The Nature of the Gift of Wisdom

The Nature of the Gift of Wisdom.—Wisdom is defined as “a habit for judging things in the light of their First Cause, the Supreme Good, which is infused into the soul along with sanctifying grace.”

(a) Wisdom is a habit, and so it differs from passing acts. Thus, a man in the state of sin who avoids idolatry, judges in the light of the highest cause that worship is not to be given to creatures; but he lacks the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and therefore does not judge in virtue of that special instinct or power which originates from the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost.

(b) Wisdom judges, and this sets it apart from habits that belong to the will (e.g., the Gifts of Piety, Fortitude, and Fear), as well as from habits whose chief act is assent (e.g., the virtue of Faith) or penetration (e.g., the Gift of Understanding).

(c) The standard by which Wisdom judges things is the First Cause of all, or the Supreme Good, as when our Lord explained that the condition of the man born blind was due to the purpose of God to be glorified through that blindness (John, ix. 3). The wise man is he who goes back to first principles, to the origins of things, to ultimate purposes; but it is not every wisdom that estimates things according to the Supreme Good, and there is a false wisdom (see 1623) whose canon of excellence is the imperfect good opposed to Supreme Good. The Gift of Wisdom, therefore, is distinct from sinful wisdom, which is wise at doing evil (Jer., iv. 22); from particular wisdom, which understands well the theory and practice of some science, art, or profession, and is able therefore to decide correctly and to arrange successfully such matters as fall under a special kind of activity, as in medicine or architecture or strategy (I Cor., iii. 10).

(d) The things that make up the object of Wisdom are, in the first place, divine things (e.g., the attributes, plans, government, operations of God); and, in the second place, created things, whether in the speculative order (e.g., mind and matter, good and evil, science, religion, history), or in the practical order (i.e., human actions). Wisdom contemplates the divine as known from faith or the beatific vision, and then, with the things of God as its rule, it judges the things of earth and directs the conduct of men: “The spiritual man judgeth all things” (I Cor, ii, 15). Thus does Wisdom differ from the Gifts of Knowledge and of Counsel; for Knowledge is concerned directly with secondary causes and rises from the creature to the Creator, While Counsel is not a speculative but a practical Gift, and is a response to direction given by the Holy Spirit for the guidance of conduct.

(e) The Gift of Wisdom is an infused perfection of the intellect, “a wisdom descending from on high” (James, iii. 15). Hence, while it resembles the virtue of Wisdom, which also judges human and divine things through first causes (see 145), it differs from that virtue, even with reference to the same objects, on account of its different way of approach. Theology and philosophy judge correctly because they employ study and the investigation of reason; but the Gift of Wisdom has a right judgment because it depends, not on analysis or argumentation, but on a supernatural knowledge had through faith (or vision in case of the blessed) and a supernatural experience of God through charity. Wisdom may express itself, indeed, in the concepts and language of philosophy or theology, but it is not through scientific processes that it knows and judges.

(f) The Gift of Wisdom is infused into the soul along with sanctifying grace; for, like the other Gifts of the Holy Ghost, it is intended to supplement through the action of the Holy Spirit the control exercised by grace, which is imperfect on account of the limitations of the virtues. The Gift of Wisdom, therefore, is an ordinary and normal fact in the spiritual life, and must not be confused with rare and extraordinary phenomena—with the “word of wisdom” (I Cor., xii. 8), which was granted to the Apostles and at times to other preachers of the faith, nor with the clear contemplation of God bestowed in the state of innocence, nor with the infused knowledge or light of glory enjoyed by Christ and some of the Saints while on earth. Thus, while all who are in the state of grace possess the Gift of Wisdom, comparatively only a few have received the “word of wisdom”—that is, the ability to instruct others in the higher mysteries of faith and to explain to them with ease and in suitable language the meaning of these mysteries and their relation to supreme causes. Both these graces are supernatural, but, while the Gift of Wisdom is needed by each individual for his own sanctification, the word of wisdom is needed only in certain cases for the sanctification of others.

From the foregoing definition it is seen that Wisdom belongs both to the will and to the intellect.

