Chapter 14. The Gift of Wisdom

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. PROVERBS i.?.

What the root is to the tree in its full stature and in the full spread of its branches, that holy fear is to wisdom. Wisdom springs from holy fear as its root, and without holy fear, if there could at all be wisdom, there could be in it no stability. The wisest of all the sons of men before the Incarnation of the Son of God was Solomon, king of Israel, and his wisdom was not by acquisition only, but by an infused gift of God in answer to special prayer and a promise made by God Himself; nevertheless, the man who had become wise by the gift of God, whose wisdom reached over all the works and mysteries of God as then revealed, shamefully and utterly fell by impurity and by idolatry. Holy fear, then, is the beginning of the whole spiritual life; it is the stability and protection of the whole spiritual structure in man. Therefore wisdom, which is the last of the seven gifts of the Ho y Ghost, may be said to be the blossom, and the maturity, and, as it were, the perfection of ah1 the seven gifts. Indeed, wisdom is the only gift of the Holy Ghost which bears a divine name. We do not call God Piety, or Intellect, or Science, bul (288)

Wisdom is the name of God Himself; and the uncreated Wisdom of God is God Himself; and the uncreated Wisdom oi God is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and the Son. Who is the inwe of the uncreated Wisdom of God, was incarnate for us, and the untreated Wisdom of God was manifest among men, and, being manifest among men, has built for Himself a house,¹ Sapientia CBdificavit sibi domum. And what is that house of Wisdom but the mystical Body of Jesus Christ? Those in whom the Holy Ghost dwells, by His indwelling He perfects in wisdom, and builds them up together as a temple for the inhabitation of God. Such is the Holy Catholic Church, visible in this world, and in communion with God and His saints in the world unseen.

We have already defined and explained the nature of intellect or understanding, and we saw that it consists in a certain penetrating and precise discernment, whereby the intellect can read the inner meaning, and ubstance, of the revelation of God, and of all things; earing upon it. N ow in what does wisdom differ from intellect or understanding? It differs in this: that wisdom has two parts or elements; it is a certain divine light given to the soul, whereby it both sees and tastes God and divine things. There are, then, two distinct operations in it: there is a sight derived from the light of God, whereby divine things are seen, and a taste or a power of tasting those things, of knowing and discerning them by a taste of their divine sweetness. These two operations go together; therefore the light, together wit! i the power of taste, or, in other words, illumination in the intellect, together with charity m flaming the heart, constitute the gift of wisdom. Now do not imagine that this gift is the exclusive property of saints; do not imagine that I am talking high thinga over your heads, and my own, which have no application to us. The gift of wisdom is in every one of you, if you are in your baptismal grace. It is always expanding if you are faithful, or contracting if you are unfaithful, to the working of the Spirit of God. But there it still abides: there is not one of you that may not possess this gift in its fullness. The Book of Proverbs says: " The fear of the Lord is the beginning,'' or the first principle, " of wisdom," and" humility goeth before glory.'' Now the path of humility is open to everybody, and the glory that is at the end of it is, therefore, within the reach of all: the foot of that ladder is indeed upon earth, and the humble may ascend it, but the head of that ladder is in the glory of God, and the poor and the unlettered may go up into the light of the presence of the Almighty often more surely than the cultured and refined.

