V. The Fruits Of The Holy Ghost And The Beatitudes

V. The Fruits Of The Holy Ghost And The Beatitudes

     4) Neither the consciousness of being in the state of grace nor a sense of delight is necessary to infused contemplation, since neither this consciousness nor this joy is found in the periods called the passive night of the senses and of the soul; yet these periods are a mystical state. As we shall see later, in the night of the senses the gift of knowledge dominates by showing us especially the vanity of created things; ⁸ and in the night of the soul the gift of understanding ⁹ manifests less the goodness of God than His infinite majesty, and by contrast our own wretchedness. Sweetness and peace, the fruit of the gift of wisdom, are experienced especially between the two nights, and much more strongly after the second. Although great consolations are to be found in the mystical life, there are also terrible interior trials lasting for months and years.

     5) For the same reason the feeling of the presence of God is not essential to the mystical state. This feeling does not exist at all in the night of the spirit, during which the soul thinks it is rejected by God, and seems almost to despair of its salvation. Nevertheless the soul still possesses the loving and profound knowledge of God's infinite grandeur but is as it were crushed by it. "Then," says St. John of the Cross, purifying "contemplation consists in feeling oneself deprived of God, chastised, repulsed by Him." ¹⁰ If anyone were to admit that the essence of the mystical state is the feeling of God's presence, he would be led to maintain, with a recent author, that the mystical state does not exist in the periods of desolation through which contemplatives pass. This view is utterly opposed to the entire doctrine set forth by St. John of the Cross in The Dark Night of the Soul on the infused, purifying light which gives an impression of great darkness to the soul, which is still too weak to bear it. This teaching is founded on the description given to us by the most accepted mystics. We will now devote our attention to considerations of a more abstract order.

     6) Infused contemplation is certainly not a grace gratis data, bestowed especially in view of the sanctification of others, like prophecy or the gift of tongues, because contemplation is directly ordained to personal sanctification, and more often than not is known only to the person receiving it and to his confessor. Joseph of the Holy Ghost, C.D., is therefore quite right in saying that he cannot comprehend why Anthony of the Annunciation, C.D., in contradiction to tradition, placed infused contemplation among the graces gratis datae and insisted that it should not be asked of God, except with the reservations with which one may ask for the grace of miracles and the gift of prophecy.¹¹

     7) Infused contemplation does not require infused ideas like those of the angels. Infused ideas may indeed be found in certain mystical states as a concomitant phenomenon, for example, in intellectual visions and certain revelations. But prophecy itself, according to St. Thomas,¹² does not generally require these infused ideas; it suffices to have an infused light, which is quite a different thing, and a new co-ordination of acquired ideas. We would be greatly in error if we confounded the impressio specierum with the impressio luminis; the material element of knowledge (species or ideas) would no longer be distinguished from the formal element (the light which elevates the intellect and gives it the strength to perceive and to judge).¹³

     Moreover, if mystical contemplation required infused species of angelic order, it would ordinarily require no cooperation on the part of the imagination. If this were true, all who are in the mystical state, even simply in quiet, would operate without the assistance of the brain, and sleep itself would offer no obstacle. They would contemplate even while asleep. Experience proves that this is true only in very special and truly extraordinary states.¹⁴ According to St. Thomas, who follows Dionysius and St. Albert the Great in this matter, there is in infused contemplation (setting aside certain very superior intellectual visions) a certain almost imperceptible contribution on the part of the imagination; although the soul does not pay attention to images, they are not excluded.¹⁵ In the same way, in the ordinary course of life we use a pen to write, without observing its form; when we read we see letters, but are attentive only to their meaning. A theologian, speculating on the Deity, superior to being, to unity, to the good, has only a verbal image, the word "Deity," to which he does not give any heed. At other times we may start with the image of a body so as to come to the idea of the incorporeal. St. Thomas clearly states¹⁶ that infused contemplation is more perfect in proportion as it is freed from sensible images. Often it suffices to have the impression of a light in the imagination, or on the contrary, in the period called the dark night, the impression of darkness; or again a very confused impression suggestive of life. In any case, infused ideas, similiar to those of the angels, are not at all necessary, although they may sometimes be granted in exceptional favors.¹⁷

     8) Notwithstanding what has recently been written,¹⁸ it is even truer that infused contemplation does not require an immediate perception of God, which would make us know Him as He is. This immediate perception of God does not exist, in fact, in the great anxieties of the passive nights of the senses and of the soul, which are, nevertheless, mystical states and are accompanied by infused contemplation. Does this perception exist in the other phases of the mystical ascent? Nothing permits such an affirmation; on the contrary, everything leads us to think that it is impossible. The texts of St. Thomas, on which this theory claims to be based, cannot have the meaning attributed to them.¹⁹ One writer asserts: "It is sufficient (in mystical contemplation) to know God as He shows Himself, partially, in order to know Him as He is." ²⁰ God, however, being incapable of division, cannot show Himself partially in such a way that He would make Himself seen as He is. The divine attributes exist in Him formaliter eminenter, and they are only virtually distinct, because they are really identical in the eminence of the Deity. Consequently nobody can see one of them as it is, without seeing the others and without seeing the Deity itself, which, as Dionysius says, is super ens et super unum. St. Thomas states explicitly and proves that no vision inferior to the beatific vision can make us know God as He is in Himself; no created, infused idea can manifest just as He is, Him who is being itself, who is eternally subsistent intellection itself.²¹ In theology the expression sicuti est has a formal meaning which is fulfilled only in the beatific vision.²² Neither angels before receiving the light of glory nor Adam before his sin, knew God as He is. St. Thomas is explicit on this point.²³ He says as clearly as possible: "The vision of the blessed in heaven differs from that of creatures still in the state of trial, not as seeing more perfectly and seeing less perfectly, but as seeing and not seeing. Consequently neither Adam nor the angels in the state of trial saw the divine essence."²⁴

     If St. Paul, while on earth, received the beatific vision in a transitory manner when he was ravished to the third heaven, as St. Augustine and St. Thomas think he did, he certainly enjoyed an altogether extraordinary grace far above the highest mystical state described by St. Teresa.²⁵

     According to Farges,²⁶ the immediate perception of God, which would be essential to mystical contemplation, is none other than that which the angels naturally possess according to St. Thomas. But St. Thomas teaches that this natural knowledge, which an angel has of God, is not immediate. He does not say,²⁷ as some authors claim he does, that it excludes the species expressa or verbum mentis, but that it is not obtained through the mirror of creatures exterior to the angels. The difference is considerable. St. Thomas says: "The angel knows God naturally, in so far as he is himself (by his angelic nature) a similitude of God; but he does not see the divine essence, for no created similitude can represent it. Moreover, this angelic knowledge is related rather to specular knowledge, for the nature of the angel is like a mirror reflecting the image of God."

     If, as has been said,²⁸ the immediate intuition of God, essential to mystical contemplation, "is at one and the same time the natural gift of the angels and the supernatural gift of contemplative mystics," it would follow that mystical contemplation would be in an order immensely inferior to that of sanctifying grace and of the theological virtues. It would not be a participation in the divine nature and life, but only a participation in the angelic life; there is a great abyss between these two. And contemplation would not attain to more than the natural knowledge of God which the devil preserves, for the fallen angel retains the integrity of his natural knowledge.²⁹ On the contrary, it is absolutely certain that infused contemplation, like sanctifying grace or the grace of the virtues and of the gifts, is essentially supernatural (quoad substantiam), as well in the angels in the state of trial as in man. By this very fact, contemplation is infinitely superior to the natural knowledge of the greatest human geniuses, and also to the natural knowledge of the highest angel, and even of creatable angels.

     Evidently this theory of mystical contemplation, which seems greatly to elevate it by making it an extraordinary, angelic thing, generally inaccessible to interior souls, lowers it exceedingly by identifying it with the natural knowledge which the devil preserves.³⁰ This point of view springs from the confusion, which we have pointed out several times, between the essential (quoad substantiam) supernaturalness of the grace of the virtues and of the gifts, and the modal (quoad modum) supernaturalness of miracles, prophecy, and other extraordinary facts of the same class. The difference is considerable: the resurrection of a dead person supernaturally restores natural life, which is infinitely inferior to that of grace; the life restored is not essentially supernatural, but only so by the mode of its production (quoad modum). Likewise, if the natural knowledge of the angels is communicated to man by infused ideas, it is supernatural for man by the manner of its production (quoad modum), but not essentially so. Hence it remains infinitely inferior to the order of grace, and it could become increasingly perfect in its order without ever attaining the dignity of infused faith by which we believe in the Trinity and in the incarnation.³¹ Thus the sides of a polygon inscribed in a circle can be multiplied infinitely, and the polygon will never coincide with the circle, for no matter how small each side may be, it will never become a point.

     The theory of the immediate perception of God is likewise contrary to the common teaching of the mystics. St. John of the Cross tells us that even in the spiritual marriage contemplation takes place in faith. For him, as well as for St. Thomas,³² faith and immediate, positive perception are mutually exclusive: the act of vision cannot be an act of faith. Consequently we can admit here only an obscure, negative (per viam negationis) intuition. According to St. Thomas, this intuition shows us better and better what God is not, that He surpasses all conception; it is to this quasi-unknown God that infused love unites us.

     All mystics tell us that they perceive, not God Himself, as He is, but the effect of His action on their souls especially in the sweetness of love which He causes them to experience. Speaking of what often happens to those who have the supernatural prayer of union or that of quiet, St. Teresa writes, as we have already observed: "The presence of God is frequently felt, particularly by those who have attained to the prayer of union and of quiet, when we seem, at the very commencement of our prayer, to find Him with whom we would converse, and when we seem to feel that He hears us by the effects and the spiritual impressions of great love and faith of which we are then conscious, as well as by the good resolutions, accompanied by sweetness, which we then make. This is a great grace from God; and let him to whom He has given it esteem it much, because it is a very high degree of prayer; but it is not vision. God is understood to be present there by the effects He works in the soul: that is the way His Majesty makes His presence felt." ³³ We could quote many similar texts from the greatest masters of mysticism.³⁴ St. Thomas teaches the same doctrine in his explanation of the classic expression of Dionysius: "Not only learning but also experiencing divine things." "There is a twofold knowledge of God's goodness or will. One is speculative. . . . The other knowledge of God's will or goodness is affective or experimental, and thereby a man experiences in himself the taste of God's sweetness, and complacency in God's will, as Dionysius says of Hierotheos (Div. nom., II), that he learns divine things through experience of them. It is in this way that we are told to prove God's will, and to taste His sweetness." ³⁵ This is the way that we know God, not immediately as He is, but by the effects which He produces in us.