(a) In its cause, Wisdom belongs to the will. The cause of right judgment by means of divine things is either the suitability of the intellect, which knows well how to judge, or the suitability of the will, which is inclined towards divine things. Thus, he who is well versed in moral science will give a correct decision about a case of chastity as it falls under the inquiry of reason, and he who is chaste will judge correctly about the same case, even without moral science, but from the sympathy he has for the virtue. The intellectual virtue of Wisdom, then, judges aright because the intellect is sound in its procedures; but the Gift of Wisdom is right in its judgments, because the will has been united to God through charity, so that there has resulted in one a suitability for judging about the things of God: “Give me one who loves, and he will understand what I say” (Augustine, Tract. xxvi. in Joan.).

(b) In its essence, Wisdom belongs to the intellect, for it consists in judgment, and this is an act that is exercised, not by the affections, but by the reason. Through love the soul becomes one spirit with God (I Cor., vi. 17), and the will experiences the sweetness of this union (Ps. xxxiii. 9); the intellect then judges concerning the divine which has been the object of its mystical communion. The Gift of Wisdom, built as it is on faith and charity, differs utterly from private interpretation of revelation (which is subversive of faith) and from the Modernistic experience of the divine (which is explained as a natural intuition had by a special religious sense of a reality that is divine and yet only subjective and unknowable).

From the definition and explanation of the Gift of Wisdom it also follows that this Gift is practical as well as speculative.

(a) Primarily, Wisdom is speculative, for one must consider divine things in themselves before one applies them to other things; and, moreover, the object of Wisdom is God, who is the first truth in the order of knowledge or speculation. It is by Wisdom, then, as well as by the other intellectual Gifts or extraordinary graces, that the act of supernatural contemplation is exercised; but Wisdom, more perfect than the other Gifts, ascends at once to things that are heavenly, divine and eternal, and thinks of God as transcending in perfection every known or knowable degree of created excellence, and as being most true, most beautiful, most lovable (Eph., iii. 17-19).

(b) Secondarily, Wisdom is practical, for God whom it contemplates is the supreme rule of action, as well as the first truth. Thus does the higher Gift of Wisdom unite in itself what are found separate in lower virtues—the speculative quality of the virtue of Wisdom and the practical quality of Prudence (see 1620).

The practical uses of the Gift of Wisdom are indicated in Coloss., iii. 16-17, iv. 6: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all Wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to God. All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.... Walk with Wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt.”

(a) The contemplation of divine things is useful for instruction in the truths of faith and the duties of religion (“teaching and admonishing one another”); for the mind becomes in a way divine, like the things on which it dwells, filled with knowledge of God and of Christ and of the means of holiness.

(b) Wisdom helps one to fulfill the duty of praying to God with reverence and interior devotion (“singing in your hearts to God”); for Wisdom makes one perceive and feel the sweetness and attraction of the things of God.

(c) It directs one in both words and works (“do all in the name of Christ”); for the intellect which judges things in the light of eternity and with the fervor of divine charity will not mislead in matters of salvation.

(d) It enables one to profit by opportunities of edification (“redeeming the time”); for the example of a life directed by tender love of God and by kindness and courtesy to all is a recommendation of virtue and religion in the sight of the world.

Wisdom is a Gift of the Holy Ghost, and is numbered with the other six communications of the Spirit: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of Wisdom, etc.” (Is., xi. 2).

(a) Likeness to the Other Gifts.—The Gifts of the Holy Ghost are energies diffused in the powers of the soul as instruments of the supernatural governance of the indwelling Spirit, just as the moral virtues are the instruments of the natural governance of reason. The infused virtues (e.g., faith or charity), unlike the acquired virtues (e.g., temperance or fortitude), do not suffice for the government of the soul; for, while these latter are according to nature, the former surpass nature, and are received by it imperfectly. Hence the need of the Gifts, which on earth supplement the infused virtues, strengthening them against contrary vices, developing secondary acts of the virtues which the virtues only initiate, and in heaven perfecting the blessed in good.

(b) Unlikeness to the Other Gifts.—Wisdom, which is enumerated by Isaias in the first place, is also given the highest rank among the Gifts by theologians, on account of its greater elevation, more universal scope, and the directive power it exercises. Fittingly, then, is Wisdom assigned as the Gift that serves Charity, the queen of the virtues: Charity loves God above all things; Wisdom dwells with delight upon the object of this love (Wis., viii. 16), looks upon life with the eyes of love, and in directing its human actions communicates to them something of the savor and sweetness of divine charity.

