Gifts, Talents
See also: Grace.
The gift of God is granted with wisdom and mercy. It can turn into condemnation if the person who receives it makes bad use of it.
In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"
- Remember that the one who has been given more is obliged to give more. And to you, the maximum has indeed been given in terms of instruction and gift.[1]
- The parable of the talents, in response to a scribe who questioned him about the rewards given to different categories of "believers". (Matthew 25:14-30) and [2]
- Man has everything except divinity. He wants that. He wants the supernatural to astonish, to be acclaimed, feared, known, celebrated... And to have something of what only God can give freely, he clings to Satan, who is the monkey of God, and gives so-called supernatural gifts.[3]
- It is the greatest and most certain test of the degree of elevation and holy will in a man to be gratified with extraordinary gifts. Very often man becomes humanly intoxicated by it, and from spiritual he becomes all humanity, and then he descends and becomes satanicity.[4]
- If a gift granted to support the weakness of man, instead of strengthening him and making him always desire more of the good supernatural, or even simply moral good, serves to weigh him down with the burden of human appetites and to divert him far from the right path, onto routes that cause him to descend, then the gift becomes harmful. Pride is enough to make a gift harmful. It is enough to be disoriented by something that exalts you and makes you lose sight of the supreme and good End, to make a gift harmful.[5]
- The gift of God does not disappear. Only sin annihilates it.[6]
- I (Mary) had to accept the gift of my own free will, and with all the consequences it entailed. Indeed, every divine gift is a great beatitude but also a great commitment. And God forces no man to accept His gifts, but He questions the creature, and if the creature says "No" to the spiritual voice that speaks to it, God does not force it. All souls, at least once in their life, are questioned by God.[7]
- It is not always that life is a gift, prosperity is not always a gift, a child is not always a gift; it is not always, yes, not even that, an election is a gift.[8]
- Every gift entails great responsibility on the part of the recipient, a responsibility all the greater as the gift is great.[9]
- Every gift from God is nothing, although it is charged with active forces, if man does not have the will to give in return the gift of his own spirit to God.[10]
In the fundamental Christian texts
In the Bible
- Afterwards, says the Lord, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will become prophets, I will speak through dreams to your old men and through visions to your young men.[11]
- God shaped men and gave them a brain to think, filling them with intelligence and knowledge and making them know good and evil.[12]
- You have received freely, give freely.[13]
- The gifts of God and His calling are irrevocable.[14]
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church
- The gifts of the Holy Spirit.[15]