Among the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, only two relate to the speculative power of the mind, and the first of these is the Gift of understanding. This is the Gift by which the intellect penetrates and grasps those holy things that could not be grasped without the special help of divine grace. Happily, this may be one case in which the natural connotations of the English word really do point us in the right direction, because the Gift of understanding does seem to relate to that seeing-within, or that ah ha! feeling, that we associate with the verb ‘to understand.’ St. Thomas speaks of the necessity of seeing what “lies hidden” beneath the external appearances of things — this is what happens when we understand.

Not all understanding relates to the supernatural Gift. We have natural capacities for understanding that can give us insight into natural things. The Gift of understanding allows us to see holy things that could not have been grasped through our natural capacities alone. Thus, when we get intimate insights into the nature of grace, the Sacraments, the lives of the Saints or theological truths of the faith, the Gift of understanding is probably aiding us.

Although the last four of the seven Gifts all relate to the cognitive power, understanding is rather special in that it is the only Gift concerned solely with grasping truths. Understanding looks to penetrate the hidden natures of things only for the sake of uncovering what is true; it remains to other Gifts to make use of the insight acquired through this Gift. In that sense, understanding is truly a Gift to be relished by the philosopher. And indeed, the philosophers themselves (at least, those who enjoyed the gift of sanctifying grace) show ample evidence of the happy effects of this Gift. Understanding takes those truths accepted by faith and delves into their mysteries in search of insight. A work like St. Augustine’s De Trinitate is an excellent example of the sort of work that understanding might do in attempting to further uncover the truths adopted through faith. For this reason, understanding is the Gift corresponding to the virtue of faith.

St. Bonaventure is particularly concerned to remind us that understanding has a special role to play in preparing the way for wisdom, the greatest of the Gifts. As the only other speculative Gift, understanding grasps those things that wisdom will later taste. So long as we are in via we are of course not able to see God face to face, and thus we will not be able to see divine truths in a wholly unveiled and unmediated way. Therefore, understanding works by finding the image of God in all creation, and thereby moving upwards towards Him. For this reason, Bonaventure tells us, understanding involves both Creator and creation, with the latter serving as a kind of conduit to the former.

St. Thomas says little about the relationship of understanding to wisdom, but he is very interested in the way that the Gift of understanding relates to the Beatitude of cleanness of heart. As Thomas explains, understanding has a peculiar ability to make us clean before God. This cleanness “is a kind of complement to the sight of God; such is the cleanness of the mind that is purged of phantasms and errors, so as to receive the truths which are proposed to it about God, no longer by way of corporeal phantasms, nor infected with heretical misrepresentations: and this cleanness is the result of the Gift of understanding (II.II.8.7).”

Thomas assures us that holy souls will be permitted to understand all things that are necessary for salvation, but he warns that the understanding will sometimes be apt to fail us with respect to many things we wish to understand better. In part, he suggests, this happens as a means for keeping devout souls from falling into pride, since pride is always a temptation of the very learned.