IT IS TO BE NOTED with St. Bonaventure de septem Itineribus aeternitatis, Itinere 3. dist. 3. art. 3. et de septem donis, de dono Sapientiae, cap. 1. et 3. p. Centiloquii, sect. 45. et aliis locis, Multas enumerari sapientias. I omit the wisdom of the flesh, an enemy to God, as is said Rom. 8., and the wisdom of this world; which is called by St. James, cap. 3., animal, and diabolical, and by Paul is called foolishness, since it prefers transitory goods to eternal ones, as iron to gold. See St. Bonaventure LL. cc.

THERE is Uncreated Wisdom, whose panegyrics the author of Sap. cap. 7. wove together: The brightness of eternal light, the unspotted mirror, etc., which the Holy Doctor elegantly pursues in his Commentary, and St. Augustine lib. 1. de Genes. ad litt. cap 5. Now this wisdom is the SON OF GOD, not a Gift, but the Giver of gifts.

A twofold Created Wisdom is GIVEN: one, which is acquired by human study, and is an intellectual virtue, of which Aristotle lib. 1. Metaph. cap. 2. and St. Augustine lib. 14. de Trinit. cap. 1. say that it is the universal cognition of all things divine and human. This indeed can be called wisdom, because it is sapid knowledge, although not perfectly seasoned; although Aristotle in his Ethics brings forward admirable delights in it, yet St. Thomas adds that these are imperfect, because they are not seasoned with the oil of grace.

BUT that Wisdom can have a judgment somewhat right concerning divine things, as Hugh shows super caelestem Hierarchiam, cap. 1.

There is also that Wisdom which deals with the most abstract and divine things, which Aristotle calls Metaphysics; but we more fittingly name it Theology, at whose splendor earthly wisdom has been eclipsed and has dissolved into fictions. We acquire it, however, with labors, faith presupposed.

FURTHER there is also the other, infused Wisdom, as St. James 3. says, whose object is God, not under the aspect of the naked true, but of the true as to be tasted for good; and this is truly Sapid Knowledge. Of this Sap. 11.: The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of Wisdom, etc.

The act of THIS is to contemplate God, not in any manner whatever, but from love with a certain experimental sweetness and affection. Hence St. Augustine 15. de Trinitate, cap. 7. says: Where there is no love (namely, gratuitous), who says that there is any Wisdom? And Bernard serm. 85. in Cant. Nor would I say it is blameworthy, if anyone should define wisdom as the savor of the good. Hence Isidore, lib. 10. Ethymol.: The wise man is so called from savor; for as taste is apt for the discernment of the savor of foods, so the wise man is apt for discerning the savors of things and of causes.

From these you have that the Gift of Wisdom is a supernatural habit, infused into the soul by the Holy Spirit, for knowing God and loving him with relish. It is thus defined: It is a habit, infused by God, rendering the soul easily mobile toward loving and tasting the Gifts out of love, or Charity. Therefore its act is to contemplate God, not in any manner whatever, but from love, with a certain experimental sweetness and affection.

The principal OBJECT, therefore, of Wisdom is God, not under the aspect of the true absolutely; but under the aspect of the true in relation to the aspect of the good, as it is excitatory of the will toward its sapid delectation. Hence Wisdom is called, as it were, sapid knowledge, as the Holy Doctor often says. The quasi-subject of Wisdom is indeed the intellect, but one overflowing its operations into the will, as the sun in the fourth heaven influences the other orbs, and the elements. Therefore the Holy Doctor proves that it does not stop in the intellect lib. de septem donis, De Dono sapientiae, cap. 1. et in Diaeta, tit. 6. cap. 4. et in 1. quaest. 3. Prooem. from Scripture, and the Fathers.

FIRST indeed Eccles. 6. says: For wisdom is according to its name [the doctrine of it], that is, sapid knowledge.

St. Thomas answers quaest. 45. art. 2. ad 2. Tanner disp. 2. quaest. 4. dub. 3. num. 44. et alii, that this does not seem to be the true interpretation of the name wisdom, namely, that it is Wisdom, as it were sapid knowledge.