1. I have said that wisdom is the blossom, or the perfection, of the seven gifts. They all grow up into it in symmetry, and form, and beauty; they all unite together in completing the outline of wisdom: you cannot take one of them away without mutilating in some degree the perfection of wisdom. I have already said that these seven gifts are in every one of you, unconscious as you may be, or may have been, that you possess them; and they work in you, though it is true that they have a special proportion to the several ages and stages of our human life. For instance, holy fear is the gift which first manifests itself in childhood, and piety manifests itself in youth, and fortitude in manhood; the intellectual perfections, or the intellectual gifts, come out, perhaps, simultaneously in various degrees, or some come out sooner and some later; but there they are — all lie hidden simultaneously. It is a mistake to suppose that any one can have the gift of wisdom without having the gift of knowledge; or the gift of fortitude without having the gift of piety, and the like; but it is quite true that they work unequally in different people, and that the inequality produces such a diversity that it seems as if some possessed one and some possessed another of those gifts, but that hardly any possessed all. The truth is, that one gift is prominent in some and less prominent in others. For instance, the human countenance has only the same features all over the family of man, and those features are very few, and the number is the same: nevertheless, they are capable of such infinite variety that no two human faces are perfectly alike. Again, <ve know how complex and elaborate are some of the harmonies of music, yet that all the harmonies that were ever heard by the ear of man may be resolve. up into the seven simple notes. And so may all the perfections of the human soul be resolved up into the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost — only with this disti' ction: that as some features are prominent in some men, and some tones or notes are dominant in some ansic, so certain gifts of the Holy Ghost are dominai c, and rule over the hearts and the wills of some in » greater degree than in others, and thereby give a die inct impress and proportion to the character. And ^ et, although they act simultaneously, they act unequally, but for some mysterious reason which it is beyond us to understand they produce in the end the same result. We are often asked, Is it possible that men who are so different one from another — some so exceptionally good, others so inveterately evil — could have been born in the same equal condition? Does not this great diversity divest them in some way of their personal responsibility? Must it not be in their very nature from birth? Not at all. If there were natural inequalities, the adaptation of grace to nature would redress them, and bring us all back again to one law, though not to one level; namely, that whether we have five talents, or one only, we are alike responsible to God for working out our salvation, and that God has given to every one of us, whatever may be the diversity of our natural character and disposition, the gifts, and aids, and graces which adjust the balance. For the moment I set aside all who are living out of the grace of God, because, as I told you in the beginning, these seven gifts are to be found only in those who are in a state of grace or in charity and the fear of God. In those who are in grace we see such diversities that, at first sight, it seems as if they were of different natures. For instance, some people exhibit an immense energy of will in doing good, and yet the amount of their intellectual light is small; on the other hand, some men have a gift of mental prayer and of contemplation, but they are wanting in perseverance and in firmness. The explanation is, that in the latte* the gifts which perfect the will are but feebly exercised, and those that perfect the intellect have been more do* reloped; and in the former the gifts which form the solidity of the character have been more developed, and therefore increased, and those that relate to the intellect have been less so.

Let us take an example. In the science of God, that is, in what we call theology, there are many branches; one is dogmatic theology, or the science of the revealed truth of God, precisely conceived and definitely expressed. Take, as an example of this, Saint Thomas Aquinas, in whom the gift of intellect was sanctified in the highest degree. There is no parallel to the writings of Saint Thomas, in point of precision, consecutiveness, and unity, but the reasonings of the highest mathematicians. Or, take again a writer like Saint Alphonsus, whose whole life was spent as a pastor in the guidance of souls. His writings are the most elaborate, minute, and delicate examination of the laws and rules of duty as leading to the perfection of the soul. In him we see the gift of counsel. Or, again, take Saint John Chrysostom, the great preacher on the reformation of life and morals: in him we see the gift of science. And, lastly, Saint Bonaventure, who united together two things — a singular light of penetrating and precise intellect in dogma, together with an ardent fervor and glow of piety and of love to God. This is exactly the gift of wisdom. Moreover, this same gift of wisdom is variously shown as modified by combination with other gifts in the four great Doctors of the Church. First, in the writings of Saint Augustine we se* one thing predominate throughout — namely, the operations of grace in the soul, working by charity, and the outward expression of it in the world-wide unity of the Church; secondly, in Saint Leo the Great the mystery of the Incarnation, and the authority and the supreme power of the Holy See; thirdly, in Saint Jerome, the translator and commentator of Holy Scripture, in a wonderful perfection, a knowledge of the literal sense of the written Word of God; and, lastly, in Saint Gregory the Great, an intuitive perception of the meaning of Holy Scripture; not the literal meaning only, but the moral meaning of the Word of God. Now here are four diversities of intellect, so great that we see at once that they were different operations of the same Divine Spirit, Who by His various gifts perfects the intellect of those whom He chooses out to teach the faithful.