ARTICLE V

The Essential Relation of Infused Contemplation and of The Mystical Life with the Gifts of The Holy Ghost

     We have seen what infused contemplation does not essentially require. We must now see what constitutes it formally and from what principle it proceeds. By so doing, we shall explain the definition given at the beginning of the preceding article.

     According to the common teaching of theologians, infused contemplation is, above reasoning and in the obscurity of faith, a simple and loving knowledge of God which cannot be obtained by our personal activity aided by grace; but, on the contrary, it requires a special, manifest inspiration and illumination of the Holy Ghost.¹ In other words, whereas the ascetial life is characterized by the predominance of the human mode of the Christian virtues, which we exercise at will, the mystical life has as its distinctive character the predominance of the superhuman or divine mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost; that is, an infused knowledge and love that cannot be the fruit of our personal effort.² To understand this doctrine clearly, we must recall the rôle and the necessity of the gifts of the Holy Ghost in our supernatural life, and in particular that of the gift of wisdom, which theologians commonly consider the superior principle of infused contemplation. The best means of learning the traditional teaching on this point is to consult St. Thomas, who has been generally followed.

     I. The gifts of the Holy Ghost. Are they specifically distinct from the acquired virtues and from the infused virtues?

     We have explained (supra, chap. 3, art. 2) the specific distinction between the infused virtues and the acquired virtues by their formal object. It is of faith that over and above the natural virtues, which are acquired and developed by the frequent repetition of the same acts, we have received with sanctifying grace the infused virtues of faith, hope, and charity.³ As for the infused moral virtues, such as Christian prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, they differ from the corresponding acquired moral virtues because they have a superior rule—in other words, not only natural reason, but reason illumined by faith; they are inspired by much loftier views.⁴ It is thus that Christian temperance implies a mortification which purely natural ethics would not know; it is founded on the revealed doctrines of original sin, of the gravity of our personal sins, of their results, of our elevation to a supernatural end, and of the imitation of Jesus crucified. What a distance there is between the temperance described by Aristotle and that of which St. Augustine speaks!

     The gifts of the Holy Ghost are, moreover, superior to the infused moral virtues; although they are less elevated than the theological virtues, nevertheless they bring them, as we shall see, an added perfection.⁵ "In order to differentiate the gifts from the virtues," says St. Thomas,⁶ "we must be guided by the way in which Scripture expresses itself, for we find there that the term employed is 'spirit' rather than 'gift.' For thus it is written (Is. 11: 2, 3): 'The spirit . . . of wisdom and of understanding . . . shall rest upon him . . ⁷ From these words we are clearly given to understand that these seven are there set down as being in us by divine inspiration. Inspiration denotes motion from without. For it must be noted that in man there is a twofold principle of movement, one within him (the reason), the other extrinsic to him (God), as stated above (q. 9, a. 4, 6), and also by the Philosopher in the chapter on Good Fortune (Ethic. Eudem., VII).

     "Now it is evident that whatever is moved must be proportionate to its mover: and the perfection of the mobile as such, consists in a disposition whereby it is disposed to be well moved by its mover. Hence the more exalted the mover, the more perfect must be the disposition whereby the mobile is made proportionate to its mover: thus we see that a disciple needs a more perfect disposition in order to receive a higher teaching from his master. Now it is manifest that human virtues perfect man according as it is natural for him to be moved by his reason ⁸ in his interior and exterior actions. Consequently, man needs yet higher perfections, whereby to be disposed to be moved by God. These perfections are called gifts, not only because they are infused by God, but also because by them man is disposed to become amenable to the divine inspiration,⁹ according to Is. 50: 5: 'The Lord . . . hath opened my ear, and I do not resist; I have not gone back.' Even the Philosopher says in the chapter on Good Fortune (Ethic. Eudem., loc. cit.) that for those who are moved by divine instinct, there is no need to take counsel according to human reason, but only to follow their inner promptings, since they are moved by a principle higher than human reason. This then is what some say, viz., that the gifts perfect man for acts which are higher than acts of virtue."

     From this we see that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are not acts or actual movements or passing helps of grace, but rather permanent qualities or habits, conferred on the soul in view of certain supernatural operations.

     Holy Scripture, in the classic text of Isaias,¹⁰ represents them as existing in a stable manner in the just, and it is said of the Holy Ghost: "He shall abide with you, and shall be in you." ¹¹ The Church in her liturgy considers the "sevenfold gift," sacrum septenarium, as constituting an organic whole with habitual or sanctifying grace, which is often called "the grace of the virtues and of the gifts." ¹² St. Gregory the Great insists on this permanence, saying: "By the gifts, without which one cannot attain to life, the Holy Ghost dwells in a stable manner in the elect; while by prophecy, the gift of miracles, and other gratuitous graces, He does not fix His dwelling in those to whom He communicates Himself." ¹³

     St. Thomas defines them: "The gifts of the Holy Ghost are habits (or essentially supernatural, permanent qualities) whereby man is perfected to obey readily the Holy Ghost." ¹⁴ The word "obey," used by St. Thomas, does not express a pure passivity. As the moral virtues subject our appetitive faculties to the domination of reason and thus dispose them to act well, so the gifts render us docile to the Holy Ghost, in order to make us produce those excellent works known as beatitudes.¹⁵ In this sense we can say of the gifts: "They confer at one and the same time pliability and energy, docility and strength, which render the soul more passive under the hand of God, and likewise more active in serving Him and in doing His work." ¹⁶

     According to these principles, the great majority of theologians hold with St. Thomas that the gifts are really and specifically distinct from the infused virtues, as the principles which direct them are distinct: that is, the Holy Ghost and reason illumined by faith. We have here two regulating motions, two different rules, which constitute different formal motives. It is a fundamental principle that habits (habitus) are specified by their object and their formal motive, as sight is by color and light, and hearing by sound.¹⁷ Virtue is a habit inclining us to follow the rule of right reason, whereby we lead a good life measured by the rule of reason.¹⁸ The gifts are higher perfections which have divine inspiration as their rule.¹⁹ A virtue and the corresponding gift (for example, fortitude and the gift of fortitude) have the same material, but they differ in the rule which serves as a measure for their acts, and also by their mode of acting; therefore their formal object is not the same. Reason, even illumined by faith and infused prudence, directs our acts according to a human mode; the Holy Ghost, according to a superhuman mode.²⁰ Likewise, while faith adheres simply to revealed truths, the gift of understanding makes us scrutinize their depths. The theologian points out what is of faith and answers the sophisms of heresy by collating texts from Scripture and from the councils according to a human method of procedure, which is often very complicated. Simple souls, on the contrary, under a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost answer in a different manner, at times with an astonishing and unanswerable perspicacity which causes the theologian to exclaim: "Mirabilis Deus in Sanctis suis."

     The same difference exists between prudence and the gift of counsel. When a grave decision is to be made, prudence, whether acquired or infused, must take counsel, examine all the circumstances and consequences of the act to be performed; it deliberates at length, without always reaching certitude, as to what is best to choose. On the contrary, if we have prayed with humility and trust, sometimes an inspiration of the gift of counsel instantly clarifies the whole problem.²¹ In a difficult situation, where two duties in apparent opposition must be harmonized, prudence is, as it were, perplexed; it hesitates, for example, about what answer to give so as to avoid a lie and keep a secret. In certain cases, only an inspiration of the gift of counsel will enable us to find the proper reply without in any way failing in the truth, and without having recourse to mental restrictions of dubious morality.²²

     II. Are the gifts of the Holy Ghost necessary to salvation?

     The necessity of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, as we have seen, springs from the imperfect mode of even lofty Christian virtues in our souls. Consequently the more the soul advances toward perfection, the more the gifts must intervene; so much so indeed that their superhuman mode must end by prevailing, in an order superior not only to the processes of casuistry, but also to those of asceticism and to methods of prayer. This is the very foundation of our doctrine.

     Here, in imitation of St. Thomas, we must proceed with measure. Were one to neglect to examine for himself, when possible, what should be thought, said, and done, under the pretext of abandonment to Providence, he would be tempting God.²³ But we must take into account our insufficiency with regard to the supernatural end toward which we should tend.

     St. Thomas teaches that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are necessary to salvation.²⁴ "Of all the gifts," he says, "wisdom seems to be the highest, and fear the lowest. Each of these is necessary to salvation: since of wisdom it is written (Wis. 7: 28): 'God loveth none but him that dwelleth with wisdom'; and of fear (Eccles. 1: 28): 'He that is without fear cannot be justified.' " Because our Lord knew the profound needs of our souls, He promised us the Holy Ghost, from whom we have received the sevenfold gift.

     To explain this necessity of the gifts, St. Thomas makes use of a profound reason: "The gifts are perfections of man, whereby he is disposed so as to be amenable to the promptings of God. Wherefore in those matters where the prompting of reason is not sufficient, and there is need for the prompting of the Holy Ghost, there is, in consequence, need for a gift. Now man's reason is perfected by God in two ways: first, by its natural perfection, viz., by the natural light of reason (like the acquired virtue of wisdom); secondly, by a supernatural perfection, viz., by the theological virtues. And, though this latter perfection is greater than the former, yet the former is possessed by man in a more perfect manner than the latter: because man has the former in his full possession, whereas he possesses the latter imperfectly, since we love and know God imperfectly. Now it is evident that anything that has a nature or a form or a virtue perfectly, can of itself work according to them: not, however, excluding the operation of God, who works inwardly in every nature and in every will. On the other hand, that which has a nature or form or virtue imperfectly, cannot of itself work, unless it be moved by another. Thus the sun, which possesses light perfectly, can shine by itself; whereas the moon, which has the nature of light imperfectly, sheds only a borrowed light. Again a physician, who knows the medical art perfectly, can work by himself; but his pupil, who is not yet fully instructed, cannot work by himself, but needs to receive instructions from him.

     "Accordingly, as to things subject to human reason, and subordinate to man's connatural end, man can do them through the judgment of his reason (with the ordinary help that Providence gives to secondary causes). If, however, even in these things man receive help in the shape of special promptings from God (instinctum specialem), this will be out of God's superabundant goodness (hoc erit superabundantis bonitatis): hence, according to the philosophers, not everyone that had the acquired moral virtues, had also the heroic or divine virtues. But in matters directed to the supernatural end (which absolutely surpasses the forces and exigences of our reasonable nature) to which man's reason moves him, according as it is, in a manner, and imperfectly, actuated by the theological virtues, the motion of reason does not suffice, unless it receives in addition the prompting or motion of the Holy Ghost, according to Rom. 8: 14, 17: 'Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God . . . and if sons, heirs also': and Ps. 142: 10: 'Thy good Spirit shall lead me into the right land'; because, to wit, none can receive the inheritance of that land of the blessed, except he be moved and led thither by the Holy Ghost." ²⁵ In this sense, the gifts are necessary to salvation as habitual dispositions to receive divine inspirations, just as sails are necessary on a boat that it may be responsive to the winds.

