25. The Three Divine Persons: Processions and Relations
15. Processions: Origins of the Divine Persons
15a) The Notion of Procession
Generally speaking, the term procession (processio in Latin, ekporeumai in Greek) refers to the origination of one thing from another. On the authority of divine revelation, we know that some Persons in God proceed from the others in a mysterious way (“I proceeded and came forth from God” [Jn 8:42]; “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father”[Jn 15:26]). In this section we will go deeper into our knowledge of the processions in God, give the reasons for their number, and explain their differences. The ultimate purpose, as in any other question of the Trinitarian theology, is to acquire a deeper knowledge of the mystery of the divine Persons, first by studying their processions.1
15b) Doctrine of Faith
i) God the Father is unbegotten, that is, he does not proceed from any other Person.2
ii) God the Son—who, as the incarnate Word, is Jesus Christ—proceeds from the Father by generation (cf. Jn 8:42).3
iii) God the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. We can also say that he proceeds from the Father through the Son (cf. Jn 15:26).4
Thus, it is a dogma of faith that, in God, some Persons proceed from others, with the exception of the Father, who does not proceed from anyone. On the other hand, it is also de fide that the number of processions is two, because the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct Persons and their origins are different.
15c) Theological Explanation
The role of theology in this regard is to accept the truth of faith as it is taught by the Church and to seek ways of expressing and explaining it with the greatest possible conceptual rigor. Although we know that theology will never be able to completely dispel the mystery, it is legitimate and even necessary for Christian thinkers to try to find reasons for what the Church believes and demonstrate that the doctrine of faith is reasonable. Catholic theologians have done this in many ways.
The following pages are a summary of what St. Thomas taught on this matter. His theology on the Blessed Trinity is a necessary foundation for anyone entering this field.
The processions of the divine Persons are actions that take place within God and whose terminus is God himself (the Son or the Holy Spirit). They are, therefore, immanent (or ad intra) processions (the opposite of immanent is transcendent or ad extra). As such, only processions corresponding to the two immanent operations of the divine nature can exist in God. His is an intellectual nature, the most perfect of all because its degree of perfection is infinite. The operations of his nature are knowing himself infinitely, which is the origin of the Son, and loving himself infinitely, which is the origin of the Holy Spirit.
The processions are not operations of the divine essence—the essence is not the subject of operations, but the principle through which the subject possessing the essence operates. Therefore, the processions in God are, properly speaking, the operations or actions of the Persons. The Person—not the essence—is the origin of the other Person.5
15d) Generation
The first procession is generation. As the Church teaches, the Son is begotten by the Father, and they are one and the same substance. Theology sheds some light on this aspect of the Trinitarian mystery by the analogy between the intellectual operation of man and that of God. It goes through the following steps:6
i) This first procession takes place through the intellect: God the Father knows himself in an infinite manner.
ii) The action of the intellect, in general, produces a concept—the verbum, which is a likeness of the known thing and the terminus of the act of knowing.7 Being the effect of the intellect, it is different from the intellect itself.
iii) God the Father, in knowing himself, produces a Verbum, a Word, which will be:
a. God, like the Father, because God’s being and understanding are one and the same;
b. eternal, because God knows himself eternally;
c. numerically and specifically co-substantial with the Father. To employ an analogy, the more a man understands himself, the closer his concept of himself is to his real self. God’s intellect is infinite; the divine Word (concept) is perfectly one with the source without any kind of diversity;
d. differing from the Father only because he proceeds from him; and
e. one and unique, because God knows all other things in knowing himself.
iv) The Word, aside from being God, is the Son of God, as revelation teaches. This means that the first procession is a generation. Generation means the production of a living being from another, receiving from the latter its same specific nature. This concept can be applied in an analogical manner to God. In God, we can speak of the true generation of the Son by the Father because the Son effectively proceeds from the Father and is of the very same substance. The likeness is due to the manner of the procession: The concept of the intellect is a likeness of the known thing.
v) Since the divine Word is unique, we can say that it is the only-begotten Son of God.
Clearly, the above reasoning is analogical. It is based on the similarity between the divine and the human intellect, keeping in mind their infinite dissimilarity. Thus, it agrees with the truth of faith and explains it appropriately through analogy with a human model. However, it does not do away with the mystery because we know what the human intellect and its act of understanding is, but we do not know what the intellect of God or his act of understanding really is. This analogical comparison builds a bridge between God and the creature, but it neither eliminates the distance between them nor confuses the two. Therefore, instead of explaining away the mystery, it emphasizes it even more by expressing it in a true but very limited way.