There are those who tell us that the gift of faith is for women and children. With scornful impertinence they imply that none but fools believe. My answer is, Look at the Christian world; tell me what- is the root out of which your men of science and your mathematicians have sprung. Whence came the intellectual maturity of your political philosophers, your skeptical metaphysicians, who deny the existence of the soul and the being of God? What lifted them up to the intellectual elevation from which they can look down and pretend to despise those who believe, and to criticise and reject even the revelation of God? It is the sanctified intellect of Christendom which has built up the house of Wisdom. It is the mother of the whole race \«>f those that are born again. It is Christendom from which they sprung, and from which they fell, as rotten branches from the Tree of Life. The intellect of man illuminated by faith is conformed to the uncreated intelligence of God Himself; and if the world scorns;o~t as uuintellectual because you believe in the revelation of God and submit your reason to the teaching of divine authority, you can well bear it.

2. Next, this gift of wisdom, being, as I said, the perfection of the seven gifts, perfects the soul itself. It illuminates the intellect, it moderates the tumultuous and rebellious passions; it rectifies the affections of the soul; it directs the will to God. We must distinguish between passions and affections. In our Divine Lord there were no passions. We never use that word in speaking of the Incarnation. We say, indeed, that there were in Him pro-passions; that is to say, His human nature was like ours in all its susceptibilities, but being perfectly under the dominion and control of His own will, there was in those susceptibilities neither turbulence nor inordinateuess nor disorder. Now there are in us a multitude of affections which become turbulent an 1 inordinate: nevertheless, they are from God. The use we make of them alone is ours. In their right use and measure they are holy. For instance, zeal is an impetuous desire to do good; and yet zeal sometimes becomes a wildfire which sets the world in flames, and in the end leads men to think that it does a service to God when it puts men to death. Such was the zeal of Saul. The gift of wisdom does not root out zeal; it chastens and rectifies it. So also with anger. The Apostle says, " Be angry and sin not; " which shows that anger is not necessarily a sin. Anger is implanted in our hearts, just as strength is implanted in the muscles of the arm. Anger has its proper use. Anger is the executive power of justice; but if you allow anger, which God gave us in order to execute justice, to become vindictive a id implacable, it is revenge by which men destroy one another. It is we who change into sin that which, in its proper measure, is the gift of God. There is anger in God Himself. We anger the Divine nature. But the anger of God is never without a cause, and never exceeds the bounds of justice and mercy. Like the pure water in a clear vessel of glass, which may be suddenly agitated and then in a moment becomes calm and leaves no sediment behind, so if your anger be like this, it is anger rectified by wisdom. I might give many other examples, but these are enough. Further: the gift of wisdom not only perfects the natural faculties of the soul, but it perfects also the infused supernatural virtues. It is necessary that wisdom should preside over the operations of faith, hope, and charity. We are told that those who believe are credulous and superstitious. I do not deny that credulity and superstition are parasites of faith. Just as paralysis is a parasite of the human frame, so superstition is a parasite of faith. It is the morbid accident of a noble nature. I do not deny this: but superstition is faith without wisdom. Wisdom promptly and surely corrects both superstition and fanaticism. It corrects felse notions of piety; it opens the eyes of the soul to see how much of zeal, and extravagance, and self-choosing, and will- worship may enter into faith. Wisdom purifies faith. Once more, hope sometimes becomes presumption, sometimes indolence, until wisdom has come in tc correct it. Again, charity becomes prodigal, precipitate, unwise, contrary