     This does not mean that, without the intervention of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, a Christian is never capable of a supernatural act. But, if by mortal sin he has lost these gifts together with charity, he can still, with an ordinary actual grace, make a supernatural act of faith; and rather often the just man also acts in a supernatural manner without a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost. But, as St. Thomas says, it is not in the power of reason, even when enlightened by faith and infused prudence, "to know all things or all possible things. Consequently it is unable to avoid folly (stultitia) and other like things. . . . God, however, to whose knowledge and power all things are subject, by His motion safeguards us from all folly, ignorance, dullness of mind, and hardness of heart, and the rest. Consequently the gifts of the Holy Ghost, which make us amenable to His promptings, are said to be given as remedies to these defects." ²⁶ "By the theological and moral virtues, man is not so perfected in respect of his last end, as not to stand in continual need of being moved by the yet higher promptings of the Holy Ghost." ²⁷

     III. Necessity of an increasingly perfect docility to the interior Master.

     This special assistance, of which we have spoken, is so much the more necessary since the soul, in advancing, should perform more perfect works, and since the Lord wishes to conduct us to a deeper and more loving knowledge of the supernatural mysteries.²⁸ The infused moral and theological virtues, even when they have reached a high degree, without a special help of the Holy Ghost still operate according to the human mode of the faculties in which they are received.²⁹

     Faith makes us know God in a way which is still too abstract, too exterior, in speculo et in aenigmate, by excessively narrow formulas that must be multiplied. We should like to be able to condense them into one that would bring us into close contact with the living God and that would express for us the Light of life which more and more He ought to be for us. Hope and charity, which are directed by faith, share in this imperfection of faith. These two virtues of the will lack vitality and keep too much of the human manner as long as they are directed only by reason illumined by faith.

     No matter how circumspect Christian prudence, which rules the other moral virtues, may be, though it is quite superior to purely natural prudence, which is described by the philosophers, it still frequently remains timid, uncertain in its foresight, and too cautious to respond to all the exigencies of divine love; just as our fortitude and patience do not suffice in certain trials, or our chastity in the face of some temptations.³⁰ Because our supernatural virtues must be adapted to the human mode of our faculties, they leave us in a state of inferiority with respect to the supernatural end toward which we should advance with greater eagerness.

     With only the virtues, even though they are supernatural, man is like an apprentice who knows fairly well what he must do, but who has not the skill to do it in a suitable manner. Consequently the master who is teaching him must come from time to time, take his hand, and direct it so that the work may be presentable. Thus, as long as our prayer is only the fruit of an assiduous meditation, it remains too human to taste truly the word of God. In meditation we drink only of water which has flowed along the ground and is mixed with mud, as St. Teresa says. That we may drink from the fountain, the Holy Ghost must, like the master of the apprentice, directly intervene, take possession of our intellect and will, and communicate to them His manner of thinking and of loving; a divine manner which alone is worthy of God, who wishes to be known as a living truth and divinely loved. As we always remain apprentices toward God, the Holy Ghost must intervene habitually in our prayer and works that they may be perfect. That is why, unlike purely gratuitous graces (gratis datae) such as prophecy, the gifts, which make us amenable to divine inspirations as the virtues do to the directions of reason, should be permanent in us.³¹ They are in our soul what sails are on a boat. Two means can be used to move a small sailboat through the water: rowing, which is slow and laborious, and sailing. A soul can make progress and can advance by the exercise of the virtues; in this it is active; or by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, who breathes where He wills and when He wills. Here the soul is docile, acting less than it is acted upon. "The gifts of the Holy Ghost perfect man . . . for he is so acted upon by the Holy Ghost, that he also acts himself in so far as he has a free will. Therefore he needs a habit." ³² From this we see that the soul approaches perfection only by a great docility to the Holy Ghost, in which the superhuman mode of the gifts must normally prevail so as more and more to remedy what is essentially imperfect in the human mode of the virtues. This is the function of the gifts.

     IV. The special inspiration of the Holy Ghost and the progress of charity.

     No one questions that St. Thomas' mystical theology is found especially in his teaching about the gifts of the Holy Ghost, their relation to charity and to infused contemplation. But some persons merely read rather hastily in the Summa (Ia IIae, q. 68) the articles devoted to the gifts of the Holy Ghost in general, and (IIa IIae, q. 8, 9, 45) the articles that relate to the gifts of understanding, knowledge, and wisdom, without considering sufficiently their connection with what is said (IIa IIae, q. 24, a. 9) about the three degrees of charity in beginners, the proficient, and the perfect, and without recalling what St. Thomas teaches (Ia IIae, q. 111, a. 2) about operating grace, to which he attaches the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost. As a result, they fail to see clearly what is original and very deep in the Thomistic doctrine of the gifts.

     This point is briefly and lucidly set forth in the most thorough treatment that has been written on the subject of the gifts. We refer to the article by Father Gardeil, O.P., in the Dictionnaire de théologie catholique.³³ In the historical part of the article, after showing the sources for the doctrine of the gifts in Scripture and in the Greek and Latin fathers, and after mentioning the treatises of the first Scholastic theologians, Father Gardeil analyzes what has been written on the gifts by the founders of systematized theology—Alexander of Hales, St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great, and St. Thomas Aquinas. It is interesting to see how these four great Scholastics reacted against William of Auxerre and William of Paris, who denied the specific character of the gifts and reduced them to the virtues, thus preparing the ground for the minimist doctrine of the decadent nominalists of the fourteenth century. Father Gardeil says: ³⁴ "These four great theologians fundamentally consecrated the ancient doctrine, which distinguished the gifts from the virtues, by considering them as primi motus in corde . . . but, instead of identifying the gifts and actual graces, they saw in the gifts, at least St. Thomas did, subjective dispositions to receive the most sublime actual graces. With an incomparable and magnificent synthesis, St. Thomas attached this point of doctrine to what, both in the philosophy of Aristotle and in his own theology, is most elevated and most profoundly true on the pre-eminence of the divine action. He thus brought this point of doctrine back to absolutely first principles, which, in philosophy as well as theology, govern questions about the divine action as such; that is, developing it in conformity with the inner law of the divine being. By this systematization, he assured it the indestructible solidity of every doctrine which is attached to first principles, evident in themselves or primarily revealed." ³⁵

     It is our wish: (1) to show how, according to St. Thomas, the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to which the gifts render us docile, differs from the common, actual grace necessary to the exercise of the infused virtues; (2) to follow the growing elevation of this special inspiration, in beginners, the proficient, and the perfect, by considering especially the gifts of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.

THE SPECIAL INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY GHOST AND COMMON, ACTUAL GRACE

     For a clear understanding of this teaching, as Father del Prado³⁶ remarks, we must distinguish, as St. Thomas does, the different ways in which God moves our intellect and our will, whether in the natural or in the supernatural order. St. Thomas distinguishes between three principle modes of the divine motion in the order of nature, and three others proportionately similar in that of grace. They can be expressed in the following division which we will explain:

     The first mode of motion is before human deliberation,³⁷ the second is after or with it, the third is above it, and that in the order of nature as well as in that of grace. St. Thomas has enumerated them in Ia IIae, q. 9, a. 6 ad 3um; q. 68, a. 2, 3; q. 109, a. 1, 2, 6, 9; q. 111, a. 2; De veritate, q. 24, a. 15. It will suffice to translate the first of these texts which—many seem to ignore the fact—is explained by those that follow, as we shall see: "God moves man's will, as the Universal Mover, to the universal object of the will, which is good. And, without this universal motion, man cannot will anything. But man determines himself by his reason, to will this or that, which is true or apparent good. Nevertheless, sometimes God moves some specially to the willing of something determinate, which is good; as in the case of those whom He moves by grace, as we shall see later on (q. 109, a. 2; q. 109, a. 6; q. 111, a. 2)." ³⁸

     By the first mode of divine motion in the natural order, our will is therefore moved, as to its exercise, to will good in general or beatitude, and this act, by which each one of us wishes to be happy or desires happiness, is without doubt a vital act determined upon by the will; but it is not free, in this sense that we cannot hate beatitude or prefer anything else to it.³⁹ We always aspire to it, and this aspiration bears thus confusedly on God, although we do not always judge that our true beatitude is to be found in Him.⁴⁰ Every man naturally desires to be happy, "and the source of all good consists in placing happiness where it should be, and the source of all evil lies in misplacing it." ⁴¹ This is why our Lord began His preaching with the evangelical beatitudes, which tell us, as opposed to the maxims of the world, where true happiness is to be found.

     In this first act of the will, in this natural desire for happiness, there can be no sin, if the act is considered in itself independently of the acts that may follow it. We do not say that the will moves itself to this first act; strictly speaking, it moves itself to an act only in virtue of an anterior act. Thus it moves itself to choose the means in virtue of the act by which it wishes the end.⁴² The question here concerns the first act in the strict sense; hence in this case the will cannot sin; it is moved by God without moving itself, although it produces this act vitally.⁴³

     The second mode of divine motion is that in virtue of which our free will, still in the natural order, determines upon a true good or an apparent good. This movement of our will is not only vital but free, and to produce it the will moves itself in virtue of an anterior act; hence it can sin in this case.⁴⁴ But, since God cannot by His motion be equally the cause of evil and of good, we must say that the motion by which He moves the free will to determine upon a good natural act, is not the same as that by which He is the cause of the physical act of sin and not of its malice.⁴⁵ The good act comes entirely from God, as from its first cause, and entirely from us as from its second cause: "What hast thou that thou hast not received?"⁴⁶ On the contrary, the evil act, considered with respect to what is disordered and evil in it, does not come from God, but only from our defectible and evilly disposed free will.⁴⁷ Just so, the gait of a lame person, in so far as the action is concerned, springs from his vital energy, but its defectiveness comes only from the malformation of his leg.⁴⁸ As opposed to the divine motion which moves to good, the motion required for the physical act of sin is accompanied by the divine permission of the disorder contained in the sin. God allows this disorder to occur for very lofty reasons of which He is the judge, but He can in no way be its cause. Indefectible principle of all good and of all order, He can no more cause the evil involved in the act of sin than the eye, seeing the color of a fruit, can perceive its taste. Moral evil is no more the object of omnipotence than sounds are the object of sight. Without being obliged thereto, God often remedies the weaknesses of our free will; He does not always do it. Therein lies a mystery.

