A Book Review… Wonder And Joy At The Great Goodness Of God

By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN

The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, by Kevin Vost (Sophia Institute Press, Manchester, NH, 2016), 207 pp.; paperback, $18.95. Available from www.SophiaInstitute.com or 1-800-888-9344.

While Christians live a moral life founded on the natural law, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the love of neighbor and the love of God, the imitation of Christ, and the sacraments, they receive additional graces and gifts as sources of moral truth and strength to fortify them. As Dr. Vost writes, “How delightful that the Giver gives us so many ways to guide us toward happiness, on earth and in heaven.”
Indeed in His divine Providence God never tires of finding additional ways to show men the way, the truth, and the life that leads to Heaven. Blessed with a natural knowledge of the cardinal virtues known to reason and a knowledge of the theological virtues taught in the Gospels, man “receives still more” as the author demonstrates.
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit — the fear of the Lord, piety, knowledge, fortitude, counsel, understanding, and wisdom — represent some of these “many ways” that enrich man’s moral understanding and deepen his spiritual life. Basing his explanation of these seven gifts primarily on St. Thomas’ commentary in the Summa Theologiae and St. Bonaventure’s Collations on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Vost explores the gifts in enough depth and detail to make them clear, sharp, vivid, and alive, distinguishing carefully between the gifts, virtues, and the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit begin with the fear of the Lord and culminate in wisdom as they follow an ascending order that progresses like the growth of a tree that bears abundant fruit. In St. Bonaventure’s exegesis, holy fear preserves and increases the grace of God, impresses upon the conscience the justice of the Lord, and refines the conscience. It develops the readiness to obey and the diligence to fulfill all obligations. It cultivates a desire to pray and enkindles in the soul the fire of love. The virtues of humility and temperance develop as man honors God.
Paraphrasing St. Thomas, Vost explains that “anyone who perfectly fears God will not exalt himself in pride but will express the humility that recognizes our nothingness without God.” His example of the Blessed Mother illustrates this fear of the Lord in her question to Gabriel about her motherhood: “How can this be, since I have no husband?” The fear of offending God offers a great deterrent to sin.
The gift of piety honors God as a loving Father, a childlike desire not to disappoint a beloved parent. It expresses itself in reverential worship, acknowledging the debt of giving God the honor and glory due to Him for the un-repayable gifts and blessings received from His bounty.
The Psalms especially reflect this piety in praises like “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us extol his name together,” and the Blessed Mother also manifests this gift of the Holy Spirit in the Magnificat: “My soul magnifies the Lord.”
Just as sons and daughters owe piety to their parents in the form of honor and respect for the gift of life and a lifetime of care, so too, in Vost’s words, “We are to love God as children — humble, innocent, generous, and full of the desire to please our parents.” Piety always remembers the debts of gratitude it owes.
The gift of knowledge, unlike the virtue of knowledge that requires the logical powers of reason to grasp the relationship between causes and effects in the natural world, depends on the Holy Spirit to infuse it. More intuitive, instantaneous, and swift, this gift does not follow a step-by-step chain of discursive reasoning. Like angels who see in a glance without the need for sensory information, the gift of knowledge does not follow a step-by-step chain of logical reasoning to reach conclusions.
Also the gift of knowledge does not pertain to scientific or mathematical thinking: “Because its primary subject matter is certitude about the truths founded upon the First Truth of God, the gift of knowledge is principally speculative,” Vost elucidates.
With this gift of knowledge man discerns first causes and self-evident truths independent of empirical evidence and gains the certitude that, in St. Paul’s words, “all this is of God.” From this gift of the Holy Spirit man discerns the “relative value of earthly and heavenly things” and does not confuse human pleasure and eternal joy. Vost cites St. Albert the Great as an example of a thinker who embodies the gift of knowledge because “Albert knew that all of creation speaks of and reflects the Creator.”
Vost also refers to Moses as St. Thomas’ example of a prophet in possession of the gift of knowledge because “he saw God’s very essence” in beholding the Lord face-to-face.
