THE GIFT of UNDERSTANDING

(Dr. He Qi)

The Holy Spirit’s gift of  UNDERSTANDING allows Christians to obtain “intimacy with God” and helps them understand things as God understands them.

When the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts and enlightens our minds, he makes us grow day by day in the understanding of what the Lord has said and accomplished.

One can read the Gospel and understand something, but if we read the Gospel with this gift of the Holy Spirit, we can understand the depths of God’s words.

The Holy Spirit’s gift of understanding differs from human understanding, the “intellectual prowess” that varies from person to person. What a beautiful gift the Lord has given us. It is the gift with which the Holy Spirit introduces us into intimacy with God and makes us sharers in the plan of love which he has for us.

Jesus told his disciples He would send the Holy Spirit to help them understand everything He had taught them. This kind of understanding is a “grace” which “awakens in a Christian the ability to go beyond the outward appearance of reality and to probe the depths of the thoughts of God and his plan of salvation.

This gift does not mean that a Christian can “comprehend all things” and have “full knowledge of the designs of God,but rather, it helps the Christian to “read inwardly” and “understand things as God understands them.

While human understanding and prudence are good, Jesus Christ desired to send the Holy Spirit so that everyone might understand “with the mind of God.
                                     
                                                                             Our Holy Father Pope Francis