     The third mode of divine motion in the natural order is mentioned by St. Thomas ⁴⁹ when he quotes the Eudemian Ethics (Bk. VII, chap. 14). In this work, which is attributed to Aristotle but was composed under his influence by one of his platonizing disciples, the author says: "Someone will ask, perhaps, whether a person's good fortune makes him desire what he should when he should. . . . Without reflecting, deliberating, or taking counsel, it happens that he thinks and wills what is most suitable. . . . To what is this due, if not to good fortune? What is good fortune itself and how can it give such happy inspirations? This is equivalent to asking what is the superior principle of the movements of the soul. Now, it is manifest that God, who is the principle of the universe, is also the principle of the soul. All things are moved by Him who is present in us. The principle of reason is not reason but something superior. What is superior to reason and intelligence except God? . . . This is why the ancients used to say: 'Happy are they who without deliberating are led to act well.' This does not come from their own will, but from a principle present in them which is superior to their intellect and to their will. . . . Under a divine inspiration, some even foresee the future."

     In the Nicomachian Ethics, Bk. VII, chap. 1, Aristotle speaks of heroes, such as Hector, who "because of the excellence of their courage are called divine . . . , for there is something superior to human virtue in them" or to human science. Thus it was customary to say "the divine Plato," because of the superior inspiration which often animated his discourse. This inspiration is in the natural order and takes different forms, philosophical, poetical, musical, and strategic. These are the various forms of genius.

     St. Thomas clearly states that this special inspiration is not at all necessary to man for the attainment of his natural last end. But he maintains that it is otherwise in the order of grace, where the gifts of the Holy Ghost and the corresponding inspirations are necessary to salvation.⁵⁰

     These three modes of divine motion, which we have defined, are transposed in the order of grace; in this order the three are normal.

     1) At the moment when a sinner is justified, God as the Author of grace moves the sinner's free will to be converted to his supernatural last end. Under this divine motion and by it the sinner is made just or is justified, and begins to act no longer merely in view of happiness naturally desired, but for God supernaturally loved above all things. This supernatural motion first of all prepares the sinner to receive sanctifying grace, and justifies him through the infusion of this grace and of charity by moving him to a free act of faith, charity, and repentance.⁵¹ In this case the free will does not, strictly speaking, move itself to this act of living faith and charity; it is moved thereto by operating grace.⁵² In this act there cannot be sin; on the contrary, there is hatred of sin. This act is freely produced under the impulse of efficacious grace.⁵³ Although entirely free, this supernatural movement of the will resembles the first natural movement by which we wish happiness. Strictly speaking, man cannot move himself; that would suppose an efficacious anterior act of the same order. This anterior act does not exist, since the question here concerns the first efficacious act of love of the supernatural end.⁵⁴ This act is not preceded by personal merit; rather it opens the way of merit. It is, as it were, the threshold of the order of grace, or the first step in the execution of divine predestination.

     2) The second mode of motion in this order is that by which God moves a just man to act well supernaturally by using the infused virtues as he ought. In this movement of the free will, the will is moved and moves itself by virtue of an anterior supernatural act. Here there is deliberation, properly so called, regarding the means in view of the end, and a human manner of acting under the direction of reason enlightened by faith.⁵⁵ Moreover, this grace is called co-operating grace.⁵⁶ When this grace is efficacious, free will can still resist if it wishes, but it never wills to do so. In fact it cannot happen that sin is produced in the very use of grace, when man is moved by efficacious actual grace.⁵⁷ Thus he who is seated can indeed rise, but he cannot at one and the same time be seated and standing. Liberty is not destroyed because God, who is infinitely powerful and closer to us than we are to ourselves, moves our will according to its natural inclinations freely to will one thing or another.⁵⁸

     3) Lastly, the third mode of the divine motion in the order of grace is that by which God especially moves the free will of a spiritual man, who is disposed to the divine inspiration by the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Here the just soul is immediately directed, not by reason enlightened by faith, but by the Holy Ghost Himself in a superhuman manner.⁵⁹ This motion is not only given for the exercise of the act, but for its direction and specification; consequently it is called illumination and inspiration.⁶⁰ It is an eminent mode of operating grace which thus leads to the highest acts of the virtues and of the gifts: faith, illumined by the gift of understanding, becomes much more penetrating and contemplative; hope, enlightened by the gift of knowledge as to the vanity of all that is transitory, becomes perfect confidence and filial abandonment to Providence; and the illuminations of the gift of wisdom invite charity to the intimacy of the divine union. As the bee or the carrier pigeon, directed by instinct, acts with a wonderful certainty revealing the Intelligence which directs them, just so, says St. Thomas, "the spiritual man is inclined to act, not principally through the movement of his own will, but by the instinct of the Holy Ghost, according to the words of Isaias (59: 19): 'When he shall come as a violent stream, which the Spirit of the Lord driveth on.' And in St. Luke we find: 'Jesus . . . was led by the Spirit into the desert.' ⁶¹ It does not follow that the spiritual man does not operate by his will and his free will, but it is the Holy Ghost who causes this movement of the will and of the free will in him, as St. Paul says: 'For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish.' " ⁶² These words of St. Thomas are the best commentary on what he has written about operating grace.⁶³ Again he says: "The sons of God are led by the Holy Ghost in order that they may pass through this life which is full of temptations (Job 7: 1) and gain the victory by the grace of Christ." ⁶⁴

     Although the illumination of the Holy Ghost dispenses us from deliberating, nevertheless the act remains free and meritorious, for we consent to be moved in this way, as a good student wills to profit from the lesson of his teacher and as an obedient man is perfectly and freely docile to the order given him. This third mode of divine motion thus safeguards liberty and harmonizes with the infallibility of the divine foreknowledge and of the divine decree: "The Holy Ghost . . . does unfailingly whatever He wills to do. Hence it is impossible for these two things to be true at the same time—that the Holy Ghost should will to move a certain man to an act of charity, and that this man, by sinning, should lose charity."⁶⁵

     Evidently these three modes of motion, in the natural order and also in that of grace, are distinct, according as they are before human deliberation,⁶⁶ after it (or with it), or above it.⁶⁷ But the third of these modes is rarely found in the natural order, in geniuses or heroes, whereas in the order of grace it is normal, for reason, even enlightened by faith, acts in so human a manner as not to suffice to direct us toward our supernatural last end.⁶⁸

     This doctrine of St. Thomas, confirming what he teaches on "the virtues of the purified soul," ⁶⁹ is reiterated exactly in the writings of St. John of the Cross ⁷⁰ where he speaks of these purified souls: "Thus ordinarily the first movements of the powers in such souls are, as it were, divine. This is not to be wondered at since these powers are, in a fashion, transformed into the divine Being.⁷¹ . . . God moves specially the powers of these souls . . . ; consequently, their works and prayers are always efficacious. Such were those of the glorious Mother of God, who from the beginning of her life, was raised to this high degree of union. There was never in her soul the impress of any created form whatsoever, capable of distracting her from God, for she was always docile to the motion of the Holy Ghost." ⁷²

     Therefore every just man has, together with grace and the infused virtues, the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are related to charity, perfect the different virtues, and with them constitute a perfect supernatural organism ready to move deliberately and also to be moved by the Holy Ghost in a manner beyond all human consideration. This is why habitual or sanctifying grace is called "the grace of the virtues and of the gifts," from the name of the infused habitus which spring from it, just as the faculties have their origin in the essence of the soul.⁷³

     This supernatural organism, according to the teaching of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, we illustrate by the synopsis on the next page, where we note the correspondence of the virtues, the gifts, and the beatitudes indicated by these two great doctors.

     In this summary, in which we have brought together the teaching of Scripture and of tradition on this subject, the virtues are set down according to the order of their hierarchy, and the corresponding gifts in like manner.⁷⁴ The gift of knowledge is placed opposite hope, inasmuch as it acquaints us with the vanity of created things and human help,⁷⁵ and thus leads us to desire the possession of God and to hope in Him. The correspondence of the beatitudes is more clearly seen if we recall the reward promised to each one.⁷⁶ The last one ("Blessed are they who suffer persecution") is not indicated, even though it is the most perfect, because it contains all the others in the midst of the greatest difficulties.⁷⁷

     The order of the gifts of the Holy Ghost is clearly seen from the outline of what St. Thomas says of them,⁷⁸ as appears in the synopsis on the next page.

     From this outline we see that the gifts of the intellect, which direct the others, are superior to them.⁷⁹ They perfect the intellect in its first two operations: simple apprehension and penetration of the truth, and judgment. There is no question of the third, reasoning or discourse, because the acts dependent on the gifts are not discursive, and are superior to the human mode of reasoning. The gift of wisdom is superior to that of understanding, for wisdom judges first principles themselves by the highest Cause.⁸⁰ Here we are concerned with judgment, not only according to the perfect use of speculative reason, as in acquired wisdom, but by connaturality or sympathy with divine things; a connaturality founded on charity, or the supernatural love of God.⁸¹

GROWING ELEVATION OF THE SPECIAL INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY GHOST IN BEGINNERS, PROFICIENTS, AND THE PERFECT

     All the gifts are related to charity,⁸² and as infused habitus they grow with charity, which ought always to increase until death.⁸³ Consequently, as we distinguish three degrees of charity (that of beginners, of proficients, and of the perfect),⁸⁴ we make the same distinction in regard to the gifts of the Holy Ghost. This point has been especially developed by Dionysius the Carthusian in his treatise on the gifts,⁸⁵ where he shows that their first degree corresponds to strict obligation, the second to the practice of the counsels, and the third to heroic acts. We will briefly indicate these three degrees: first, in the gift of knowledge and in the gifts subordinated to it; then, in the more elevated gifts of understanding and wisdom.

     The gift of knowledge makes us judge created things supernaturally, either by showing us their nothingness,⁸⁶ or by disclosing to us the divine symbolism hidden in them. In the first degree, it makes us recognize the fact that in themselves creatures are nothing and that we should not be attached to them as to our last end, but should use them solely as a means to bring us to God. In the second degree, it leads us to use creatures with moderation and with interior detachment; at the same time, by the spectacle of nature, it lifts us to God.⁸⁷ In the third degree, it bestows the spirit of renunciation, carried even to the heroic practice of the counsels. It makes us see the value of humiliations and sufferings, which render us like Christ crucified and which associate us with the great mystery of the redemption. This knowledge is no longer superficial and a simple remembrance of pious reading, but a profound conviction and true participation in the divine knowledge of created things.⁸⁸ It consists particularly in the knowledge of the gravity of sin, and has as its fruit the tears of contrition. Under the direction of the gift of knowledge, the gifts of counsel, fear, piety, and fortitude are exercised.

