truth of cognition, by showing us the faith of Christ to be most true: the truth of operation, by showing the most perfect operation; and the truth of love, by showing us charity. But the Holy Spirit works this revelation through the gift of Understanding, while He raises up, purifies, and inflames the mind from earthly things. For an earthly and animal affection impedes the understanding from understanding spiritual things, because: The animal man perceiveth not those things that are of the Spirit of God, as is said in 1 Corinth. 2. From these things it follows that the gift of Understanding is in the just, who have a right will through charity, which presupposes a right understanding; and that it is given in the ultimate preparation for charity, but not to sinners in the composite sense; for of these (the holy Fathers say), Psalm 81: They have not known nor understood, they walk on in darkness.

And although the actual gift of Understanding is convertible with Faith, which is also in sinners; nevertheless, as it is a habitual gift, it is only in him who has a right cognition and a direction of the will toward the end, as St. Bonav. says, ad 3.