to prudence, and even contrary to justice, until wisdom purifies and tempers it, and, as the Holy Ghost says, impresses the law of order upon it, so that the first object of charity is God, aud the next is a rational and wise love to ourselves, and the third a love to our neighbor. Arid as we ought to appreciate and prefer God before all things, that is, before our own life, so we ought to prefer the spiritual good of our neighbor even to our natural life; but we ought never to prefer his spiritual life to our own, never to invert the order, never to think that we can do anything wrong in the hope of saving him, or that we can give up obedience for his sake. In this wisdom orders and corrects charity. And, lastly, wisdom guards the union of the soul with God. Charity enters into wisdom, and gives to it a discernment by taste of divine things. Wisdom, therefore, unites the soul with God, because it produces in the soul the habit of recollection, a constant sense of the presence of God, a spiritual consciousness that His eye is upon us and that His ear is open. When God said to Abraham, " Walk before Me and be perfect," He gave him the highest rule of wisdom, and Abraham walking before God was walking in the gift of wisdom. He was encompassed by the divine presence. He saw all things in its light. He tasted in all things the sweetness of God. Wisdom therefore is the source of mental prayer. Isaac went out to meditate in the fields at eventide. Meditation is the patient thought of wisdom musing upon divine things. If you find it hard to meditate, you may know the reason. The gift of wisdom is in some way hindered. But this gift is not to be obtained by eager poring over books, nor by the stretch and strain of the imagination or of the intellect. It is a gentle and calm contemplation of God and His truth in the love of it. If It* you wish to l«arn the habit of meditation, unite youi heart with God humbly and patiently, sitting, as it were, at the feet of God, and looking up into His face. Let us take the example, a saint, and let us remember that the chief difference between you and the saints is a difference of degree. Do not for a moment say, " To give me the examples of saints is to discourage me." Fou cannot imitate their extraordinary actions, I admit; but their ordinary actions in walking before G od in the path of sanctification, by which they ascended to their perfection, these you not only can but you must imitate. Take, for instance, Saint Charles. There never was a pastor of the Church who labored harder and rested so little; there never was any one who was more incessantly at work for souls, who seemed never to take a moment for himself. No doubt people would have said, " What an unspiritual man! When can he ever say his prayers? His life is a most commonplace life at the best. There is nothing in it supernatural or saintly." He was indeed continually surrounded by men of business, by the clergy of his diocese, by the people who stood in need. When had such a man a inorneat to say his prayers? I may truly answer, there never was a moment when he ceased to pray. Filled, as he was, with the gift of wisdom in an eminent degree, his whole heart and mind were united to God with so close an intimacy, that his union with God was never suspended. Whatever he was doing he was always praying. Prayer and work are so akin, that their double action need never interfere the one with the other. Let us take another example, Saint Philip Neri. For fifty years he never left Rome, save onlj when he went out of the walls to visit the Seven Churches, or to keep festival in some vineyard surrounded by Roman youths. He was all day long either in his chamber or in the church. He lived an unseen, unresting life for fifty years day and night, like the rising and the setting of the sun. We cannot tell when he prayed; but we know that he prayed always. What was it that sustained that wonderful perseverance of unremitting industry? What enabled him never to take a rest, never do anything that other men would think so necessary for their spiritual relaxation? Why did he never need it? Because he was always united with God; and in that union with God he had his lips to the fountain, from which he was always drawing refreshment and strength.

