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God as your Counselor: Gifts of the Holy Spirit (8/8)

Associate Pastor's Column
Sunday, October 15 2006

            It seems most of us have that one friend in whom we confide, who always gives excellent advice; who doesn’t always agree with us, because he challenges us when we start slacking off. At one point or another, in fact, we all need someone to give us advice or counsel regarding something we will do, some decision we will make, or even aspects of a relationship we may have with another person. Counsel is a common experience, therefore, of every human being.

            In fact, every time we stop to deliberate our options, we are giving ourselves counsel. So, counsel can be something one gives to himself or to another person.

            That in mind, let us now turn to our final installment of our series on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Seven articles like this one came before: one about the Gifts in general, and six others about each one of the other Gifts (there are seven Gifts all together). These can still be found on my little web site, www.fatherpaul.org, and click on “previous articles.” Let us now consider what the Gift of counsel is, how it works, and how to cultivate it.

            Counsel is the Gift of the Holy Spirit by which man is directed by reasons which are given to him by God. This counsel can be taken for oneself, or given to others.

            All the Gifts are habitual dispositions by which man is readily moved by the Holy Spirit; there are other habitual dispositions by which man moves himself, and these are called virtues. If we compare ourselves to boats, the virtues would be the oars by which we propel ourselves towards heaven with work and great effort; the Gifts would be the sails which fill with wind, and propel us very quickly to our goal, so long as we take care of them and properly harness the wind which is given to us. (“Wind,” by the way, is translated into Latin by the word “spiritus.”)

            We get the gifts by baptism, and we increase them by prayer, fasting and almsgiving, by an assiduous prayer life (including that we ask God for the Gifts), and by the sincere effort to overcome sin in our lives.

            Counsel is also a human virtue, and it is a part of prudence. Prudence is the queen of all the virtues, the virtue of right reason, by which man directs things and actions to an end, and by which he applies universal principles to concrete situations.

            But the Gift is different: it is infused by God, not attained by human acts. It is the “reasons of the saints,” which only the saints understand. This gift will last forever in heaven.

            Especially in matters of the spiritual life, our minds are too darkened by original and actual sin to know what is the best thing to do, for “the reasoning of  mortals is worthless, and our designs our likely to fail” (Wis 9:14). In his mercy, God however helps us, as Isaiah promises, “The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him… the spirit of counsel and might” (Is 11:2), a prophecy about Jesus, but indirectly also about all who live in Jesus by a life of grace.

            We see examples of prudence, such as outstandingly good decisions by persons from whom such a good decision would not normally be expected.

            Another example can be seen in a friend of mine, a seminarian. I have noticed that, in social events, persons around him feel moved to ask him for advice in the spiritual life, and this is the Gift kicking in. He has not yet studied theology, yet he regularly gives magnificent advice to them, which is also the Gift of Counsel. He is a person who happens to enjoy this gift in a very high degree, for some mysterious reason God’s Providence. Again, I know a old, holy priest who also regularly gives wonderful advice in any practical question one may pose him, natural or supernatural, and this too is the Gift. All those who practice mercy effectively, following the fifth beatitude, also manifest this gift, for they are able to prudently apply the universal principle of love of neighbor in the concrete instance of this person here who needs mercy.

            Let us therefore make the cultivation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit an important aspect of our spiritual lives, so that we can become ever more filled with the Holy Spirit, and so live on earth as if we were simply rehearsing a life of selfless love in heaven.

Picture: Bartolome Esteban Murillo, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Tending the Sick and Leprous, c. 1671-74. Works of mercy correspond to the gift of counsel.