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Objection 1: It would seem that, among the fruits, faith does not
respond to the gift of understanding. For understanding is the fruit
of faith, since it is written (Is. 7:9) according to another
reading [The Septuagint]: "If you will not believe you shall not
understand," where our version has: "If you will not believe, you
shall not continue." Therefore fruit is not the fruit of
understanding.
Objection 2: Further, that which precedes is not the fruit of what
follows. But faith seems to precede understanding, since it is the
foundation of the entire spiritual edifice, as stated above (Question
4, Articles 1,7). Therefore faith is not the fruit of
understanding.
Objection 3: Further, more gifts pertain to the intellect than to
the appetite. Now, among the fruits, only one pertains to the
intellect; namely, faith, while all the others pertain to the
appetite. Therefore faith, seemingly, does not pertain to
understanding more than to wisdom, knowledge or counsel.
On the contrary, The end of a thing is its fruit. Now the gift of
understanding seems to be ordained chiefly to the certitude of faith,
which certitude is reckoned a fruit. For a gloss on Gal. 5:22
says that the "faith which is a fruit, is certitude about the
unseen." Therefore faith, among the fruits, responds to the gift of
understanding.
I answer that, The fruits of the Spirit, as stated above (FS,
Question 70, Article 1), when we were discussing them, are so
called because they are something ultimate and delightful, produced in
us by the power of the Holy Ghost. Now the ultimate and delightful
has the nature of an end, which is the proper object of the will: and
consequently that which is ultimate and delightful with regard to the
will, must be, after a fashion, the fruit of all the other things
that pertain to the other powers.
Accordingly, therefore, to this kind of gift of virtue that perfects
a power, we may distinguish a double fruit: one, belonging to the
same power; the other, the last of all as it were, belonging to the
will. In this way we must conclude that the fruit which properly
responds to the gift of understanding is faith, i.e. the certitude of
faith; while the fruit that responds to it last of all is joy, which
belongs to the will.
Reply to Objection 1: Understanding is the fruit of faith, taken
as a virtue. But we are not taking faith in this sense here, but for
a kind of certitude of faith, to which man attains by the gift of
understanding.
Reply to Objection 2: Faith cannot altogether precede
understanding, for it would be impossible to assent by believing what
is proposed to be believed, without understanding it in some way.
However, the perfection of understanding follows the virtue of faith:
which perfection of understanding is itself followed by a kind of
certainty of faith.
Reply to Objection 3: The fruit of practical knowledge cannot
consist in that very knowledge, since knowledge of that kind is known
not for its own sake, but for the sake of something else. On the
other hand, speculative knowledge has its fruit in its very self,
which fruit is the certitude about the thing known. Hence the gift of
counsel, which belongs only to practical knowledge, has no
corresponding fruit of its own: while the gifts of wisdom,
understanding and knowledge, which can belongs also to speculative
knowledge, have but one corresponding fruit, which is certainly
denoted by the name of faith. The reason why there are several fruits
pertaining to the appetitive faculty, is because, as already stated,
the character of end, which the word fruit implies, pertains to the
appetitive rather than to the intellective part.
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