     While the gift of knowledge directs us to a general point of view (detachment from created things), that of counsel, perfecting prudence, shows us in particular the best means of attaining the end. Where prudence would hesitate, it shows us what to do or to avoid, what to say or to suppress, and what to undertake or to abandon.⁸⁹ In the first degree, it directs us in matters of strict obligation; in the second, it inclines us to the generous practice of the evangelical counsels; and in the third, it makes us undertake holy works with heroic perfection.⁹⁰ It corresponds to the beatitude of the merciful, for it counsels the works of mercy. Only the merciful really know how to give afflicted souls good advice that will encourage them.⁹¹

     Under the direction of the gift of knowledge, the gift of fear strengthens temperance and chastity by making us avoid, in the sight of God, the mistakes that our corrupted nature is prone to.⁹² It corresponds to hope by leading us to a filial respect toward God.⁹³ In the first degree, it inspires horror of sin and arms us against temptation.⁹⁴ In the second, it bestows deeper filial respect for the divine Majesty, preserves us from irreverence to holy things, and also from presumption. In the third, it leads to the practice of perfect renunciation and of the mortification which St. Paul describes in the following words: "Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body."⁹⁵ Thus we can see how this fear, which has for its fruit the beatitude of the poor in spirit, is "the beginning of wisdom," ⁹⁶ of a very lofty wisdom.

     This holy fear, however, should be accompanied by the gift of piety, which fills us with a filial affection for God our Father and makes us accomplish with our whole heart and with religious eagerness all that has to do with divine worship. This gift makes us cry: "Abba (Father)," as St. Paul says.⁹⁷ It corresponds to the beatitude of the meek, since it bestows a heavenly sweetness and thus leads us to comfort our afflicted neighbor because it makes us see in him a brother or a suffering member of Christ.⁹⁸ In its highest degree, the gift of piety strongly inclines us to give ourselves entirely to the service of God, to offer Him all our acts and sufferings as a perfect sacrifice. This gift makes us realize that communion is a participation in the sacrifice of the cross perpetuated on our altars; a participation by which our Lord wishes to render our hearts like His Sacred Heart of priest and victim, and to associate us with the deepest sentiments He experienced when instituting the Holy Eucharist just before He went forth to die for us.⁹⁹ Of this union with Christ the priest, St. Peter says: "Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." ¹⁰⁰

     The gift of fortitude, under the same direction of the gifts of knowledge and counsel, gives us the courage to undertake great things for God and to bear crushing trials for Him. It comes to the aid of the virtue of fortitude in very difficult circumstances. This gift corresponds to the fourth beatitude: "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after justice," and who, in spite of all obstacles, maintain unshaken confidence in the help of God. In the perfect, this gift imbues the soul with an irresistible attraction to the things of God; it leads the soul to suffer joyfully the most painful torments for God, for faith, and for justice. This gift enables humble virgins and weak children to win the crown of martyrdom.¹⁰¹ It also sustains those who pass without weakening through the bitter crucible of the passive purifications of the soul, and who experience the truth of the Scriptural expression: "Many are the afflictions of the just; but out of them all will the Lord deliver them." ¹⁰² This gift is what made St. Paul exclaim: "I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation"; ¹⁰³ and also, "who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, for His body which is the Church." ¹⁰⁴

     Knowledge, counsel, fear, piety, and fortitude are, as we have seen, the inferior gifts directed to victory over sin and to action. The soul, living habitually under the régime of these gifts, is already in the mystical life, even though mystical contemplation, which proceeds from the higher gifts, is not yet clearly discerned in it. This fact is important in practice, and should be clearly noted so as to maintain, always without exaggeration, the exact meaning of the doctrine which we defend, namely, the normal though eminent character of infused contemplation. Although infused contemplation is generally granted to the perfect, it is not always clearly characterized in them. But they are already in the mystical life if they live habitually under the régime of the gifts which correspond to the beatitudes of the flight from sin and to those of the active life. This is evident from what St. Thomas says about the first five beatitudes.¹⁰⁵ Thereby the soul is immediately prepared for infused contemplation, which is chiefly the fruit of the gifts of understanding and wisdom.

     The gift of understanding makes us penetrate the meaning of revealed truths and discover the spirit beneath the letter. While faith is a simple assent to the word of God, an assent that exists in a believing soul even in the state of mortal sin, this gift, which like the others is found only in the just, implies a penetrating and progressive understanding of the mysteries of faith, the precepts, and the counsels. It does not remove the obscurity of faith or its merit. It never gives us, while on earth, the evidence of mysteries, properly so called, for example, those of the Blessed Trinity, the incarnation, the redemption, and predestination. But it makes us perceive more and more clearly that the obscurity of these mysteries is the very opposite to the obscurity of incoherence and absurdity, and that it comes from a light which is too strong for our weak eyes. Thus it shows us the emptiness of the objections raised against faith, and it greatly confirms the motives of credibility, or signs of revelation.¹⁰⁶

     In the first degree, the gift of understanding strengthens the faith of every good Christian to such an extent that illiterate persons, who cannot make a study of the motives of credibility, adhere to the word of God with a firmness which may surpass that of the faith of learned men. In the second degree, this gift discloses the consistency and sublimity of revealed mysteries. It also contributes greatly to the passive purification of the soul, by making us glimpse the infinite grandeur of God, His unfathomable perfections, the annihilations of the Word made flesh and, on the other hand, the depth of the wretchedness subsisting in us. It corresponds to the beatitude of the clean of heart.¹⁰⁷ In the third degree, this gift makes the soul penetrate the hidden depths of the divine mysteries; it unveils more and more the meaning of the prophecies and of our Lord's words, and in a way makes us see God; "by the gift of understanding, we can, so to speak, see God,"¹⁰⁸ not by a positive, immediate intuition of the divine presence, but by showing us more and more clearly what God is not, and how His intimate life infinitely exceeds the natural knowledge of every created and creatable intelligence.¹⁰⁹ Evidently the third degree of the gift of understanding, that which is normally proper to the perfect, belongs to the mystical life, strictly so called, as the principle of infused contemplation. We can easily understand this by reading the description of the third degree in the work of Dionysius the Carthusian.¹¹⁰

Lastly, whereas the gift of understanding conceives and penetrates, that of wisdom makes us judge all created things by the taste, by the affective and sweet knowledge of God, their beginning and end.¹¹¹ Although in this life wisdom remains in the obscurity of faith, without seeing God as He is (sicuti est), nevertheless it contemplates Him in His intimate life in the measure in which we have an experimental knowledge of Him as the soul of our soul, the life of our life. As we take cognizance of our soul in our actions,¹¹² so, in a certain way, we have a quasi-experimental knowledge of God by the action He exercises in us and by the spiritual joy and peace we experience therefrom.¹¹³ Thus St. Paul says: "For the Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God." ¹¹⁴ Such is indeed, as St. Thomas and John of St. Thomas show, the effect of the gift of wisdom. We will quote in a note the formulas of the Master to which one must continually revert, as will be seen from what follows.¹¹⁵

     The gift of wisdom is thus the most perfect of all; it exerts the same influence over the other gifts as charity does on the virtues which are subordinated to it. Wisdom is, at one and the same time, eminently speculative and practical;¹¹⁶ it appears in some souls especially under the first form, and in others more particularly under the second. Thus, there are saints called to the active life, like St. Vincent de Paul, who under a practical form have, nevertheless, a very profound mystical union with God. It is this which makes them see constantly in the poor, the sick, and abandoned children, the suffering members of Christ. It is very important to note these practical forms of the mystical life if we are to understand clearly the meaning of the doctrine which we hold as traditional, and if we do not wish to apply it materially in the same way to all souls. St. Paul was thinking of this gift when he said: "Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect. . . . But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden. . . . So the things also that are of God no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God. . . . Now we have received . . . the Spirit that is of God. . . . The spiritual man judgeth all things; and he himself is judged of no man. . . . But we have the mind of Christ." ¹¹⁷ This experience of divine things gives a certitude which fills the soul with ineffable consolation.¹¹⁸ The gift of wisdom thus corresponds to the beatitude of the peacemakers,¹¹⁹ who, in the midst of all that might trouble them, preserve deep peace, the tranquillity of order, so as to communicate it to others. They are accustomed to contemplate all things in God, unforeseen and most painful events, as well as those that are most consoling.

     This gift is bestowed on us according to the measure of our charity, by virtue of its intimate connection with charity. Moreover, we can see in it, better than in the other gifts, the three degrees corresponding to those of charity. In the first degree, wisdom shows us principally the grandeur of God's commandments and gives us an attraction to what is good. "But it is good for me to adhere to my God." ¹²⁰ In the second degree, it makes us see how valuable the counsels are and how all Christians should have the spirit of the counsels, even when their condition does not permit the practice of them. Illumined by the light of contemplation, a soul which passes through the night of the spirit more and more appreciates the cross of Jesus; at times, it even finds therein a spiritual sweetness and a "peace which surpasses all understanding." In the third degree, the soul is transformed by the gift of wisdom. In the light of this gift, says St. Thomas, "the perfect aim chiefly at union with and enjoyment of God, and desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." ¹²¹ Like St. Paul the soul takes pleasure "in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ." ¹²² This is the eighth beatitude, the highest of all.¹²³

     Evidently this third degree of the gift of wisdom belongs to the mystical life, strictly so called, even when this degree of wisdom appears under a practical form, as it does in the saints called to the active life. Dionysius the Carthusian, following the principles of St. Thomas, brings this out in his description of this third degree. He says: "The spirit no longer rests in any created thing for itself; it is completely fixed in the contemplation of divine things, a contemplation, which is very pure, easy, and sweet, now that the passions are calmed and the soul purified . . . as far as human frailty permits. This wisdom belongs to those who can say with St. Paul (II Cor. 3: 18): 'But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord.' " ¹²⁴ We ought all to desire this divine wisdom which normally increases with charity, which ought to grow continually in this life.¹²⁵

     What is extraordinary is supereminent contemplation which proceeds not only from the gifts of the Holy Ghost, but from a grace gratis data, like that of prophecy, or that called by St. Thomas sermo sapientiae. Moreover, after stating that all the just receive the gift of wisdom in the measure necessary to their own sanctification, St. Thomas adds: "Some, however, receive a higher degree of the gift of wisdom, both as to the contemplation of divine things (by both knowing more exalted mysteries and being able to impart this knowledge to others) and as to the direction of human affairs according to divine rules (by being able to direct not only themselves but also others according to those rules). This degree of wisdom is not common to all that have sanctifying grace, but belongs rather to the gratuitous graces."¹²⁶ We must also remark that these graces, like prophecy, are not precisely necessary for this act of contemplation, but they simply help to render it more complete and more perfect.¹²⁷ What would be even more extraordinary is the beatific vision granted in a transitory manner in this life, as St. Augustine and St. Thomas thought that it was granted to Moses and St. Paul.¹²⁸

     This is the Angelic Doctor's teaching on the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost in the souls of the just, and on its progress, which usually accompanies that of charity. If we recall that, in his opinion, the perfection of charity is not only of counsel, but falls under the first precept as the end to which all must tend, each one according to his condition,¹²⁹ we shall see more and more clearly that infused contemplation, proceeding from the gift of wisdom, is truly found in the normal way of sanctity and that it is generally granted to the perfect.