15e) Spiration
The second procession, whose terminus is the Holy Spirit, takes place through an act of the will; thus, it is not generation.8
The second immanent divine operation is that of the will. God knows himself and loves himself. God the Father, upon knowing himself, engenders the Son, who is a perfect image of the Father. When he loves himself as the Ultimate Good, he loves the Son, and the Son necessarily loves the Father. There is a bond between them, an infinite love, which receives the revealed name of the Holy Spirit. Since he exists, he is of the same divine nature as the Father and the Son, because in God there is nothing that is not God himself. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is subsistent love, infinitely perfect, equal in nature to the Father and the Son, but a distinct Person with respect to either of them.
As revelation teaches, the procession of the Holy Spirit is not generation. This can be explained rationally in the following way: Generation, as we have seen, implies not only a being’s proceeding from another being with identity of nature, but also proceeding by producing a likeness. This characteristic is not found in the procession via the will or by way of love; love is not conceived of as an image of the beloved but as an action of the lover going out of himself, tending toward the beloved in order to reach the beloved. This action is not generation; it does not even have a proper name, although we could call it spiration, as is traditional, or simply procession.
The operation of the will, in the case of man, is not identical to the subject of the operation. But in God, who is absolutely simple, in whom there is no composition, his love is he himself. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, who is the love of God, is also God and a divine Person.
15f) The Holy Spirit Proceeding from the Father and the Son
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This is a central point of Catholic dogma, solemnly taught by the Church according to the common stance of the Greek and Latin Fathers. Even though the formulas used in the East (a Patre per Filium) and West (ex Patre Filioque) differ, they express the same doctrinal content.
The difference in formulas—and, above all, a wrong interpretation of their meaning—has been the cause of the separation of some Eastern churches from the See of Rome, resulting in a serious rift in the Church.
The first symptoms of the approaching separation appeared at the end of the eighth century. It started to erupt at the end of the ninth century, when Photius was Patriarch of Constantinople, and reached its consummation by the end of the eleventh, in the so-called Eastern Schism. The rift continues up to the present day, despite substantial attempts to bridge it.
The Roman Catholic Church has always taught, as a dogma of faith, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son as from one single principle, because this is the doctrine revealed in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. She uses this truth of faith in order to express the distinction between the Son and the Holy Spirit. We know that they are different Persons because it has been revealed. However, we can also understand it because they have different origins and, more specifically, because the Son proceeds from the Father alone while the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Catholic theology emphasizes this doctrine. The best argument to prove that the Son and the Holy Spirit are different Persons—although both proceed from the Father—is the fact that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well.9
Photius and his followers, however, accused the Roman See of teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds from two separate principles. They failed to understand that in the expression ex Patre Filioque, the two Persons are mentioned as a sole principle of the Third Person.
16. The Relations Between the Divine Persons
16a) The Notion of Relation
The names of the divine Persons—especially that of Father and Son and Love or Gift, which refer to the Holy Spirit—are relative names, that is, they express certain relations between them. These relations derive from the processions, or relations of origin.
In God, if one Person is the Father and another Person is the Son, there must be relations of paternity and filiation between them. Because of this, the relations between the Persons allow us to distinguish one Person from another within the same divine nature. This study was initiated by the Greek Fathers, then continued and perfected by the great Latin Doctors. The rational instrument used here is the concept of relation employed analogically.
16b) Doctrine of Faith
· The names of the divine Persons express their mutual relations.10
· In God, there are numerically distinct relations.11
· The Persons are distinguished only through the opposition between these relations.12
16c) Theological Explanation
To study the relations between the divine Persons in greater depth, the reasoning of faith should use the philosophical concept of relation. This concept is defined as “the real accident whose being (esse) consists in referring one thing to another (esse ad),” that is, an accident stands in relation to a subject when something real inheres in a subject without changing it but simply referring it to another. For instance, the relation of paternity that a man has with his son does not change his being, but adds something real to him that he did not possess before: a reference to his son. Because he has a child, he is a father.
As an accident, the proper characteristic of relation—like any other accident—is to inhere in a subject (esse in). Its being, its reality, is to be in a subject as in another.
There can be no relation without a subject. For example, a man cannot be a father if he has never begotten a child or if he does not exist himself. In the same way, there will be no whiteness if there are no white things. It is important to distinguish two aspects in the single reality of any relation:
i) A common aspect as accident; the esse in is the common essence of all accidents.
ii) A specific aspect as pure relation; the esse ad is the specific essence of the accident of relation.
As for its specific nature as the accident relation (what distinguishes it from the other accidents), it simply connotes a reference between two things. It is, so to speak, external to the subject and does not enter into composition with it. Other accidents always have a certain meaning in the subject and remain in it. Relation, as such, means referring from one to another. In this light, relation creates a relative opposition between the two terms and, therefore, a distinction between the two.
