Knowledge is the gift of the Holy Spirit that enables a person “to judge rightly concerning the truths of faith in accordance with their proper causes and the principles of revealed truth.” Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the human intellect makes correct judgments regarding earthly things and how they are related to God, eternal life and Christian perfection. As such, this gift is a special illumination, which enables the person to realize the emptiness of created things in themselves so that they do not become roadblocks to union with God. At the same time, it enables the person to see through created things to the God who created them. Therefore, instead of seeing created things as obstacles to union with God, the soul views them as instruments for union with God. As such, a person sees how to use created things rightly and even in a holy way. Moreover, the gift gives to the person a sense of faith, meaning that the person has a divine instinct about whether or not something, like devotion, is in accord with the faith even though he may never have had a formal theological education. This gift produces several effects which have great value for sanctification of the soul: introspection, enabling the person to see the state of his soul; detachment from material things; and repentance for the misuse of material things or when they have been allowed to become obstacles to God (Fr. William Saunders, Gifts of the Holy Spirit).

The Second Vatican Council beautifully enumerates teachings on knowledge as a gift from God and as an essential component to attaining salvation. In Dei Verbum chapter six it states, “This sacred Synod affirms, ‘God, the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certainty from created reality by the light of human reason’ (cf. Rom. 1:20); but the Synod teaches that it is through revelation ‘that those religious truths which are by their nature accessible to human reason can be known by all men with ease, even in the present state of the human race.’” We must utilize knowledge as a gift of the Holy Spirit to learn these revealed truths and know them well so each of us can follow the path to heaven God has paved for us.