Theological Foundations new file

105 The Role of the Holy Spirit b) Dispensing of the Sevenfold Gifts The human soul, or the mystical temple of God, as Father Papczynski calls it, should be supplied with the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts were symbolized by the seven-armmenorah in the Jerusalem temple (cf. Ex 37, 17-23). Every Christian should shine with these gifts if he is to be a true branch of Christ’s vine, because Christ Himself shone with them as was announced by the prophet Isaiah (cf. Is 11, 2). 25 Woe to the Christian, in whose mystical temple there is no such menorah, i.e., which is not adorned with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Without them, he cannot carry Christ’s image in himself or obtain salvation (cf. Rom 8, 29-30). Therefore, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are necessary not only for attaining Christian perfection but also for obtaining salvation. Father Papczynski suggests that if the faithful want to obtain this very neces- sary grace from God, they should offer at least a short prayer, in which they ask the Holy Spirit, “the sweet guest of the soul,” that He would always dwell in them and enlighten them. 26 As he discusses the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, our author devotes most attention to the gift of wisdom (sapientiae). He understands this gift as Christian wisdom in the sense in which St. Paul understood it as he juxtaposed it with the wisdom of this world (cf. 1 Cor 1, 25-27; 3, 18-19). Christian wisdom is not human but heavenly. The Venerable Servant of God admonishes the faithful that they should not be persuaded by the spirit of the world’s wisdom, which (the author repeats St. Gregory’s thought here) always reverses the meaning of the words and presents what is false as true and what is true as false. This kind of wisdom, or rather, perversion of mind, is foolishness in the eyes of God and leads to the loss of eternal salvation. Father Papczynski rejects such wisdom and wants the hearts and minds of the faithful to be ruled by the heavenly wis- dom which he calls (after St. Gregory) the wisdom of the righteous. The essence of such wisdom is not to pretend anything, to reveal the true sense of every word, to love the truth, to reject falsehood, to bring good everywhere and never seek revenge. The author bemoans the fact that this heavenly wisdom is ridiculed by the wise of this world even though