These relative oppositions and distinctions are minimal (just as the reality of relation is minimal) but real. Using the same example, the relation “paternity” of the father to the son excludes mutual filiation (the father cannot be son of his son) so it creates a relative opposition between the two. The distinction is relative—one from the other—but real.
Theology analogically applies these concepts to the divine relations:
· The divine relations are true relations, but they are not accidents (they lack the esse in of the accidents) because in God there are no accidents. God has no composition of substance and accidents. Everything in him is his pure singular substance, pure subsistent Being. Therefore, we can talk about divine relations only as pure relations (esse ad): the pure reference of one Person to another. These divine relations are real because the processions from which they derive are real.
· In God, the divine relations are subsistent, that is, they are identified with the divine essence. In God, there is only his essence, since he is infinitely simple. Whatever is real in him is identical with his essence. Therefore, so are the real relations. This is something mysterious and incomprehensible for the human mind: how something absolute (like the essence) can be completely identical to something relative (like the relations). The relations are not only subsistent; they are God himself because the divine essence is God. This conclusion is certain inasmuch as it is deduced by our reason enlightened by faith, but it does not unveil the mystery.
· Even though, in God, relations are really identical with his essence, they are rationally distinct, that is, they are different in our concepts. This means, for instance, that even if the divine essence is really identical to paternity, it is conceptually different from the latter because they have different meanings. This type of distinction is called a logical distinction, or a distinction of reason, not a real distinction.
· Opposed relations are really distinct from one another. This point is important in the development of the argument. Relations that are opposed to each other also mutually exclude each other (like paternity and filiation) and, therefore, are truly distinct. It is a purely relative distinction—the least that can exist—but, nonetheless, a real distinction.
· The real distinctions that exist between the divine relations allow us to logically express the real distinctions between the divine Persons. As our faith teaches, the three Persons are all equal because they are one God, but they are also distinct from one another. How can we express this mystery when the mind cannot fully comprehend it? We can say that the Persons are distinct insofar as they are unique subjects of a real relation, which is opposed to and distinct from the relations of the other two Persons. Thus, for instance, the first Person, aside from being God, is also Father because the relation of paternity distinguishes him. Only God the Father is the subject of that real relation. In the same way, only the Son is the subject of the relation of filiation, which is opposed to paternity. Only he is the Son in the Blessed Trinity.
· In God, everything is one and the same except that which is distinguished by opposing relations, that is, except the three divine Persons who are really distinct from each other. This statement, a consequence of everything previously said, is a truth of faith formally taught by the Magisterium.13 It is a fundamental principle of Trinitarian theology.
· In God, there are four real relations. They are derived from the two processions: the generation of the Son and the spiration of the Holy Spirit. Each procession gives rise to two real relations. The relations of paternity and filiation, which are real and opposed to each other, are borne of generation. The relations of active spiration and passive spiration derive from spiration. Active spiration is the relation of the Father and the Son (as one sole principle) to the Holy Spirit, and passive spiration is the opposite relation of the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son.
· Of the four real relations, only three are opposed to each other, that is, they exclude each other, and thus distinguish the divine Persons. Active spiration, although opposed to the passive, it is not opposed to paternity and filiation. If they are not opposed, then they are identical because of the principle mentioned above, namely that all things which are not distinguished by opposing relations are the same in God.
17. The Divine Persons
The discussion up to now refers to the divine Persons considered in their origins and their relations. This study started with a revealed truth: There are three Persons in one God. Having been able to shed some light on the mystery, we will finally study how to express what the divine Persons are. Thus, the question is centered on the philosophical notion of person, understood, as always, in an analogical way.
17a) Doctrine of Faith
The Father is one Person; the Son is another Person; the Holy Spirit is still another Person. The distinction in God is found in the Persons.14
The Blessed Trinity is one and undivided because of its one divine nature or essence. But it is multiple because of the properties of each Person. The distinction is based on the personal properties of each Person, for there is something proper and exclusive to each one.15
The personal properties can be expressed by saying that the Father begets, the Son is begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both.16 Therefore, paternity is proper to the Person of the Father, filiation to the Son, and procession to the Holy Spirit.
17b) Theological Explanation
The philosophical notion of person is based on three fundamental notions: subsistence, individuality, and rationality.
Person is traditionally defined as a “subsistent individual of a rational nature” (rationalis naturae individua substantia, Boethius). Applying this to God, the divine Person would be defined as a “subsistent individual in the divine nature.” Each divine Person is the single divine essence affected by a personal property that renders him distinct from the other two Persons. Therefore, in order to talk about what each Person is, it is necessary to say what is proper of each Person, i.e., what distinguishes him.
