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From: 1 Corinthians 2:10b-16

Divine Wisdom

[10b] [T]he Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. [11] For what per-
son knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So al-
so no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. [12] Now
we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that
we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. [13] And we impart this
in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiri-
tual truths to those who possess the Spirit.

[14] The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they
are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritual-
ly discerned. [15] The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged
by no one. [16] “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.

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Commentary:

10-12. “God has revealed to us through the Spirit”: meaning the Holy Spirit, the
third person of the Blessed Trinity, “which is from God” (v. 12) and knows the ve-
ry depths of God (vv. 10-11). These words reveal to us the divinity of the Holy Spi-
rit; knowing a person implies having intimacy with him; the Holy Spirit knows the
depths of God because by nature he is God, equal to the Father and the Son (cf.
Mt 11:25). “The Holy Spirit is equally God with the Father and the Son, equally
omnipotent and eternal, infinitely perfect, the supreme good, infinitely wise, and
of the same nature as the Father and the Son [...]. Scripture also attributes to
him the power to sanctify, to vivify, to search the depths of God, to speak through
the Prophets, and to be present in all places — all of which can be attributed to
God alone” (”St Pius V Catechism”, I, 9, 4).

Jesus had told his Apostles that “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide
you into all truth” (Jn 16:13); and on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit did o-
pen their minds to understand the truth revealed by Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit
also acted in St Paul, so that he had the same knowledge of Revelation as the
other Apostles (cf. Gal 2:1-10). The same Spirit continues to act in the Church:
“The Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of truth, because he proceeds from the Father,
eternal Truth, and the Son, substantial truth, receives from each of them, along
with his essence, all truth, which he then communicates to the Church, helping
never to err” (Leo XIII, “Divinum Illud Munus”, 7).

13. The handing on of the faith calls for great care in the terminology used: “The
Church, with the long labor of centuries and not without the help of the Holy Spirit,
has established a rule of language and confirmed it with the authority of the Coun-
cils. This rule, which has more than once been the watchword and banner of or-
thodox faith, must be religiously preserved, and let no one presume to change it
at his own pleasure or under the pretext of new science” (Paul VI, “Mysterium
Fidei”, 3).

The Church has always been concerned about this need to explain the deposit
of faith accurately: “You have received gold,” St Vincent of Lerins comments,
“let you therefore give gold. I do not want you to give one thing instead of another.
I do not want you to be so shameless and deceptive that you give me lead or
bronze in place of gold; I do not want something that looks like gold: I want pure
gold” (”Commonitorium”, 22).

The last part of this verse is unclear and can be translated in various ways as
the RSV text and note show.

14-16. The original text says “psychikos”. This is not easy to translate. Some
versions say “natural man”, others “animal man”, which is literally what the New
Vulgate says. What it means is the person who acts only by using his or her
human faculties (intelligence and will) and who therefore can be wise only in the
things of this world. The spiritual man is the Christian reborn by the grace of God;
grace elevates his faculties to enable him to perform actions which have a super-
natural value — acts of faith, hope and charity. A person who is in the state of
grace is able to perceive the things of God, because he carries with him the Spi-
rit in his soul in grace, and he has Christ’s mind, Christ’s attitude. “We have no
alternative”, St. Escriva teaches. “There are only two possible ways of living on
this earth: either we live a supernatural life, or we live an animal life. And you and
I can only live the life of God, a supernatural life” (”Friends of God”, 200).

St John Chrysostom very graphically contrasts the capacity of the spiritual man
and that of the unspiritual man as far as understanding God’s plan of salvation is
concerned: “He who has sight sees everything, including the person who has no
sight; but the sightless person cannot see the things of the person who has sight
sight. We Christians know what our own situation is, and we also know the situa-
tion of unbelievers; the unbelievers, however, do not understand ours. Like them
we know — and we know better than they do — the nature of things present; un-
believers do not know the sublimity of things to come, whereas we already see
what will some day become of the world, and what sinners will suffer, and the
righteous enjoy” (”Hom. on 1 Cor”, 7, “ad loc.”). And St Thomas Aquinas: “A
conscious person rightly perceives both that he is awake and that the other per-
son is asleep; but the person who is asleep cannot form a correct judgment con-
cerning either himself or the one who is awake. Therefore, things are not the way
they are seen by someone asleep: they are as they appear to be to a conscious
person [...]. And so the Apostle says that ‘the spiritual man judges all things’: for
a person whose understanding is enlightened and whose affections are regulated
by the Holy Spirit forms correct judgments on particular matters to do with salva-
tion. He who is unspiritual has a darkened understanding and disordered affection
as far as spiritual things are concerned, and therefore the spiritual man cannot be
judged by the unspiritual man, just as the sleeping person cannot judge the one
who is awake” (”Commentary on 1 Cor, ad loc.”).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.