     We must now make a more profound study of the gift of wisdom in particular, and of its relation to faith and to infused contemplation.

ARTICLE VI

The Essential Character of Infused Contemplation; How it Proceeds from The Gift of Wisdom and from Faith

     For the reasons we have just set forth, theologians commonly teach that infused contemplation proceeds formally from the gifts of the Holy Ghost, particularly from the gift of wisdom which makes us taste the mysteries of salvation and, so to speak, see all things in God, just as acquired wisdom tries to judge everything by the supreme cause and the last end.¹ The gift of understanding also contributes to contemplation by making us penetrate these mysteries.² The gift of knowledge may also have a share in it by manifesting to us the emptiness and the vanity of all created things in comparison with God, or by revealing to us, in a more striking manner than years of meditation could, the infinite gravity of mortal sin.³

     All tradition associates with the inspirations of the gift of wisdom that loving knowledge of God which is quite different from speculative knowledge. This loving knowledge supposes, together with the special illumination of the Holy Ghost, a living "connaturality with divine things," ⁴ based on infused charity, a wholly supernatural attraction of the soul for God, who makes Himself felt by it as the life of its life. This living knowledge is an affective knowledge which becomes more lively, penetrating, and sweet because the gift of wisdom grows with charity and is related to it as the infused virtues and the other gifts are.

1. THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM IN SCRIPTURE

     This doctrine, which is commonly accepted in the Church, is manifestly founded on what Scripture tells us of the spirit of wisdom. It was not only of the Messias that Isaias spoke when he declared: "And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord." ⁵ The Old Testament applies to all men the following words, which we have already quoted: "God loveth none but him that dwelleth with wisdom";⁶ "for wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins." ⁷ St. John writes to the faithful: "Let the unction which you have received from Him abide in you. . . . His unction teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie." ⁸ St. Paul, after stating that "the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us," ⁹ then adds: "For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father)." ¹⁰ "Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, neither of the princes of this world that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory: which none of the princes of the world knew; for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written: That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him. But to us God hath revealed them, by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him? So the things also that are of God no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God: that we may know the things that are given us from God. Which things also we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom: but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God: for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined. But the spiritual man judgeth all things: and he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." ¹¹

These words about the wisdom preached "among the perfect" are fully lived only by souls raised to mystical contemplation; especially to them the unction of the Holy Ghost "teaches all things." By Him they cry to God in their prayers; they scrutinize the deep things of God; they anticipate all He has prepared for those who love Him; they know experimentally all the riches already received; and they judge all things, whether painful or pleasurable, by referring them to the glory of God. Again St. Paul writes for all Christians: "But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." ¹² Only in infused contemplation is this transformation of a certainty fully realized on earth.

     Without the mystical knowledge of God, how can we possess the full perfection of Christian life? "Now all good things came to me together with her." ¹³ As the Apostle St. James says: "But the wisdom, that is from above, first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation." ¹⁴

     The doctors of the Church, following the lead of St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great, have interpreted these passages of Scripture as referring to the gift of wisdom, the principle of infused contemplation. The liturgy likewise brings this message to all the faithful in the Veni Creator.¹⁵

2. THE GIFT OF WISDOM AND INFUSED CONTEMPLATION ACCORDING TO THEOLOGY

     St. Thomas, in conformity with tradition, teaches that contemplation is chiefly the fruit of the gift of wisdom. This gift is an infused disposition (habitus infusus) of the intellect, as contemplation is an intellectual act,¹⁶ requiring an illumination of the Holy Ghost. But as the gift of wisdom presupposes charity, contemplation depends essentially also on charity, which makes us desire to know God better, not for the joy of knowing, but for God Himself, that we may love Him more.¹⁷ In this act the will applies the intellect to the consideration of divine things in preference to all others (order of exercise), and also (in the order of specification), from the fact that this will is fundamentally rectified and elevated by an eminent charity, these divine things appear to us more and more conformable to our highest aspirations. By experience we learn that they fill and surpass these aspirations and never cease to elevate them. Consequently we live more and more by God, by His supreme goodness, which makes itself felt by us as the life of our life. We "taste the sweetness of God": "O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet." ¹⁸

     St. Thomas says: "Wisdom denotes a certain rectitude of judgment according to the Eternal Law. Now rectitude of judgment is twofold: first, on account of perfect use of reason, secondly, on account of a certain connaturality with the matter about which one has to judge. Thus about matters of chastity, a man after inquiring with his reason forms a right judgment, if he has learned the science of morals, while he who has the habit of chastity judges of such matters by a kind of connaturality. Accordingly, it belongs to the wisdom that is an intellectual virtue to pronounce right judgment about divine things, after reason has made its inquiry; but it belongs to wisdom ¹⁹ as a gift of the Holy Ghost to judge aright about them on account of connaturality with them: thus Dionysius says (Div., Nom., ii) that Hierotheus is perfect in divine things, for he not only learns, but he is patient of divine things. Now this sympathy or connaturality with divine things is the result of charity, which unites us to God, according to I Cor. 6: 17: He who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit." ²⁰

     Thus love makes the object loved better known, affectus transit in conditionem objecti, as John of St. Thomas says,²¹"for by it and by affective experience this object appears to us more and more conformable to our aspirations and intimately united to us. The intellect is thus directed toward God, as if it touched Him experimentally. In this way, love moves the understanding, by applying it to consideration (in genere causae effectivae), and also in an objective manner (in genere causae objectivae), since by this experience the object appears quite otherwise than without it" and manifests itself as supremely suitable, as Goodness itself that is felt. This is what made our Lord say: "If any man will do the will of Him (the Father); he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." ²² This love unites us more closely to God than abstract²³ knowledge; and by the experience it gives us, it makes us more and more keenly desire the intuitive knowledge of the life to come, the beatific vision. This true pragmatism, which scoffs at pragmatism, is born of supernatural charity, which supposes faith.

     A soul might have affective knowledge from the simple fact that the love of charity is united to the act of faith; this is what occurs in affective, discursive prayer. But in infused contemplation there is, in addition, an inspiration and special illumination of the Holy Ghost. This subject was discussed at length in article 5 above.

     When a distinction is made, as often occurs in the writings of the fathers and of theologians, between illumination and inspiration, special illumination is a grace for the intellect, inspiration a grace for the will. In this sense we speak of infused knowledge and love that we cannot produce at will. No one can set a limit to the growing intensity of the illumination which the gift of wisdom renders us apt to receive. This illumination, as we shall see, can always grow in intensity in this life, just as charity can.

     This infused contemplation is obscure because it is superior both to every sensible image and to every distinct idea. This state of transluminous obscurity is indeed, in so far as the intelligence is concerned, what constitutes the foundation of the mystical state, according to the opinion of Dionysius, St. John of the Cross, and the other great spiritual teachers. It is very difficult to describe, for it is entirely supernatural and surpasses all expression. In it is something akin to a death of the understanding, which in reality is an incomparably superior new life, the true prelude of the life of heaven. St. John of the Cross should be consulted on this point, which he discusses in The Dark Night of the Soul. He says: "The imagination is bound, and unable to make any profitable reflections; the memory is gone; and the understanding, too, is darkened and unable to comprehend anything." ²⁴ The faculties are, as it were, annihilated according to their human mode; here, there is a deeper and more vital communication of the divine mode of knowing and loving. St. John of the Cross ²⁵ quotes St. Thomas (IIa IIae, q. 180, a. 1) and adds: "This happens in a secret, hidden way in which the natural operation of the understanding and the other faculties have no share. And, therefore, because the faculties of the soul cannot attain it, and since the Holy Ghost infuses it into the soul in a way unknown to it, as the Bride declares in the Canticle, it is called 'secret.' And, it is not only the soul that is ignorant of it, but every one else, even the devil; because the Master, who now teaches the soul, dwells substantially within it where neither the devil, nor the understanding, nor natural reason can penetrate."

     This is why so much difficulty is found in describing psychologically what theology calls the superhuman mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, especially of the gift of wisdom. Among the best descriptions are the one we have just quoted, and also the passage where St. Teresa ²⁶ distinguishes the first infused prayer (supernatural recollection) from the last of the acquired prayers which preceded it. We quoted this description above (chap. 5, arts. 2, 3).

     It is important, however, not to believe with liberal Protestantism and modernistic agnosticism that this transluminous obscurity of infused contemplation, which brings no distinct knowledge, can do without a definite Credo, or that it finds an obstacle in such a Credo.²⁷ On the contrary, this obscurity is at the opposite extreme from the "unstable wandering of the soul" with which sentimentality or theosophy is satisfied. To this it is somewhat opposed, as God, its object, is opposed to prime matter, which is capable of receiving all forms. In fact, infused contemplation is what gives ever more clearly the spirit of the words, concepts, and formulas of faith. It thus makes us, in a way, pass beyond the formulas of dogmas in order to enter into the deep things of God by believing in the mysteries as they are in Him, without its being granted us to see them. Thus conceived, this contemplation, far more profoundly than any study or meditation could, enables us to grasp the evangelical parables, the different mysteries of salvation, the unfathomable perfections of God, the supreme mystery of the Deity which contains them all, and the ineffable relations of the divine Persons.

     Hence St. Thomas,²⁸ following Dionysius, distinguishes three principal degrees in this contemplation, according to the brilliance of the illumination of the Holy Ghost, which has an unlimited intensive progress.

     1) The soul contemplates God in the mirror of sensible things of which He is the author, or in the mirror of the evangelical parables, as for instance, infinite mercy in the story of the prodigal son. The soul rises from a sensible fact toward God by a straight movement, like that of a lark soaring directly from earth toward heaven. While preaching the parable, our Lord placed His hearers in this prayer.

     2) The soul contemplates God in the mirror of the mysteries of salvation, the mysteries of the Word made flesh, the incarnation, redemption, Holy Eucharist, the life of the Church; mysteries which the rosary constantly sets before our eyes to familiarize us with them. In this spiritual mirror the soul contemplates the goodness of God. It comprehends better and better the harmony of these mysteries, and passes from one to another by an oblique movement analogous to that of a bird which, being already aloft, flies from one point to another, its gaze lost in the azure depths of the sky.