The divine Persons are the subsistent relations of paternity, filiation, and passive spiration (or procession). Actually, if a divine Person is a distinct subsistent in God, only the opposed relations in God fulfill the definition of divine Person. They are subsistent (as we have seen previously), and, because they are opposed to each other, they are distinct. Thus, the Person of the Father is the subsistent relation of paternity. The Person of the Son is the subsistent relation of filiation. The Person of the Holy Spirit is the subsistent relation of passive spiration or procession.
This is the unfathomable mystery of the divine Persons, which the human mind can describe but not comprehend: Relation in God constitutes the Person and is the Person himself. Everything hinges on the divine relations being both distinct and distinguishing. Insofar as they are distinct, each one is a Person. Insofar as they distinguish, it is the property of each Person. Therefore, one can say that the Father is so because of his paternity, or that the subsistent paternity is the Father.
This explanation agrees with revealed truth, which says that there are only three Persons in God, because in him there are only three opposed and real subsistent relations.
18. The Missions of the Divine Persons
God is love: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God wants to communicate his glory to mankind; such is the compassionate plan of God, conceived before the creation of the world in his only-begotten Son. “[God] destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:5), that is, “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom 8:29), by means of “the spirit of sonship” (Rom 8:15). The divine plan unfolds in the history of creation through the missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit. The mission of the Church is a continuation of their missions.17
The missions of the Blessed Trinity are the sending of the Son and the Holy Spirit to the world to carry out God’s plan of salvation. Sacred Scripture explicitly reveals the reality of these missions (cf. Jn 3:17; 14:26; Gal 4:4–5), and this reality is mentioned in Tradition and in the Magisterium of the Church.18
Theologically, a mission can be defined as the sending of a divine Person to creatures by the other Person (or Persons) from which the one sent eternally proceeds. The end of the mission is a presence in the world that is different from the presence that that Person already had as God. Only the Son and the Holy Spirit are sent, because they are the only two Persons who proceed eternally in God.
Although they are eternal in the divine design, the missions are carried out in time. They are divided into visible and invisible missions according to the effects they produce in creatures. The Incarnation and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost are visible missions. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit (and with him, the Father and the Son) in the soul through grace is an invisible mission.
19. The Indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in the Soul
The Triune God did not just reveal his intimate life to us; he went so far as to transform the soul into a temple in which he dwells: “We will come to him and make our home with him” (Jn 14:23); “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16). The reality of this indwelling presence transcends the capacity of our intelligence. Still, we must see that this is the true source, center, and foundation of Christian life.
In the encyclical Mystici Corporis, Pius XII taught, “The Divine Persons are said to inhabit inasmuch as they are present to intellectual creatures in a way that transcends human comprehension, and are known and loved by them, yet in a way that is unique, purely supernatural, and in the deepest sanctuary of the soul.”19 It is a kind of supernatural presence (through grace) by which the Blessed Trinity himself, not just his created gifts, becomes present in the soul.
This presence arises as a relation with the divine Persons through supernatural knowledge and love. It takes place without confusing the natures and operations of God with those of creatures. Essentially, it is the same as the presence of the Blessed Trinity in the souls of the blessed in heaven. The only difference lies in the manner in which it is carried out.
The indwelling of the Triune God in the soul is the beginning of a habitual and intimate conversation with each one of the divine Persons. This is the ambitious goal of the life of prayer.
Our heart now needs to distinguish and adore each of the divine Persons. The soul is, as it were, making a discovery in the supernatural life, like a little child opening his eyes to the world about him. The soul spends time lovingly with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and readily submits to the work of the life-giving Paraclete, who gives himself to us with no merit on our part, bestowing his gifts and the supernatural virtues!20
We gain this in the present life through dealings with the humanity of Jesus Christ. In order to reach Christ, we Christians count on the sacraments, prayer, and the friendship and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph.
Footnotes:
1. Cf. CCC, 253–256.
2. Cf. DS 75, 1330–1331.
3. Cf. DS 125.
4. Cf. DS 800, 1300.
5. Cf. DS 805.
6. Cf. ST, I, q. 27, aa. 1–2.
7. The concept is the verbum cordis; the sign of the concept is the word, verbum vocis. In God, the word remains in himself.
8. Cf. ST, I, q. 27, aa. 3–4.
9. Cf. Ibid., a. 3; q. 36, aa. 2–4.
10. Cf. DS 528, 570.
11. Cf. DS 530.
12. Cf. DS 1330.
13. Cf. DS 1330.
14. Cf. DS 75, 805.
15. Cf. DS 800.
16. Cf. DS 800.
17. Cf. CCC, 257–260.
18. Cf. AG, 2–4; Paul VI, Ap. Ex. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 6ff.
19. Pius XII, Enc. Mystici Corporis: DS 3814–3815; cf. CCC, 260.
20. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 306.
