By DON FIER
The vital importance of the gift of the Holy Spirit that we considered last week, knowledge and its necessity for salvation, is highlighted in one of St. Paul’s epistles: “God our Savior . . . desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4).
This salvific knowledge of truth, which is given in an entirely gratuitous manner to members of the faithful who are disposed to receive it, goes far beyond all forms of human knowledge (scientific, philosophical, or theological) that can be acquired through study, reasoning, and experience.
It is a knowledge that is attainable only through direct illumination by the Holy Spirit, for, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) affirms, “God, who alone made heaven and earth, can alone impart true knowledge of every created thing in relation to himself” (n. 216).
The supernaturally infused gift of knowledge, which perfects the theological virtue of faith, enables one to judge all created reality in relation to God, as well as its providential purpose with regard to our sanctification and that of others. This includes not only physical things, but every human encounter, event, and activity. Human and material realities are able to be recognized as consistent with revealed truth, or in opposition to it.
Often referred to as the “science of the saints,” the gift of knowledge makes apparent the absurdity of inordinate attachment to created things and the gravity of all sin. It gives us the ability to see all created realities as means rather than ends in our journey toward eternal life, and to see ourselves as God sees us.
Powerful examples of the gift of knowledge in operation are present in the biblical account of the Feast of the Presentation. St. Joseph and our Lady, through the gift of knowledge, knew they should act in accordance “as it is written in the law of the Lord” (Luke 2:23) and present Jesus to God in the Temple.
Simeon, through the gift of knowledge, knew that “he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). Likewise, the elderly prophetess Anna knew the child she beheld was the Messiah “and spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).
A supreme example of the gift of knowledge was displayed by our Lord Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane as He sweat blood in agony upon seeing, knowing, and taking upon Himself the effect of all sin — past, present, and future — for all mankind.
We now come to the sixth of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, that of piety, which along with fortitude and fear of the Lord relates to the human faculty of the will. As described by Fr. Jordan Aumann, OP, piety is an infused supernatural gift which enables us “to give filial worship to God precisely as our Father and to relate with all people as children of the same Father” (Spiritual Theology [SpT], p. 97).
As with the other gifts, it corresponds to a moral virtue which it elevates and perfects: the virtue of religion, which belongs to the cardinal virtue of justice.
In modern society, piety is a word that is frequently misrepresented and misunderstood. It is often associated with superficial exterior devotion — with folded hands, bowed head, and lengthy prayers for others to see. As Pope Francis stated during his general audience of June 2, 2014, “Some think that to be pious is to close one’s eyes, to pose like a picture, and pretend to be a saint….This is not the gift of piety.”
To better understand piety, both as a moral virtue and as a gift of the Holy Spirit, it would be good to first look more closely at justice itself, which is defined as “the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor” (CCC, n. 1807).
Piety, as a special virtue derived from justice, is defined as “a supernatural habit that inclines us to render to our parents, our country, and to all those connected with them the reverence and services due them. . . . To God, as the first principle, is owed the special worship given him by the virtue of religion” (SpT, p. 287).
Properly speaking, then, the moral virtue of piety applies first and foremost to the worship of almighty God. St. Thomas Aquinas writes incisively on our religious duty to our Creator as well as how, by extension, the virtue of piety embraces others:
“Man becomes a debtor to other men in various ways, according to their various excellence and the various benefits received from them. On both counts God holds first place, for He is supremely excellent, and is for us the first principle of being and government. In the second place, the principles of our being and government are our parents and our country that have given us birth and nourishment. Consequently, man is debtor chiefly to his parents and his country, after God. Wherefore just as it belongs to religion to give worship to God, so does it belong to piety, in the second place, to give worship to one’s parents and one’s country” (Summa Theologiae [STh] II-II, Q. 101, art. 1).
The gift of piety takes us immeasurably beyond the reverence that is strictly demanded by justice. It arouses in the human will, through an impulse of the Holy Spirit, “a filial love for God as Father, and a sentiment of universal love for all men and women as our brothers and sisters and as children of the same heavenly Father” (SpT, p. 293).
In other words, God is worshipped not only as our Creator and sovereign Lord, but also through a filial relationship of a child to a loving Father (the word “filial” comes from the Latin filius [“son”] and filia [“daughter”]).
St. Paul speaks beautifully of this in his Letter to the Romans: “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:14-16).
The gift of piety, as Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, explains, “engenders in the soul a filial respect for God, a generous love toward him, and an affectionate obedience that wants to do what he commands because it loves the one who commands” (Modern Catholic Dictionary, p. 230).
Furthermore, the gift of piety imbues in those in whom it is actuated a fraternal outlook toward his neighbors whereby they are loved as children of the same heavenly Father, as brothers and sisters in the Mystical Body of Christ.
It is the gift which allowed Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta to see Christ in the sick and dying she ministered to on a daily basis and to treat them with the dignity they deserved as sons and daughters of God. Likewise, it enables us to see the divine imprint of God in everything around us, to be able to discover the hidden religious meaning in material things.
The gift of piety is connected by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas to the beatitude of the meek: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). “The second beatitude has a certain congruity with piety,” says the Angelic Doctor, “inasmuch as meekness removes the obstacles to acts of piety” (STh II-II, Q. 121, art. 1).
Often Christian meekness serves to disarm the person who is irritated. As the popular saying goes, “More flies are caught with honey than vinegar.” Jesus Himself, always filled with zeal for the salvation of souls, is the model for the supernatural meekness we are called to imitate: “Learn from me; for I am gentle [meek] and lowly [humble] in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:29).
Filial Trust
Five principal effects attributed to the gift of piety are summarized by Fr. Aumann:
1) It primarily and fundamentally places in the soul a truly filial love for our heavenly Father; 2) it enables us to worship the ineffable mystery of the Divine Fatherhood within the mystery of the Trinity, to adore God for His own sake with no concern for personal benefit; 3) it arouses in the soul great confidence and a spirit of abandonment toward our heavenly Father, a love that causes one to run to Him as a trusting toddler runs to his father; 4) it causes us to see our neighbors as children of God and brothers and sisters in Christ, and to be dedicated without reserve to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy; and 5) it moves us to have a deep love for all persons and things that are in any way related to the Fatherhood of God and Christian brotherhood, e.g., our Lady, all the angels and saints, the souls in Purgatory, the Vicar of Christ, holy articles, etc. (cf. SpT, pp. 294-295).
In addition to the general means of disposing oneself for actuation that are common to all gifts of the Holy Spirit (recollection, prayer, fidelity to grace, etc.), Fr. Aumann identifies four practices especially applicable to piety:
1) Cultivate a spirit of filial trust in God as being His adopted children; 2) strive mightily to see everyone we encounter as a brother or sister in Christ, and make the admonition of St. Paul, “All are one in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 3:28), our own; 3) endeavor to perceive the hidden religious meaning in all things; and 4) strive to practice complete abandonment to divine Providence and confidently place in the hands of God all beyond our power (cf. SpT, pp. 295-296).
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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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