     3) The soul contemplates God in Himself, not as the blessed in heaven do, but in the penumbra of faith. Here the soul has risen above the multiplicity of sensible images and ideas. It sees, but a little indistinctly, that God our Father, who is infinitely good, is superior to every idea we can have of Him; and it sees that His goodness surpasses everything He Himself could put into human formulas for us, as the sky includes all the stars which manifest its depths to us. The soul not only tells itself these things, which every philosopher can think, even though he be in the state of mortal sin; but, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, by a loving and quasi-experimental knowledge it is wholly united to this unknown God; holy and sweet ignorance, superior to all knowledge. This is the pure contemplative movement which recollects the soul in God alone above all things, as Dionysius describes it in The Divine Names.²⁹ This prayer has been compared to an eagle's circular movement high up in the air, or to the movement of a bird hovering as though suspended and seeming to be motionless. This immobility is far more perfect than the varied movement that preceded it. As a circular movement has neither beginning nor end, there is here no method, for one does not start from principles in order to reach conclusions. Under the illumination of the Holy Ghost, it is truly simplex intuitus veritatis, the simple intuition of divine truths in the obscurity of faith, and the impetuosity of love which mysteriously unites us to God.³⁰ Christ's sacerdotal prayer in the Gospel of St. John ³¹ gives us the idea of this circular contemplation. An argument with major, minor, and conclusion must not be sought in it; on the contrary, it is composed, as it were, of luminous undulations which descend from heaven to us.

     This circular contemplation no more resembles meditation or abstract speculation on the divine essence than a circumference resembles a polygon inscribed within it; in proportion as the circumference is simple, the other is complex. Very often commentaries on the works of the saints give the same impression as this polygon; in vain we would multiply its sides in an attempt to make them identical with the circle enclosing them.

     As can be seen from his Commentary on the Divine Names,³² St. Thomas follows Dionysius. Above symbolical theology, which speaks of God in metaphors, and above speculative theology, which is expressed in less unsuitable terms and which reasons on the divine perfections and mysteries, there is "a perfect knowledge of God, which is obtained by ignorance in virtue of an incomprehensible union. This takes place when the soul, leaving all things and forgetting self, is united to the splendors of the divine glory and is enlightened in the splendid depths of unfathomable wisdom." ³³ Only a person who has received this grace can clearly understand all that these words express. St. Thomas adds: "We know God by ignorance, by a certain union with the divine which is above the nature of the mind . . . and thus knowing God, in such a state of knowledge, the soul is illumined from the very depths of divine Wisdom, which we cannot scrutinize." ³⁴

     We attain the mysterious ocean of being, which is superior to substance, to life, and to light, only by the repose of the superior faculties, not by reasoning or by a sight of God, but by a most loving and intimate union, "by a sort of initiation which no master can teach." ³⁵ Dionysius says: "We desire to enter that transluminous obscurity and to see and know, by the very fact of not seeing and not knowing, Him who is above all sight and all knowledge. For the soul truly sees and knows and supersubstantially praises the supersubstantial when it declares that the supersubstantial is nothing of that which other beings are." ³⁶ "The good Being . . . drives away ignorance and error from all souls in which He reigns; He dispenses to them all sacred light. . . . First of all He gives them a little light; then when, having tasted it, they desire it in greater abundance, He distributes it to them with greater largess. Because they have loved much, He inundates them with this light; and He ever urges them forward in proportion to the zeal they exercise in directing their faculties toward Him." ³⁷

     The soul cannot by its own efforts reach this infused contemplation, but it ought to prepare itself to receive it. This it should do by prayer and mortification,³⁸ and by setting aside the senses and reasoning: "As for thee, O well beloved Timothy, exercise thyself unceasingly in mystical contemplation. Put aside the senses and the operations of the understanding, all that is material and intellectual, all the things that exist and those that do not, and by a supernatural flight unite thyself as intimately as possible with Him who is above all being and all knowledge. For it is by this sincere, spontaneous, and total abandonment of thyself and of all things that, free and disengaged from all ties, thou wilt cast thyself into the mysterious splendor of the divine obscurity." ³⁹

     "This intimate union, which surpasses the range of non-mystical minds, is a fusion produced by divine love . . . for love is a unifying force." ⁴⁰ It is the perfection on this earth of the "deification of the soul." ⁴¹

     "Mystical knowledge," says St. Albert the Great,⁴² "does not proceed from the findings of reason, but rather from a certain divine light. The object seized by the soul (God Himself) acts so strongly on the intellect that the soul wishes at any price to be united to it. Since this object is above the grasp of the intellect, it does not make itself clearly known to it; consequently the understanding rests on something which is not determined."

     This contemplation gives us a foreknowledge of the divine perfections, which are identical with each other, without excluding each other, in the eminence of the Deity. It shows us how infinite justice harmonizes with infinite mercy, without ceasing to be justice; how sovereign mercy could not exist without being identical with this justice, in appearance so contrary to it.⁴³ The soul is introduced into the divine darkness, which Dionysius speaks of and which Blessed Angela of Foligno so wonderfully praises,⁴⁴ by a speculative and a quasi-experimental knowledge that God in His intimate life, in what constitutes Him as such (in His nature as God) is, so to speak, superior to being, truth, good, wisdom, love, mercy, and justice; and that nevertheless these divine perfections are in Him formally in an eminent manner, without any real distinction.

     How can the soul know in this way that Deity, which is common to the three divine Persons and from which they are not in reality distinct? Grace alone permits us to know it in this way, because grace is precisely a real and formal participation in this Deity, in the divine nature as such. Whereas a stone resembles God because it has existence; a plant, because it has life; and the natural man, because he is endowed with intelligence; grace makes us resemble God precisely inasmuch as He is God, in His Deity, superior to being, life, and thought. This relationship belongs to an order quite superior to a sensible miracle and to the prophecies of possible future events.⁴⁵ Such is this connaturality, this natural resemblance with God, the grace of the virtues and the gifts. It makes the just soul, as it were, an Aeolian harp which, under the breathing of the Holy Ghost, gives forth the most harmonious sounds, the sweetest as well as the most brilliant, the most piercing as well as the most solemn. As a new leitmotif, which at first is imperceptible and distant, little by little rises, approaches, envelops us, and ends by dominating all, so the mysterious harmony of the gift of wisdom rises in our soul. Its superhuman mode scarcely appears at first, and then in rather a negative manner by the disappearance of the human mode of thinking. As St. John of the Cross says,⁴⁶ meditation becomes impossible or impracticable; the soul has no desire to fix its imagination on any particular interior or exterior object; it is pleased in prayer to find itself alone with God, and to fix its attention lovingly on Him. This is the beginning of the divine intimacy.

     Theology, by what it teaches about the gift of wisdom, makes us know ontologically the spiritual organism of contemplation; but it leaves to mystics the description of the psychological signs that correspond to contemplation. It thus remains a superior science, distinct from the eminent art of the direction of souls, which is its application. We can see from this point of view why St. Thomas (IIa IIae, q. 180) treats contemplation in a formal manner. He determines its essence, which is analogically found in both philosophical and infused contemplation;⁴⁷ but he does not describe the different types of the latter according to the psychological and material signs that manifest it. St. Teresa is essentially descriptive; St. John of the Cross, both a mystic and a theologian, takes his place between the two. A number of authors make a mistake in wanting to discern which of these three points of view is the highest. In the great sobriety of his language, St. Thomas expresses the essence of things; without writing of mystical theology, he has given us its principles.

III. PROGRESSIVE PREDOMINANCE OF THE DIVINE MODE OF THE GIFT OF WISDOM IN PRAYER

     When we say that spiritual progress normally demands the progressive predominance of the divine mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost in order to remedy the imperfect mode of the infused virtues, and when we add that the mystical life is precisely characterized by this predominance and by perfect docility to the interior Master, we do not mean to reserve to the mystical state the intervention of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, or to exclude the exercise of the virtues from this state. On the contrary, we have always said that, before the entrance into the mystical state, the gifts intervene in a manner that may be latent and rather frequent, or that may be manifest but rare.⁴⁸ When this intervention becomes frequent and manifest, then the mystical life begins, characterized by this predominance of the divine mode of the gifts,⁴⁹ whereas the ascetical life is characterized by the human mode of the virtues.

     What we do not admit is that the gifts must enter into play every time the soul receives an actual grace; because an actual grace is required for even the most imperfect exercise of the Christian virtues, for remissi acts notably lower than the degree of charity we possess. In these acts no influence of the gifts is seen.⁵⁰ It would be an error to confound actual grace, at first exciting, then co-operating, which moves us to deliberate well according to the human mode, to will, and to act in consequence, with the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to which the gifts render us docile, without our having to deliberate according to the human mode.⁵¹ It may well be that a latent inspiration rather often accompanies human deliberation and work, just as a breeze facilitates the labor of a man who is rowing; but the divine mode of acting remains specifically distinct from the human mode. When the divine mode predominates in an act or a state to such an extent that this act and this state cannot be produced by our industry or human activity aided by the actual grace required for the exercise of the virtues, then that state is called passive. For example, when the wind blows with such force that a boat advances without the necessity of rowing, its progress does not depend on the activity of the oarsman. There is, therefore, more than a difference of degree between the human mode of the virtues and of the corresponding actual grace and the divine mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost; there is a specific difference. This specific difference would not exist if the divine motion were only more intense. The difference arises from the fact that the objective regulation of the act is formally different, according as it proceeds from reason, which, enlightened by faith, deliberates in a human manner; or from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, superior to all human deliberations and to every discursive process, whether it is intrinsic to prudence, or whether it disposes the soul to make at a desired moment acts of faith, hope, or charity.⁵²

     This difference appears in infused contemplation especially at its beginning and in its progress. It is helpful to recall the ascent described by St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross. In the aridity of the night of the senses, the gift of knowledge dominates by acquainting us especially with the vanity of created things; ⁵³ in the night of the soul, the gift of understanding ⁵⁴ shows us not so much the goodness of God as His infinite majesty, and by contrast our wretchedness. Between the two nights and especially after the second, the superhuman mode of the gift of wisdom is not only latent, but becomes more and more manifest to an experienced spiritual director. The soul, under the illumination of the Holy Ghost, thus possesses this quasi-experimental knowledge by connaturality with divine things. This knowledge can certainly not be had at will; while one can at will, with an actual grace, make an act of faith even when in the state of mortal sin.

     In some perfect souls, this predominance of the superhuman mode of the gift of wisdom is striking (and at times even accompanied by graces gratis datae, by prophetic light); in others it is diffuse, but nevertheless very real. In these souls the practical gifts of counsel, fortitude, and fear, or those of piety and knowledge, are more manifest. But they are truly under the direction of the spirit of wisdom, and its light, like that diffused in the air, without attracting one's gaze, penetrates everything and gives to all life a superior tone, as appreciable as the difference between day and night.