15a) The Notion of Procession
Generally speaking, the term procession (processio in Latin, ekporeumai in Greek) refers to the origination of one thing from another. On the authority of divine revelation, we know that some Persons in God proceed from the others in a mysterious way (“I proceeded and came forth from God” [Jn 8:42]; “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father”[Jn 15:26]). In this section we will go deeper into our knowledge of the processions in God, give the reasons for their number, and explain their differences. The ultimate purpose, as in any other question of the Trinitarian theology, is to acquire a deeper knowledge of the mystery of the divine Persons, first by studying their processions.1
15b) Doctrine of Faith
i) God the Father is unbegotten, that is, he does not proceed from any other Person.2
ii) God the Son—who, as the incarnate Word, is Jesus Christ—proceeds from the Father by generation (cf. Jn 8:42).3
iii) God the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. We can also say that he proceeds from the Father through the Son (cf. Jn 15:26).4
Thus, it is a dogma of faith that, in God, some Persons proceed from others, with the exception of the Father, who does not proceed from anyone. On the other hand, it is also de fide that the number of processions is two, because the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct Persons and their origins are different.
15c) Theological Explanation
The role of theology in this regard is to accept the truth of faith as it is taught by the Church and to seek ways of expressing and explaining it with the greatest possible conceptual rigor. Although we know that theology will never be able to completely dispel the mystery, it is legitimate and even necessary for Christian thinkers to try to find reasons for what the Church believes and demonstrate that the doctrine of faith is reasonable. Catholic theologians have done this in many ways.
The following pages are a summary of what St. Thomas taught on this matter. His theology on the Blessed Trinity is a necessary foundation for anyone entering this field.
The processions of the divine Persons are actions that take place within God and whose terminus is God himself (the Son or the Holy Spirit). They are, therefore, immanent (or ad intra) processions (the opposite of immanent is transcendent or ad extra). As such, only processions corresponding to the two immanent operations of the divine nature can exist in God. His is an intellectual nature, the most perfect of all because its degree of perfection is infinite. The operations of his nature are knowing himself infinitely, which is the origin of the Son, and loving himself infinitely, which is the origin of the Holy Spirit.
The processions are not operations of the divine essence—the essence is not the subject of operations, but the principle through which the subject possessing the essence operates. Therefore, the processions in God are, properly speaking, the operations or actions of the Persons. The Person—not the essence—is the origin of the other Person.5
15d) Generation
The first procession is generation. As the Church teaches, the Son is begotten by the Father, and they are one and the same substance. Theology sheds some light on this aspect of the Trinitarian mystery by the analogy between the intellectual operation of man and that of God. It goes through the following steps:6
i) This first procession takes place through the intellect: God the Father knows himself in an infinite manner.
ii) The action of the intellect, in general, produces a concept—the verbum, which is a likeness of the known thing and the terminus of the act of knowing.7 Being the effect of the intellect, it is different from the intellect itself.
iii) God the Father, in knowing himself, produces a Verbum, a Word, which will be:
a. God, like the Father, because God’s being and understanding are one and the same;
b. eternal, because God knows himself eternally;
c. numerically and specifically co-substantial with the Father. To employ an analogy, the more a man understands himself, the closer his concept of himself is to his real self. God’s intellect is infinite; the divine Word (concept) is perfectly one with the source without any kind of diversity;
d. differing from the Father only because he proceeds from him; and
e. one and unique, because God knows all other things in knowing himself.
iv) The Word, aside from being God, is the Son of God, as revelation teaches. This means that the first procession is a generation. Generation means the production of a living being from another, receiving from the latter its same specific nature. This concept can be applied in an analogical manner to God. In God, we can speak of the true generation of the Son by the Father because the Son effectively proceeds from the Father and is of the very same substance. The likeness is due to the manner of the procession: The concept of the intellect is a likeness of the known thing.
v) Since the divine Word is unique, we can say that it is the only-begotten Son of God.
Clearly, the above reasoning is analogical. It is based on the similarity between the divine and the human intellect, keeping in mind their infinite dissimilarity. Thus, it agrees with the truth of faith and explains it appropriately through analogy with a human model. However, it does not do away with the mystery because we know what the human intellect and its act of understanding is, but we do not know what the intellect of God or his act of understanding really is. This analogical comparison builds a bridge between God and the creature, but it neither eliminates the distance between them nor confuses the two. Therefore, instead of explaining away the mystery, it emphasizes it even more by expressing it in a true but very limited way.
