The spiritual gift of understanding

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

FROM the Book of Wisdom comes this beautiful description of this spiritual gift of understanding: “holy, one, sweet, loving that which is good, quick, which nothing hinders, beneficent, gentle, kind, steadfast, assured, secure, having all power, overseeing all things, and containing all spirits, intelligible, pure, subtle.” (7,22-23)

That is how the gift of understanding enriches the gift of wisdom. The gift of understanding provides the foundation for wisdom, since it enables us to comprehend information before applying it wisely. Wisdom, of course, builds upon understanding, helping us to navigate complex situations and make informed decisions.

In a sense, the spiritual gift of understanding provides us with a divine ability to comprehend and apply deep spiritual truths in our lives. It enables us to grasp the deeper meaning of faith, and of God’s will and ways. In short, it gives us spiritual insights that in turn would help us to distinguish between truth and deception, right and wrong. More than that, it helps us to understand the spiritual origins of the different situations in our life.

Indeed, this gift of understanding gives us a lot of benefits. It helps us build trust in others as well as enhances our connections with them. It promotes self-awareness, emotional intelligence and spiritual maturity. It is helpful in resolving differences and conflicts among ourselves.

While it is a gift, it also needs to be received and acted upon properly by us. Thus, we have to realize how necessary it is for us to cultivate a deeper spiritual connection through regular prayer and meditation, and also through engaging in consistent Bible study. Of course, given the way we are, we have to realize that it would always need guidance from reliable spiritual leaders or mentors.

For this, we really should look for a good spiritual director since we are poor directors of our own selves. We can easily fall at the mercy of our own weaknesses which we should be humble enough to acknowledge. This is not to mention the many tricks of the devil and the allurements of the world that can imitate God’s voice, offering us sweet poison.

And so, instead of recognizing and corresponding to God’s voice, we may just be responding to our own likes and dislikes, our own ideas, our own biases and preferences. We can also fall at the mercy of our own temperaments and trapped by the many social, political and economic conditionings around. These are not necessarily bad, but they cannot be equated immediately to God’s voice. They can mislead us.

If we are the intellectual type, for example, we can easily convert our Christian life into a kind of intellectualism. If we are the active type, we can easily fall into activism. The many good things we have, all gifts from God, can be easily corrupted by all sorts of immoral and spiritual viruses that can come to us in a very subtle, imperceptible way.

We all need to have spiritual direction. We have to allow the intricate workings of our spiritual life, which has to contend with all sorts of things in life, to be guided by somebody else, because though we are the ones who make the final decisions and choices, we all need to be enlightened, guided, even corrected.

Yes, we need spiritual direction because we have to explore our spiritual and apostolic possibilities, map out our plans for spiritual growth, expose and cultivate our hidden potentials, develop virtues and enliven our piety, not to mention, make strategies for our ascetical struggles.

In short, we need spiritual direction because we need to live our life at God’s pace. And for this, we need the gift of understanding and wisdom!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com