AGAINST this, because thus the Holy Fathers, cited by the Holy Doctor, interpret it. St. Bernard, sermone 85. in Cant. Nor would I say it is blameworthy, if anyone should define wisdom as the good. Isidore, lib. 10. Ethymol., word Sapiens: The wise man is so called from Savor; for as taste is apt for the discernment of the savor of foods, so the wise man is apt for discerning the savors of things and of causes, as I had noted just above.

He CONFIRMS it from cap. 24. where Wisdom says: My spirit is sweeter than honey.

St. Thomas answers that this is had in the Latin, not in the Greek; but the sense is, that Wisdom is according to its name, that is, Great, nor is it less than its name, that is, Fame. But in the Greek it is read, according to its name, τὸ ὄνομα.

THEN I say that it cannot be without charity. It is proved by the Holy Doctor ad id Sap. 1. Into a malevolent soul Wisdom shall not enter.

It is PROVED by the Holy Doctors, because it makes rightness of judgment: toward itself and of savor concerning divine things, according to the divine rules to which it is connatural, which indeed are through Charity.

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.

Wisdom is as it were the Sun, bringing a day luminous with knowledge, and fervent with affection. Hence Alan of Lille: Wisdom is the Sun, through whom the light of the mind dawns in darkness, the eye of the heart, the fruit of inward love, the delightful paradise of the soul. It converts the earthly to the heavenly, the mortal to the immortal, man to God, with the authority of deifying transformation. This luminous wisdom he desired, who said, Sap. 7.: I invoked, and the Spirit of Wisdom came into me: and I preferred to have her for light: for her light is inextinguishable. And all good things came to me together with her, for she is the Mother of all these good things. See the Holy Doctor in Diaet; tit. 6. cap. 4., saying wondrous things.

Tully first de legibus says: The mother of all good things is Wisdom, than which nothing is more fruitful, nothing more preeminent, for the good of life was given by it. For since it taught all other things, it also taught what is most difficult, that we know ourselves. See St. Bernard sermone 85. in Cant. and serm. 3. de circumcisione, where he shows that from wisdom there arise adornment in the soul, the clarity of conscience, than whose testimony nothing is clearer, since truth shines in the mind, and the mind sees itself in truth. This day, the most serene Sabbath of the mind, he says shines in contemplation, which day indeed, the seventh, namely the seventh gift, has no evening, but here has dawn, and in heaven eternal noon. For the Lord calls it the best part, Luke 10. Hence Anselm lib. de similitudinibus, cap. 131. says: The Gift of Wisdom pertains to the contemplative life, which is the best part, which Mary chose, which shall not be taken from her: But more it shall be perfected in the fatherland. Hence the Gloss there says: The contemplative life here begins, and is perfected in the heavenly fatherland; for love is a fire, which begins to burn, but when it shall see him whom it loves, it shall further glow in love. These things the Holy Doctor, whom see.

The Holy Doctor elegantly treats of these from chapter 5, on the Gift of Wisdom, where under the figure of a banquet he expounds the spiritual delights of the Gift of Wisdom.

This banquet is expounded from Canticle 5: Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, my dearest. Where he shows a threefold banquet prepared by Wisdom. The first is for just friends, that they may eat, chewing by labor, whence it is said: By the labors of your hands, for you shall eat. The second banquet is the sweet drinking of the soul after this life. The third is the inebriation of man after the body has been resumed in the resurrection; and these are called the dearest. See St. Bernard, book On Loving God, where he has: He feeds those laboring in this life, gives drink to those resting after this life, and inebriates those reigning in eternal life, etc.

THE FIRST, therefore, banquet is that of friends, for whom the Holy Spirit prepares the banquet of Wisdom. In this the soul eats the bread of Wisdom, but in the sweat of the face. This food is the very work, to do the will of God; whence Christ said, John 4: My food is to do the will of my Father. Of this St. Gregory, book 1 of the Morals, chapter 16: Wisdom makes a banquet in its day: because it refreshes the mind with the hope and certainty of eternal things. Of this food they partake who by meditation eat the bread that came down from heaven, as is said in John 4. See St. Bonaventure setting forth marvelous things about these.