15e) Spiration
The second procession, whose terminus is the Holy Spirit, takes place through an act of the will; thus, it is not generation.8
The second immanent divine operation is that of the will. God knows himself and loves himself. God the Father, upon knowing himself, engenders the Son, who is a perfect image of the Father. When he loves himself as the Ultimate Good, he loves the Son, and the Son necessarily loves the Father. There is a bond between them, an infinite love, which receives the revealed name of the Holy Spirit. Since he exists, he is of the same divine nature as the Father and the Son, because in God there is nothing that is not God himself. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is subsistent love, infinitely perfect, equal in nature to the Father and the Son, but a distinct Person with respect to either of them.
As revelation teaches, the procession of the Holy Spirit is not generation. This can be explained rationally in the following way: Generation, as we have seen, implies not only a being’s proceeding from another being with identity of nature, but also proceeding by producing a likeness. This characteristic is not found in the procession via the will or by way of love; love is not conceived of as an image of the beloved but as an action of the lover going out of himself, tending toward the beloved in order to reach the beloved. This action is not generation; it does not even have a proper name, although we could call it spiration, as is traditional, or simply procession.
The operation of the will, in the case of man, is not identical to the subject of the operation. But in God, who is absolutely simple, in whom there is no composition, his love is he himself. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, who is the love of God, is also God and a divine Person.
15f) The Holy Spirit Proceeding from the Father and the Son
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This is a central point of Catholic dogma, solemnly taught by the Church according to the common stance of the Greek and Latin Fathers. Even though the formulas used in the East (a Patre per Filium) and West (ex Patre Filioque) differ, they express the same doctrinal content.
The difference in formulas—and, above all, a wrong interpretation of their meaning—has been the cause of the separation of some Eastern churches from the See of Rome, resulting in a serious rift in the Church.
The first symptoms of the approaching separation appeared at the end of the eighth century. It started to erupt at the end of the ninth century, when Photius was Patriarch of Constantinople, and reached its consummation by the end of the eleventh, in the so-called Eastern Schism. The rift continues up to the present day, despite substantial attempts to bridge it.
The Roman Catholic Church has always taught, as a dogma of faith, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son as from one single principle, because this is the doctrine revealed in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. She uses this truth of faith in order to express the distinction between the Son and the Holy Spirit. We know that they are different Persons because it has been revealed. However, we can also understand it because they have different origins and, more specifically, because the Son proceeds from the Father alone while the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Catholic theology emphasizes this doctrine. The best argument to prove that the Son and the Holy Spirit are different Persons—although both proceed from the Father—is the fact that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well.9
Photius and his followers, however, accused the Roman See of teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds from two separate principles. They failed to understand that in the expression ex Patre Filioque, the two Persons are mentioned as a sole principle of the Third Person.
16. The Relations Between the Divine Persons
16a) The Notion of Relation
The names of the divine Persons—especially that of Father and Son and Love or Gift, which refer to the Holy Spirit—are relative names, that is, they express certain relations between them. These relations derive from the processions, or relations of origin.
In God, if one Person is the Father and another Person is the Son, there must be relations of paternity and filiation between them. Because of this, the relations between the Persons allow us to distinguish one Person from another within the same divine nature. This study was initiated by the Greek Fathers, then continued and perfected by the great Latin Doctors. The rational instrument used here is the concept of relation employed analogically.
16b) Doctrine of Faith
· The names of the divine Persons express their mutual relations.10
· In God, there are numerically distinct relations.11
· The Persons are distinguished only through the opposition between these relations.12
16c) Theological Explanation
To study the relations between the divine Persons in greater depth, the reasoning of faith should use the philosophical concept of relation. This concept is defined as “the real accident whose being (esse) consists in referring one thing to another (esse ad),” that is, an accident stands in relation to a subject when something real inheres in a subject without changing it but simply referring it to another. For instance, the relation of paternity that a man has with his son does not change his being, but adds something real to him that he did not possess before: a reference to his son. Because he has a child, he is a father.
As an accident, the proper characteristic of relation—like any other accident—is to inhere in a subject (esse in). Its being, its reality, is to be in a subject as in another.
There can be no relation without a subject. For example, a man cannot be a father if he has never begotten a child or if he does not exist himself. In the same way, there will be no whiteness if there are no white things. It is important to distinguish two aspects in the single reality of any relation:
i) A common aspect as accident; the esse in is the common essence of all accidents.
ii) A specific aspect as pure relation; the esse ad is the specific essence of the accident of relation.
As for its specific nature as the accident relation (what distinguishes it from the other accidents), it simply connotes a reference between two things. It is, so to speak, external to the subject and does not enter into composition with it. Other accidents always have a certain meaning in the subject and remain in it. Relation, as such, means referring from one to another. In this light, relation creates a relative opposition between the two terms and, therefore, a distinction between the two.
