If the gift of understanding enables us to penetrate the divine mysteries, the gift of wisdom grants us a “delightful” knowledge of God. “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” -exclaims the psalmist (Ps 34:8). First he invites us to taste, and only then to see.
The gift of wisdom gives us an experience of the heart, it allows us a glimpse of God’s love through the heart. That is why we say that it is a “spiritual tasting” of divine love.
Between God and us there arises a certain inner familiarity, something like an intuitive understanding that happens with the heart, because Scripture says: “Anyone who attaches himself to the Lord is one spirit with him.” (1 Cor 6:17). Thanks to this inner familiarity with God, the knowledge of his mysteries acquires a special warmth, like a ray of sunshine that both warms and illuminates.
The experience one has when wisdom begins to work stirs the will intensely, draws the soul towards God and illuminates the mind like a light. The soul contemplates the majesty of God and exclaims with delight and inflamed with love:
“How rich and deep are the wisdom and the knowledge of God! We cannot reach to the root of his decisions or his ways. Who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser? Who has given anything to him, so that his presents come only as a debt returned?” (Rom 11:33-35)
The more one loves God, the more the gift of wisdom will work in the soul. And at the same time, the inner “taste” of the Lord who confers this gift will make love grow. And if love grows, we will also become more unified with Him, so that we come closer to the goal of our spiritual life.
All this has a direct effect on prayer. The soul is attracted to God, united with Him… It does not taste Him through the senses, but in a spiritual way, with the greatest possible intimacy in our earthly life. It is so inflamed with love that it discovers God in everything. And this does not only apply to moments of prayer, but also to everyday life.
After these inner experiences, the soul sees all its tasks in the light of God, and thus the gift of wisdom becomes present also in the ordinary circumstances of life.
As we know, the gifts of the Spirit are a gift of God, which we cannot acquire by our will alone, but we can prepare the ground for them! To allow the gift of wisdom to become effective in us, we must strive day by day to grow in love.
We must walk the path of following Christ, forgetting ourselves, and strive for the virtue of humility, for this divine wisdom remains hidden from the wise and learned of this world, but is revealed to the simple:
“Filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, for that is what it has pleased you to do.” (Lk 10:21)
If we had related the gift of intelligence to the choir of cherubim, we could compare the gift of wisdom to the holy seraphim, who may have received from God the task of transmitting this wisdom to us. Indeed, they are known as the fiery angels of God’s worship.