Easter 2026 - Reading #34 - Counsel
Reading
Thomas Aquinas connects the gift of counsel to the Beatitude of mercy: "The gift of counsel corresponds to the Beatitude, 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' For it pertains to counsel to direct us in our particular actions, and the first thing that occurs to us in matters of action when we are guided by the Holy Spirit is to be merciful. The Spirit counsels us to give rather than withhold, to forgive rather than exact, to include rather than exclude."
Aquinas adds: "Counsel is necessary because human prudence cannot foresee all the particular circumstances and consequences of human action. But the Holy Spirit, who searches the depths of God and knows all things, can guide the soul through the particular situations that human reason cannot navigate. The result of this guidance is a habitual tendency toward mercy, because the Spirit, who is Love, always inclines us toward the generous interpretation, the compassionate response, the merciful action."
For Aquinas, the gift of counsel thus produces a recognizable character: the person guided by the Spirit tends toward mercy. Not because they are indifferent to truth or justice, but because the Spirit's counsel consistently reveals that mercy is the wisest course, the response most aligned with God's own character and most likely to bear lasting fruit.
Reflection
We close the fifth week, and Aquinas reveals the signature of the gift of counsel: mercy. When in doubt, the Spirit counsels mercy. When the decision is ambiguous, mercy is the wiser path. When human prudence cannot determine the right course, the Spirit inclines toward generosity, forgiveness, and compassion. This is not sentimentality; it is the counsel of the Spirit who is Love.
Five weeks of gifts. Five weeks since Easter. The person being shaped by these gifts is becoming recognizable: someone who stands in awe before God, relates to him as a child to a Father, sees the world with supernatural clarity, acts with a strength beyond their own, and makes decisions guided by mercy. This is not a saint on a pedestal. It is a human being in the process of transformation, still struggling, still stumbling, but increasingly responsive to the Spirit's movements.
Two weeks remain. Understanding will open the depths of faith to contemplation. Wisdom will crown everything with the capacity to see God in all things. And then Pentecost, the feast that celebrates the moment the Spirit descended in fire, transforming a huddle of frightened disciples into the force that changed the world. That same Spirit is at work in you right now, gift by gift, week by week. The transformation is not complete; it will not be complete this side of eternity. But it is real, and it is underway. Trust it. The Builder knows what he is doing.