The gift of fortitude gives not only the strength to endure great sufferings and persevere in heroic struggles that the virtue of fortitude also bestows but also the power to achieve victory — a gift exemplified by Samson filled by “the Spirit of the Lord” when he defeated the Philistines. This virtue undertakes the most daring or honorable deeds with a confidence that overcomes all fears. It exercises extraordinary patience and perseverance in its determination to do God’s will as seen in the emboldened apostles’ zealous love of Christ despite all the persecutions they suffered.
In St. Paul’s words cited by Vost: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” The Holy Mother’s gift of fortitude also sustained her as she witnessed the crucifixion of her Son and watched all the atrocious brutalities inflicted upon Him. With this gift of fortitude Christ also drank the bitter cup to the end even though He prayed “let this cup pass from me.” This gift makes man passionate and formidable in his battle against evil.
The gift of counsel, like the cardinal virtue of prudence, chooses moral means to accomplish noble goals (“virtuous means to virtuous ends”), always rejecting the world’s definition of wisdom as self-interest (“the end justifies the means”). This counsel heeds the voice of conscience and avoids the maddening noise of the world’s distractions. Receptive to the motions of the Holy Spirit and docile before the wisdom of the saints, this gift welcomes the practical advice of holy men like St. Francis de Sales whose gift of counsel inspired many who sought his advice in the letters that transformed their lives — counsel summarized in Introduction to the Devout Life.
The gift of understanding, according to St. Thomas, “penetrates into the heart of things,” and, in St. Bonaventure’s words, provides “the key to heavenly contemplation.” Vost explains that understanding sees the essence, the “whatness,” and “quiddity” of things. It abstracts the form in matter in the way that Michelangelo saw a statute of David in a massive rock.
Vost describes it as knowledge of truths “that remain hidden to the senses” but discernible through the faith that follows from understanding. When Mary “kept all these things in her heart,” she trusted to the gift of understanding to enlighten her in God’s ways with man. The reciprocal relationship between faith and understanding works in the paradoxical way St. Thomas explains: the gift of understanding following from the virtue of faith and an increase of faith proceeding from understanding.
Vost observes that Sunday worship in keeping holy the Sabbath allows for the contemplation of God, which especially cultivates a growth in the gift of understanding.
As man ascends from the gift of fear through the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, this journey culminates in the gift of wisdom, described as “radiant and unfading” in the Wisdom of Solomon and peerless in splendor: “For she is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars.”
This rise to the heights of wisdom leads to union with God and brings joy because wisdom, as the word sapientia (“a sweet-tasting science”) signifies, gives pleasure from its taste and savor. Because wisdom grasps the highest truths about God as eternal truth and absolute love, it inspires wonder and joy at the great goodness of God.
Vost explains how this wisdom does not, however, enter a deceitful or sinful person because the “house of wisdom” mentioned in the Book of Proverbs has seven pillars: chastity, innocence, moderation, docility, generosity, mature judgment, and sincerity of intention — attributes of purity of heart. Because wisdom is holy and divine, no one impure ruled by any of the seven deadly sins will attain this gift.
In short, wisdom seeks and sets its mind on “the things that are above” and experiences the heights of contemplative joy. As the supreme form of knowledge, wisdom “sets priorities, ‘first things first,’ especially in the case of the First Cause!” The gift of wisdom not only illuminates the mind but rejoices the heart in the delight of truth’s beauty so that man can “taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”
The Holy Mother, Seat of Wisdom, and Christ, Wisdom Incarnate, give man a supernatural light “to judge the things of the earth through the divine wisdom He imparted to us in His sermons, in His parables, and in the wisdom of the Cross.”
Dr. Vost’s book, then, does not simply list, define, describe, or categorize these gifts of the Holy Spirit but makes them palpable, beautiful ideals to seek and acquire. They inspire an even greater sense of gratitude to the God who not only gives abundantly but never ceases to give more and yet more, adding the gifts of the Holy Spirit to all the other graces, virtues, and blessings that clothe man in the image of God.