3. My last and third point shall be this: that wisdom is the foretaste of our eternal bliss. It is the last perfection of the soul, in its union with God. As I said in the beginning, the uncreated Wisdom of God was incarnate for us, and those in whom the Wisdom of God dwells are. united with God in a special intimacy. It is the contact of the soul with God during time in this world which unfolds hereafter into the beatific vision and the beatific union of eternity. The light by which God is seen now through faith will become the beatific vision. The love which tastes the sweetness of God here will hereafter become the beatific union. When the Psalmist says, " O, taste and see how sweet the Lord is," he calls ns to the beginning of this twofold Bliss. And when Saint John says, 'You have the unction from the Holy One, and know all things, and you have no need that any man should teach you, brt the unctioD which is in yc<u teacheth you all tilings,'1 ho is speaking of the unction of wisdom; for that Unction ia the Holy Ghost Himself, and the wisdom which flowa from Him is the anointing of the faithful. They who, by faith in a Divine Teacher, are united to the incarnate Wisdom of God, need no human teacher; they are under a Teacher Who came from God, that is, the Holy Ghost, perpetually speaking through His Church, guiding them infallibly in faith, bearing witness in their hearts, and preparing them to see Him as He is.

Wisdom is described in the Holy Scripture in thia way. "Wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me. For in her is the spirit of understanding: holy, one, manifold, subtle, eloquent, active, undefiled, sure, sweet, loving that which is good, quick, which nothing hindereth, beneficent, gentle, kind, steadfast, assured, secure, having all power, overseeing all things, and containing all spirits, intelligible and pure. For Wisdom is more active than all active things, and reacheth everywhere by reason of her purity. For she is a vapor of the power of God, and a certain pure emulation of the glory of the almighty God; and therefore no defiled thing cometh into her. For she is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of His goodness. And being but one, she can do all things; and remaining in herself the same, she reneweth all things, and through nations conveyeth herself into holy souls; she maketh the friends of God and prophets. For God loyeth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of the stars: being compared with the light, she ia found be> fore it. For after this cometh night, but no evil can overcome wisdom."* Some men see God as in the twilight; and some men see Him as they see the sun under a oloud; and others, who ha\re the gift of wisdom in them, see God as in the noonday, neither in figure, nor form, nor outline, but by a spiritual consciousness which illuminates the whole soul; and, when they so see God, then they understand these words of the Holy Ghost: " The animal man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually examined." The light of the vision of God by faith gives to the intellect a supernatural discernment; and not only a discernment by way of light, but a discernment by way of taste. That which comes from God has a sweetness, and that which comes from the world has a bitterness; and those who have the gift of wisdom can detect a ad discern the one from the other. The gift of wisdom gives to the soul a special love for those things that God loves, and a special hatred for that which is hateful in His sight. It is intuitive and instinctive, before all reasoning, and of a supernatural sense.

The distinction between the gift of science and the gift of wisdom is this: in the gift of science we see God in His creatures, and we ascend up by His creatures to Himself; but by the gift of wisdom we see God Himself, and, from the contemplation of His perfections, we descend to a knowledge of His works. And therefore it is that men, who have the gift of wisdom in them are unintelligible to the world. " Therefore they know AS not, because they knew Him not."f Therefore it is * Wisdom vii 21-30. f 1 S. John iii. 1.

that those who have even the least of the ejif t of wisdom in them know the emptiness of all creatures in comparison with God. And in the measure in which they have this gift of wisdom, in that measure they are conformed to the mind of God Himself. It is wisdom that makes men " the friends of God." And His friends grow into His likeness. In the words of the Apostle: " We all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord."*

We see, then, what the gift of wisdom is, and with few words we will make an end. I said before, do not imagine that I have been describing the life of saints. I have been describing what your lives may be. You may all of you walk in that same path. You are all called to be saints, and if you press onward in humility, yon shall ascend up to the glory of the saints before the Throne. There are some among us who have a greater facility in acquiring the gift of wisdom than others. And I will tell you who they are: the poor, whose state generates the spirit of poverty. It mortifies and casts out pride, which is the great obstacle to wisdom. And next to the poor are little children fresh from the waters of baptism, whose souls have never yet been stained with sin; whose hearts, therefore, are not yet darkened. Does not this explain to us why it is the world counts us to be fools? Can there be anything more diametrically opposed the one to the other than the wise man and the worldly man? The wise man sets his whole soul, the eyes of his intellect, and the affections of his heart, upon God alone. As I said, the object of »»Cor iii.18 dom is God. And the worldly man sets his heart and his affections upon things that are out of God, and below God, and beneath God, and beside God, and contrary to God — for these things he lives and in these things he dies. Is there any wonder, then, that he should think us to be fools? Does he not explain the meaning of Holy Scripture, where we read: " We fools counted hia life madness, and his end to be without honor; but how is he numbered among the children of God and his lot is among the saints "? These are the words of the worldly wise when it is too late; when their worldly wisdom, which is the love of wealth, and honor, and pride, with all this world which they worshiped, have passed away; when this animal or carnal wisdom of theirs — the love of pleasure, of sensuality, and self-indulgence — have passed away for ever. When the diabolical wisdom of the men without the Holy Ghost, the arts and craft of pride, ambition, rivalry, jealousy, covetousness, and warfare, one with the other, are all stilled in the terrible silence of the Day of Judgment, then they will see the reason why fools counted the life of the just and wise to be madness and his end to be without honor. It must be so; for where there is wisdom there is detachment from creatures; and the wise man will put his foot upon the honor and wealth of this world if it casts so much as a shadow between his soul and God. The gift of wisdom gives to the soul an attachment to God, and all things that relate to God and to our salvation. And more than this: it gives to the soul a love of the cross — the very thing from which all men shrink, ay, even some good men fear and fly from. It makes the wise man able to say what the Apostle said: " God forbid that 3 should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Chri^ by "Whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world."* " With Christ I am nailed to the cross; nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and delivered Himself for ine."t When the Wisdom of God came into the world He laid His hands upon a multitude of things — upon the sick, upon the afflicted, the hungry, the dying; upon little children; upon the bread which He blessed and brake in the wilderness; upon sorrow and upon pain; and, lastly, He laid them upon the cross; and wherever He laid His hands He left a sweetness and a fragrance which wisdom can perceive and wisdom alone can know.