These relative oppositions and distinctions are minimal (just as the reality of relation is minimal) but real. Using the same example, the relation “paternity” of the father to the son excludes mutual filiation (the father cannot be son of his son) so it creates a relative opposition between the two. The distinction is relative—one from the other—but real.
Theology analogically applies these concepts to the divine relations:
· The divine relations are true relations, but they are not accidents (they lack the esse in of the accidents) because in God there are no accidents. God has no composition of substance and accidents. Everything in him is his pure singular substance, pure subsistent Being. Therefore, we can talk about divine relations only as pure relations (esse ad): the pure reference of one Person to another. These divine relations are real because the processions from which they derive are real.
· In God, the divine relations are subsistent, that is, they are identified with the divine essence. In God, there is only his essence, since he is infinitely simple. Whatever is real in him is identical with his essence. Therefore, so are the real relations. This is something mysterious and incomprehensible for the human mind: how something absolute (like the essence) can be completely identical to something relative (like the relations). The relations are not only subsistent; they are God himself because the divine essence is God. This conclusion is certain inasmuch as it is deduced by our reason enlightened by faith, but it does not unveil the mystery.
· Even though, in God, relations are really identical with his essence, they are rationally distinct, that is, they are different in our concepts. This means, for instance, that even if the divine essence is really identical to paternity, it is conceptually different from the latter because they have different meanings. This type of distinction is called a logical distinction, or a distinction of reason, not a real distinction.
· Opposed relations are really distinct from one another. This point is important in the development of the argument. Relations that are opposed to each other also mutually exclude each other (like paternity and filiation) and, therefore, are truly distinct. It is a purely relative distinction—the least that can exist—but, nonetheless, a real distinction.
· The real distinctions that exist between the divine relations allow us to logically express the real distinctions between the divine Persons. As our faith teaches, the three Persons are all equal because they are one God, but they are also distinct from one another. How can we express this mystery when the mind cannot fully comprehend it? We can say that the Persons are distinct insofar as they are unique subjects of a real relation, which is opposed to and distinct from the relations of the other two Persons. Thus, for instance, the first Person, aside from being God, is also Father because the relation of paternity distinguishes him. Only God the Father is the subject of that real relation. In the same way, only the Son is the subject of the relation of filiation, which is opposed to paternity. Only he is the Son in the Blessed Trinity.
· In God, everything is one and the same except that which is distinguished by opposing relations, that is, except the three divine Persons who are really distinct from each other. This statement, a consequence of everything previously said, is a truth of faith formally taught by the Magisterium.13 It is a fundamental principle of Trinitarian theology.
· In God, there are four real relations. They are derived from the two processions: the generation of the Son and the spiration of the Holy Spirit. Each procession gives rise to two real relations. The relations of paternity and filiation, which are real and opposed to each other, are borne of generation. The relations of active spiration and passive spiration derive from spiration. Active spiration is the relation of the Father and the Son (as one sole principle) to the Holy Spirit, and passive spiration is the opposite relation of the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son.
· Of the four real relations, only three are opposed to each other, that is, they exclude each other, and thus distinguish the divine Persons. Active spiration, although opposed to the passive, it is not opposed to paternity and filiation. If they are not opposed, then they are identical because of the principle mentioned above, namely that all things which are not distinguished by opposing relations are the same in God.
17. The Divine Persons
The discussion up to now refers to the divine Persons considered in their origins and their relations. This study started with a revealed truth: There are three Persons in one God. Having been able to shed some light on the mystery, we will finally study how to express what the divine Persons are. Thus, the question is centered on the philosophical notion of person, understood, as always, in an analogical way.
17a) Doctrine of Faith
The Father is one Person; the Son is another Person; the Holy Spirit is still another Person. The distinction in God is found in the Persons.14
The Blessed Trinity is one and undivided because of its one divine nature or essence. But it is multiple because of the properties of each Person. The distinction is based on the personal properties of each Person, for there is something proper and exclusive to each one.15
The personal properties can be expressed by saying that the Father begets, the Son is begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both.16 Therefore, paternity is proper to the Person of the Father, filiation to the Son, and procession to the Holy Spirit.
17b) Theological Explanation
The philosophical notion of person is based on three fundamental notions: subsistence, individuality, and rationality.
Person is traditionally defined as a “subsistent individual of a rational nature” (rationalis naturae individua substantia, Boethius). Applying this to God, the divine Person would be defined as a “subsistent individual in the divine nature.” Each divine Person is the single divine essence affected by a personal property that renders him distinct from the other two Persons. Therefore, in order to talk about what each Person is, it is necessary to say what is proper of each Person, i.e., what distinguishes him.