He proceeds, chapter 6, to set forth the wine of wisdom, of which Proverbs 9: Drink the wine which I have mingled for you. This the worldly lack, John 2: They have no wine, as the Holy Doctor and St. Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia, excellently expound. Whence the spouse rejoices, Canticle 2: He brought me into the cellar of wine: This is uncreated Wisdom, the eternal Word, containing all the treasures of the wisdom of God hidden away.

This was the generous wine, of which Assuerus was warmed in figure, Esther 15. Of this Canticle 8: I will give you a cup of spiced wine. See the Holy Doctor.

He explains, chapter 7, who are the friends and dearest ones invited to the banquet of Wisdom.

ORIGEN, on that verse of the Canticle I languish with love, distinguishes between simple love, ardor, and languor, saying: Beginners love, the proficient burn, but the perfect languish in love. Therefore, those who love with the greater love are loved by God: I love those who love me. Proverbs 8. The dearest of God are those who take their greatest delight in God, because they love the most. Whence Canticle 7 the Beloved says: How beautiful are you, and how comely, dearest, in delights. Hence the Vercellense: How beautiful are you in affections that burn with fervor and spirit, dearest, on account of your surpassing beauty and ardent love.

FURTHER, St. Dionysius in the letter to Titus, and the Vercellense, on those words of the Canticle 5, Be inebriated, my dearest, expound that inebriation as the abundance of heavenly theorias, that is, the frequency and experiential overflowing of revelations. Such, says Richard, book On Benjamin, chapter 37, was that of Paul, 1 Corinthians 11: Whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not, God knows. To this alludes Psalm 67: There is Benjamin, a stripling, in ecstasy of mind. But he had said before: God will voluntarily separate a rain for his inheritance, and it was weakened, etc. For inebriation effects an alienation of mind, as Richard says, book 4 on contemplation, chapter 16. Whence Psalm 35: They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house, and you shall make them drink of the torrent of your pleasure.

IF, therefore, we wish to be drenched with this inebriation, let us strive to love the Lord intimately. For thus transformed into God we shall live outside ourselves, as Paul used to say. So great, indeed, is the force of love and of the beautiful, as the Vercellense says in the prologue on the Canticle, that it snatches not only men and Angels outside themselves into God, but even draws God himself outside himself toward creatures. This he learned from St. Dionysius, chapter 4 on the divine names, where he says: One must dare to say what is true, that God himself, by love of what is beautiful and good, goes forth out of the abundance of his amative goodness, as it were outside himself.

HENCE, therefore, the Holy Doctor, chapter 8, ascends to expound the second banquet in glory, where the soul, stripped of the flesh, drinks wine with milk that brings sleep. Canticle 5.

LIKEWISE, chapter 9, he expounds the third banquet of those reigning after the resurrection; of which Luke 22: I dispose to you a kingdom, as my Father has disposed to me, that you may eat and drink at my table, etc. See the Holy Doctor.

Then, chapter 10, he describes the series of those banqueting at that royal feast of wisdom, where he relates wondrous things woven together from the Holy Fathers.

LASTLY, chapter 11, according to the number of the seven gifts, he expounds the beatitude of those banqueting. See him, divinely eloquent.

From what has been said above you can gather in what the gift of Wisdom differs from the other gifts. It differs from the gift of Understanding, because Wisdom is a knowledge of God absolutely; Understanding, however, comparatively, namely in relation to creatures. Second, because by Understanding God is known through illumination from what has been heard in Scripture; but Wisdom is known by experience. Thus through Understanding we know God; through Wisdom we taste his sweetness; whence Wisdom is said to be, as it were, science seasoned with the savor of virtues. And so, just as the gift of Understanding is for speculation, that the intellect may be easily moved toward divine things as they are such in themselves; the gift of Wisdom, however, is practical, rendering the intellect easily movable to perceive divine things as they are good and desirable, and to judge that they are to be adhered to, as St. Bonaventure teaches, book 5 of the Compendium of Theology, chapter 46, St. Thomas, articles 2 and 3, Cajetan there, and question 46, and Valentia, dispute 3, question 20, point 1.