|
|
|
Knowledge from God’s Point of View: Gifts of the Holy Spirit (part 4 of 8) Associate Pastor's Column
Divine Mercy Sunday, April
23, 2006 We mentioned how the gifts are to the virtues as wind in the sails are to oaring a boat, when making progress in the spiritual life. By virtue we progress with effort and sweat; by the gifts we progress carried by God to places only God could take us. We need both the gifts and the virtues to excel in holiness; it is God’s will that we do so, and bear much fruit, fruit that will last (Jn 15:8, 16). The gift of knowledge is that power which the Holy Spirit bestows upon the soul by which one has a certain and correct judgment regarding all things which are either human or created. Knowledge is not ignorant of the revealed truths, but cradles them in the world, and is able to draw out the consequences. Since this gift is similar in some aspects to the gift of understanding, let’s distinguish one from another. Understanding enables us to grasp; knowledge enables us to assert. Understanding penetrates the reality; knowledge penetrates the cause. Understanding apprehends divine truths; knowledge readily apprehends natural and temporal truths. Understanding simply sees the supernatural realities; knowledge applies truth to the grasping of what is, what should be, what is done and what should be done. There is a beatitude corresponding to this virtue: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt 5:4). St. Thomas Aquinas says that, since knowledge enables man (male or female, of course!) to form certain and correct judgments about created things, man knows by this gift knows that creatures often draw him away from God by sin. He says this is why the scriptures assert, Creatures became an abomination, and became traps for the souls of men and a snare to the feet of the foolish (Wis 14:11); (cf. S. Th. IIaIIae, 9, 4). St. Augustine chimes in saying that by knowledge, man knows the truth of heaven and of earth, and “by bringing in this knowledge, he has brought in sorrow (Eccl 1:18), the sorrow of the exile stirred by longing for his true country and its founder, the blissful God” (cf. On the Trinity, IV, 1). Applying this to our own life, what does the Holys Spirit’s gift of knowledge do to us? It makes us very truthful. It exposes to us the extreme vanity of this world, of our worries, of our possessions and entertainment. In doing so, there is a tragic side about how pathetic and doomed this world is; but there is also a dimension of comedy, by which man can be joyful because he is detached from this whole world which is passing and will never come back. It helps us see this created world from God’s own point of view. There are erroneous strains of error which are very popular today. The quickest growing one may be the New Age movement, where people claim some inner cosmic knowledge, which is pure hogwash and does not come from God. There are also those who engage in the occult, such as Ouija boards, séances, fortune tellers, tarot cards and so on; they search to attain a knowledge that comes not from God but, clearly, from demons in hell. Another form of error, related to this gift, is found in the Church by those clergy or those laity who occupy positions of leadership, by which they assume that since the have a given office, they therefore have some “infused knowledge.” Let’s hope they repent in true humility and turn to God for their light, instead of usurping God’s position as the author of all light. Sometimes even parents can fall prey to this one, forgetting that even with their own children they can fall into error, and that it is not enough to be a parent to be right. Note: but right or wrong, children must obey their parents, in all things except sin, and this obedience is very, very pleasing to God. Let us beg this gift of knowledge from the Holy Spirit, that we may judge all things in this world both correctly and with certainty, as we prepare for his coming on the feast of Pentecost.
|