The divine Persons are the subsistent relations of paternity, filiation, and passive spiration (or procession). Actually, if a divine Person is a distinct subsistent in God, only the opposed relations in God fulfill the definition of divine Person. They are subsistent (as we have seen previously), and, because they are opposed to each other, they are distinct. Thus, the Person of the Father is the subsistent relation of paternity. The Person of the Son is the subsistent relation of filiation. The Person of the Holy Spirit is the subsistent relation of passive spiration or procession.
This is the unfathomable mystery of the divine Persons, which the human mind can describe but not comprehend: Relation in God constitutes the Person and is the Person himself. Everything hinges on the divine relations being both distinct and distinguishing. Insofar as they are distinct, each one is a Person. Insofar as they distinguish, it is the property of each Person. Therefore, one can say that the Father is so because of his paternity, or that the subsistent paternity is the Father.
This explanation agrees with revealed truth, which says that there are only three Persons in God, because in him there are only three opposed and real subsistent relations.
18. The Missions of the Divine Persons
God is love: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God wants to communicate his glory to mankind; such is the compassionate plan of God, conceived before the creation of the world in his only-begotten Son. “[God] destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:5), that is, “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom 8:29), by means of “the spirit of sonship” (Rom 8:15). The divine plan unfolds in the history of creation through the missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit. The mission of the Church is a continuation of their missions.17
The missions of the Blessed Trinity are the sending of the Son and the Holy Spirit to the world to carry out God’s plan of salvation. Sacred Scripture explicitly reveals the reality of these missions (cf. Jn 3:17; 14:26; Gal 4:4–5), and this reality is mentioned in Tradition and in the Magisterium of the Church.18
Theologically, a mission can be defined as the sending of a divine Person to creatures by the other Person (or Persons) from which the one sent eternally proceeds. The end of the mission is a presence in the world that is different from the presence that that Person already had as God. Only the Son and the Holy Spirit are sent, because they are the only two Persons who proceed eternally in God.
Although they are eternal in the divine design, the missions are carried out in time. They are divided into visible and invisible missions according to the effects they produce in creatures. The Incarnation and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost are visible missions. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit (and with him, the Father and the Son) in the soul through grace is an invisible mission.
19. The Indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in the Soul
The Triune God did not just reveal his intimate life to us; he went so far as to transform the soul into a temple in which he dwells: “We will come to him and make our home with him” (Jn 14:23); “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16). The reality of this indwelling presence transcends the capacity of our intelligence. Still, we must see that this is the true source, center, and foundation of Christian life.
In the encyclical Mystici Corporis, Pius XII taught, “The Divine Persons are said to inhabit inasmuch as they are present to intellectual creatures in a way that transcends human comprehension, and are known and loved by them, yet in a way that is unique, purely supernatural, and in the deepest sanctuary of the soul.”19 It is a kind of supernatural presence (through grace) by which the Blessed Trinity himself, not just his created gifts, becomes present in the soul.
This presence arises as a relation with the divine Persons through supernatural knowledge and love. It takes place without confusing the natures and operations of God with those of creatures. Essentially, it is the same as the presence of the Blessed Trinity in the souls of the blessed in heaven. The only difference lies in the manner in which it is carried out.
The indwelling of the Triune God in the soul is the beginning of a habitual and intimate conversation with each one of the divine Persons. This is the ambitious goal of the life of prayer.
Our heart now needs to distinguish and adore each of the divine Persons. The soul is, as it were, making a discovery in the supernatural life, like a little child opening his eyes to the world about him. The soul spends time lovingly with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and readily submits to the work of the life-giving Paraclete, who gives himself to us with no merit on our part, bestowing his gifts and the supernatural virtues!20
We gain this in the present life through dealings with the humanity of Jesus Christ. In order to reach Christ, we Christians count on the sacraments, prayer, and the friendship and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph.
Footnotes:
1. Cf. CCC, 253–256.
2. Cf. DS 75, 1330–1331.
3. Cf. DS 125.
4. Cf. DS 800, 1300.
5. Cf. DS 805.
6. Cf. ST, I, q. 27, aa. 1–2.
7. The concept is the verbum cordis; the sign of the concept is the word, verbum vocis. In God, the word remains in himself.
8. Cf. ST, I, q. 27, aa. 3–4.
9. Cf. Ibid., a. 3; q. 36, aa. 2–4.
10. Cf. DS 528, 570.
11. Cf. DS 530.
12. Cf. DS 1330.
13. Cf. DS 1330.
14. Cf. DS 75, 805.
15. Cf. DS 800.
16. Cf. DS 800.
17. Cf. CCC, 257–260.
18. Cf. AG, 2–4; Paul VI, Ap. Ex. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 6ff.
19. Pius XII, Enc. Mystici Corporis: DS 3814–3815; cf. CCC, 260.
20. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 306.