The first time that Jesus announced the coming of the Holy Spirit, during the Last Supper, He called him the Spirit of Truth: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another to befriend you, one who is to dwell continually with you. It is the truth-giving Spirit, for whom the world can find no room, because it cannot see him, cannot recognize him. But you are to recognize him, he will be continually at your side, nay, he will be in you" (John 14,16-17).

The fundamental mission attributed to him corresponds to the name that has be given to him. "It will be for him, the truth-giving Spirit, when he comes, to guide you into all truth. He will not utter a message of his own, he will utter the message that has been given to him; and he will make plain to you what is still to come. And he will bring honor to me, because it is from me that he will derive what he makes plain to you"( John 16,13-14). The entire truth is revealed by the Holy Spirit, but it is the truth already taught by Jesus, which is more widely stated, more clearly applied to future situations.

Not only does the Holy Spirit with his divine light make apparent for us the truth taught by Christ, but he communicates the capacity to grasp and assimilate this revelation. The Spirit of God was already recognized in the Old Testament for the gifts of knowledge and intelligence that he bestowed on mankind. More in particular the Messiah had been announced as He who would have benefited from all the gifts of the Spirit. Different gifts had been enumerated in the Isaias’s oracle 11,2; the first to be mentioned were knowledge and intelligence: "and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding..."

We are not at all surprised by the fact that the qualities of knowledge and intelligence are emphasized as necessary for regal good governing, and that they were required for the messianic king. But we do above all notice that these qualities are the result of a divine gift that could not be reduced to the development of natural abilities. The natural qualities exist and are revealed in the behavior of many men. But so as to carry out a mission explicitly received due to God’s sovereign will, the Messiah needed a celestial gift allowing Him to perceive this will.

Wisdom and intelligence are not a gift reserved to the Messiah. The entire Judaic people was considered as having this gift because it was very close to God and had perceived the teachings of the Law. The people say about Israel: "Behold a wise and understanding people, a great nation. Is there any other nation so great, that hath gods so nigh to them, as our God is present to all in our petitions? And what other nation is there so renowned that hath ceremonies, and just judgments, and all the law...?"(Deut 4,6-8) It is therefore a divine gift that has entered the life of the people through God’s will and presence.

This was the divine gift that was discovered in Jesus, more in particular by the inhabitants of Nazareth: " How did He come by all this? What is the meaning of this wisdom that has been given him?...^" (Mark 6,2; see Mt 13,53). In Him all the gifts of the Spirit promised for the coming of the Messiah come true.

Among these gifts, according to the Judaic tradition, wisdom and intelligence are intimately linked. They had been united so as to qualify those with exceptional talent, these who worked for the building and the adorning of the temple, like Bezaleel, "filled Him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding" (Ex 35,31). But we must attempt to clarify a little the difference between these two concepts.

Wisdom has a broader, more fundamental meaning. It is the ability to embrace with a broader outlook different situations with correct judgment which allows a correct answer in one’s evaluations and actions. A great deal about the nature and characteristics of wisdom has been said in the wise texts of the Bible and especially in the Book of Wisdom.

Intelligence, or understanding, indicate more in particular the ability to penetrate more deeply hidden realities, to enter the root of problems, to discern secret motivations of intimate dynamism. Below the external and superficial things, it makes the effort to discover the intentions so as to provide a more adequate reaction for every situation.

Summarizing the four dimensions of the world quoted by Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (3,18), we can link broadness and wideness to wisdom and on the other hand, height and depth to intelligence.

But wisdom and intelligence are not separable. They are two gifts that introduce the human spirit to the divine light of the Holy Spirit. They make mankind capable of sharing in the divine way of knowing, judging, and appreciating all things according to the truth.