     This grace of infused contemplation, even in the diffuse state, certainly differs from the sensible consolations which sometimes accompany vocal prayer or the meditation of beginners. St. Teresa clearly marks this difference ⁵⁵ by showing what distinguishes "spiritual tastes from the consolations acquired in meditation." "We secure the latter," she says, "by our reflections, by means of considerations on created things, and by a painful labor of the understanding. And as, after all, they are the fruit of our efforts, they noisily fill the basin of our soul with some spiritual profit." The saint also compares these acquired consolations to water which comes through pipes from a distance. On the contrary, when speaking symbolically of the consolations of God, which she has called elsewhere the prayer of quiet, she writes: "In the other fountain, the water proceeds from the same source, which is God. Moreover, when it pleases His Majesty to grant us a spiritual favor, this water flows from the most intimate depths of our being with extreme peace, tranquillity, and sweetness. But whence it springs and in what manner, that I do not know."

     It is possible to have a certain affective knowledge of God by the simple exercise of faith united to charity. This is the case with the consolations acquired in meditation, in which emotion may have a large part.⁵⁶ Infused contemplation, moreover, requires a special illumination or inspiration of the Holy Ghost to which precisely, as we have seen, the gift of wisdom renders us docile.

     This gift, like the other six gifts and the infused virtues, is related to charity and most certainly grows with it. In a truly docile soul, infused contemplation ought thus normally to appear and then to develop. Consequently there should normally be a progressive predominance, either striking or diffuse, of the divine mode of the gift of wisdom over the human mode of meditation or of acquired prayer. In this way appears the supernatural prayer of which St. Teresa speaks. This prayer, which ought always to unite the soul more closely to God, is sometimes accompanied by ecstasy, by interior words, or even by visions. Yet these things are only accidental and transitory phenomena which pass, while infused contemplation continues. If the light of prophecy (lumen propheticum) co-operates at times in this contemplation, it is in a concomitant manner. Graces gratis datae belong to an order inferior to that of the virtues and gifts.⁵⁷ With this in mind, we can easily harmonize four recently proposed opinions as to the nature of the mystical state.⁵⁸ The first holds that it consists in an infused knowledge of God and of divine things; the second, in an infused love; the third, in a special passivity of the soul more acted upon than acting; and the fourth, in a simple and loving attention to God. The last cannot, in fact, be prolonged without a rather manifest intervention of the gifts.⁵⁹

IV. WHETHER CONTEMPLATION PROCEEDS EXCLUSIVELY FROM THE GIFT OF WISDOM, OR ALSO FROM FAITH UNITED TO CHARITY

     It would be an error, as we have seen, to declare that the intervention of the gifts of the Holy Ghost is reserved to the mystical state. It would assuredly be another mistake to exclude the exercise of the theological virtues from the mystical state. On the contrary, the mystical state, according to the great masters, consists in the most perfect exercise of these virtues, which are the highest of all. How can this assertion be reconciled with what we have just said about the predominance of the divine mode of the gifts in this state?

     Some writers seem to hold that contemplation is not an act of faith, but that it presupposes an act of faith, at once distinct from it and simultaneous with it, as the deduction of a theological conclusion presupposes the knowledge of the principles of faith. This conception seems to conform but slightly to the perfect simplicity of the contemplative act, which is in no way discursive, and which dwells immediately on the mysteries of faith, penetrating and tasting them. Besides, the greatest mystics, such as St. John of the Cross, always declare that infused contemplation is an eminent act of living faith. Evidently they mean faith united to the gift of wisdom, and to a superior degree of this gift.⁶⁰ Therefore, together with Cajetan,⁶¹ Joseph of the Holy Ghost,⁶² and a number of other commentators of St. Thomas,⁶³ we think that there are not two simultaneous acts, but that infused contemplation is an act which proceeds, in so far as its substance is concerned, from infused faith, and with respect to its superhuman mode, from the gift of wisdom. The perfect contemplative is he who lives by faith and who, while believing supernatural mysteries, penetrates them, sounds their depths, tastes them, and assimilates them, or rather allows himself to be assimilated by them. It is he who is not content with believing, but who fully lives his faith (justus ex fide vivit), and who judges everything according to it, that is, according to the very thought of God, as if he saw with the eye of God. Charity also co-operates in contemplation, since charity is what moves us to contemplate God that we may love Him better.⁶⁴

     This would seem to be the meaning of St. Thomas' statement that: "The gifts perfect the virtues by raising them above the human mode; as the gift of understanding perfects the virtue of faith." ⁶⁵ "The theological virtues (uniting us to the Holy Ghost) are superior to the gifts which they regulate," ⁶⁶ and nevertheless receive a new perfection from them. "The operation which proceeds from the virtue perfected by the gift is called a beatitude." ⁶⁷

V. THE FRUITS OF THE HOLY GHOST AND THE BEATITUDES

     By the gifts of the Holy Ghost the just soul becomes, as it were, a musical instrument from which the interior Master may draw marvelous harmonies: "Instrumentum musicum a Spiritu pulsatum divinamque gloriam et potentiam canens." ⁶⁸ The soul thus sings the glory of God, a fact demonstrated by every page of the lives of the saints.

     Scripture compares a just man to a tree planted near running water, and giving its fruit in due season.⁶⁹ "The fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity." ⁷⁰

     In what do these fruits differ from the virtues and the gifts? As St. Thomas explains,⁷¹ they are not habits, but acts which proceed in us from the influence of the Holy Ghost and which man delights in. They are thus opposed to what may be called the fruits of reason.

     The beatitudes are still higher. By this term we designate certain acts of the present life which, by reason of their very special perfection, are the pledge, the meritorious cause and, as it were, the first fruits of perfect beatitude.⁷² "By reason of their perfection, they are assigned to the gifts rather than to the virtues." ⁷³

     "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." ⁷⁴ The virtue of poverty may inspire the detachment that makes us use the goods of earth with moderation; but it is the gift of fear that inspires scorn of them in comparison with superior goods.

     "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." It is the gift of knowledge which shows us the vanity of transitory good, the gravity of sin as a spiritual evil, as an offense against God. Happy is he who sheds the tears of a holy contrition.

     "Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land." The virtue of meekness makes us completely overcome the impetuosity of anger; but it is especially the gift of piety that bestows calmness, serenity, perfect self-possession, and entire submission to the will of God.

     These three are the beatitudes of flight from and deliverance from sin. The next two, as St. Thomas says, are the beatitudes of the active life of a Christian who, freed from evil, engages in the pursuit of good with all the ardor of his heart.

     "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill." To desire justice, perfect order, is the effect of the virtues; but to hunger and thirst after it, to be tormented by this hunger, is the fruit of a loftier inspiration.

     This thirst for justice should not become a bitter zeal with regard to the guilty; consequently our Lord says: "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." Attentive to the sufferings of others, the merciful are able to give that counsel which reanimates and encourages. Accordingly the spirit of counsel corresponds to this beatitude.

     This union of justice and mercy is one of the most striking signs of the presence of God in the soul; for He alone can intimately harmonize virtues that are apparently so contrary.

     Lastly we have the beatitudes of the contemplative life. "Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God." A truly pure heart is like a limpid fountain where God is reflected even in this life. The gift of understanding enables us to catch a glimpse of the divine beauty, in proportion to the growing purity of our intention.

     "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." According to St. Augustine and St. Thomas, this beatitude corresponds to the gift of wisdom which makes us see, as it were experimentally, all things in God; for every good thing comes from Him, and evil occurs only when it is permitted in view of a greater good. The gift of wisdom thus reveals the admirable order of the providential plan. Now, peace is the tranquillity of order. A contemplative soul not only possesses peace; it can communicate it to others. A contemplative soul does not allow itself to be troubled in its higher part by painful, unexpected events; it receives all from the hand of God as a means or an occasion of approaching closer to Him. Wisdom bestows a radiant peace, leading us to love our enemies. It is the mark of the true children of God who never for an instant, so to speak, lose the thought of their heavenly Father. At the beginning of its life, a soul that was stained with egoism, was often preoccupied with self, and perhaps referred everything to self; now it is the thought of God which possesses it, and it refers everything to Him. This peace, which is the fruit of the gift of wisdom and which the world cannot give, is found fully on earth only in the mystical life, which is characterized precisely by this gift, united to perfect charity and very lively faith. This is what makes St. Paul say to the Philippians: ⁷⁵ "Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

     Such is the fruit of that wisdom which Scripture praises in these words: "And I preferred her before kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of her. . . . For all gold in comparison of her, is as a little sand, and silver in respect to her shall be counted as clay. I loved her above health and beauty, and chose to have her instead of light: for her light cannot be put out. Now all good things came to me together with her, and innumerable riches through her hands. And I rejoiced in all these: for this wisdom went before me, and I knew not that she was the mother of them all. Which I have learned without guile, and communicate without envy, and her riches I hide not. For she is an infinite treasure to men, which they that use, become the friends of God." ⁷⁶ "And if a man desire much knowledge: she knoweth things past, and judgeth of things to come: she knoweth the subtilties of speeches, and the solutions of arguments. . . . I purpose therefore to take her to me to live with me." ⁷⁷ . . . "Lord of mercy, . . . give me wisdom that sitteth by Thy throne, and cast me not off from among Thy children. . . . Send her out of Thy holy heaven, and from the throne of Thy majesty, that she may be with me, and may labor with me, that I may know what is acceptable with Thee. . . . For who among men is he that can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the will of God is? . . . And who shall know Thy thought except Thou give wisdom, and send Thy holy Spirit from above." ⁷⁸ What more beautiful prayer could be found by which to ask God with humility and confidence for the spirit of wisdom, which is the principle of contemplation and the source of peace?

     To the beatitude of the peacemakers is added the last, which is the confirmation and manifestation of the others: "Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." When man is confirmed in spiritual poverty, meekness, love of justice, and the other beatitudes, persecution is powerless to detach him from these goods and to deprive him of interior peace and joy. Thus the soul is stamped with the likeness of Christ crucified by the last trials it undergoes to reach sanctity. Then it comprehends in a practical way our Lord's words: "Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven." ⁷⁹ Are not these the words that gave birth in the hearts of the saints to their thirst for suffering and martyrdom?

     In this way the gifts of the Holy Ghost which are in every just soul and which develop normally, as infused habits, with charity, prepare us progressively for the loftiest and most heroic acts of the spiritual life. The word "mystical" is rightly applied to the spiritual life that has reached this degree of intimacy with God. In some perfect souls, the gifts of contemplation especially are manifest; in others, those of action. But even among the latter, the spirit of wisdom is what directs their lives and illumines all with its diffuse light.

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