I will not stay to sum up; but I will remind you of the path by which we have come upward to this gift of wisdom. We began by considering the working of the Holy Ghost in the soul, the nature of grace, which >s the indwelling and action of the Holy Ghost in the heart by the gift of our regeneration, whereby we are made sons of God and receive His sanctifying grace. We went on to the theological virtues of faith, of hope, and of charity; we then saw the sovereign grace of justification; and after the grace of justification we came to the glory of sonship, and then to the seven gifts. We have tried to understand the nature of those seven gifts; and how they are distinct from the virtues and graces implanted in baptism. We have gone over those seven gifts one by one, and we have seen that the *Gal. n. 14. j 3al. ii. 19,20.

gift of holy fear is the gift of the children of God, and the gift of piety is the gift of the sons of G-od, and the gift of fortitude is the gift of the soldiers of Jesus Christ, and the gift of science is the gift of the disciples of the Holy Ghost, and the gift of counsel is the gift of the pastors of the flock, and the gift of intellect is the gift of the Doctors of the Church, and the gift of wisdom is the gift of the saints, among whom are numbered little children, and all who are faithful to the Spirit of God. There remain only two other subjects. I have tried to describe to you the work of the Spirit of God in the soul — which is like the growth of a tree from its root. We have reached at last the fullness of its stature and its spread, the symmetry and outlines of the Tree of Life, with its outreaching branches. I said before that wisdom is the blossom — I did not say it was the fruit, and for this reason: the Holy Ghost, writing by the Apostle in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, speaks of the fruits of the Holy Ghost, and numbers them as twelve. Afterwards come the Eight Beatitudes, which are the eight perfections of the soul of man in its highest and most intimate conformity with the mind and the lif e of Jesus Christ. I name them now in order to show you how the subject of the seven gifts has its complement and its perfection in the Twelve Fruits and the Eight Beatitudes.

My ob'ect throughout has been to waken you and to warn you against subsiding into your natural character, and to stir you up, if by God's help I can, to aim at a supernatural life and supernatural perfection. It has also been my aim, if possible, to make clear the distinction between an unspiritual man, in whom the gifts of the Holy Ghost are oppressed, and the spiritua* man, who is under the guidance and the light of the Holy Ghost.

But all that I have tried to say may be summed up hi these words of the Holy Ghost Himself: " There ia now, therefore, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh. For the law of the spir;t of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, hath cordemned sin in the flesh, that the justification of the lew might be fulfilled in us, whc walk not according to tL°. flesh, but according to the spirit. For they that are recording to the flesh mind the things that are of the ^h; but they that are according to the spirit mind Jio things that are of the spirit. For the wisdom of the 3cbH is death; but the wisdom of the spirit is life and pch°e. Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to G^d: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh cannot please God. T^ut you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if the Sp>ic 01 God dwell in you." " For whosoever are led by X* S, "it of God, they are the sons of God.J%*

•Bom. viii. 1-9,1*

Footnotes

1. Wisdcrn ix. 1. 13 ↩