For the doctrine of the is the inner, the innermost, life of God, His profoundest secret. He did not have to reveal it to us. We could have been saved without knowing that ultimate truth. In the strictest sense, it is His business, not ours. He revealed it to us because He loves men and so wants not only to be served by them but truly to be known by them. It is the surest mark of love to want to be known. The revelation of the Trinity was in one sense an even more certain proof than Calvary that God loves mankind.

– Frank Sheed, Theology and Sanity

That They May Know Thee:

A Consideration of the Divine Processions

By Lauri Brown Course: DL 025_Fall11A Instructor: Due: October 8, 2011 THAT THEY MAY KNOW THEE: A CONSIDERATION OF THE DIVINE PROCESSIONS

As noted in the excerpt on the cover page, the revelation of the Trinitarian nature of God by Our

Lord Christ is, along with the inestimable gift of the Redemption, an overwhelming proof of His love for the people He came to save. Even if the Holy Trinity remains a mystery that far exceeds the capacity of created minds to comprehend, the can understand something about the nature of God and His operations thanks to divine revelation and the infallible teaching authority bestowed upon the

Church by her Founder. It is therefore an act of loving gratitude to contemplate the teaching of the

Church on the Divine Processions.

Although the doctrine of the Holy Trinity ―received its final and classical form from St. Thomas

Aquinas,‖1 it was the thought of St. Augustine that pioneered the concepts involved in the transition from Scriptural revelation and pre-Nicene theology to the scholastic system that informed dogmatic expression. Augustine‘s Trinitarian theology has three main insights that paved the way for St. Thomas‘ system: (1) In God, Essence is prior to the Persons. (―Deus is for him not , but the

Trinity.‖2) (2) ―Every external operation of God is due to the whole Trinity.‖3 (3) There is an analogy

―between the two processions within the Godhead and the internal acts of thought and will in the human mind.‖4 By recognizing these processions as analogies of human intellect and will, Augustine ―became the founder of the psychological theory of the Trinity, which, with a very few exceptions, was accepted by every subsequent Latin writer.‖5

In general, procession can be understood as ―the origin of one from another.‖6 Since God is total

Being in Himself and Creator of all things outside Himself, there are both internal and external processions in and from God. Because the former give rise to the relations, by which we understand

God as Three Divine Persons, this paper will focus on the internal divine processions and the relations they imply after a brief consideration of the external processions.

―A procession is said to be external when the terminus of the procession goes outside the principle from which it proceeds.‖7 All external processions are understood to be activities of God the

1 | THAT THEY MAY KNOW THEE L. BROWN Trinity without distinction of persons. There are two types of external processions—creation and mission. In the first case, ―creatures proceed by external procession from God.‖8 According to St.

Thomas, the second term mission means, with respect to a divine person, ―the procession of origin from the sender…as meaning a new way of existing in another; thus the Son is said to be sent by the Father into the world, inasmuch as He began to exist visibly in the world by taking our nature; whereas ‗He was‘ previously ‗in the world‘ (John 1:1).‖9 Like the Son, the Holy Spirit can also be sent on ―a mission from God.‖ Examples include the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Mary at the Incarnation, upon the

Lord at His , and upon the disciples at Pentecost.

Unlike external divine processions whose term is outside of God, ―an Internal Divine Procession signifies the origin of a divine Person from another through the communication of the numerically one

Divine Essence.‖10 The Catholic Faith teaches that there are two internal divine processions by which three divine Persons communicate the one Godhead: generation and spiration/procession. It should be noted that the one Divine Substance itself ―does not generate nor is it generated nor does it proceed,‖11 but rather that ―the Divine Persons, not the Divine Nature, are the subject of the Internal Divine processions (in the active and passive sense).‖12 Thus, ―it is the Father who generates, the Son who is generated, and the Holy Ghost who proceeds.‖13

Moreover, since God is a spirit (John 4, 24), the internal ―Trinitarian ‗Processions‘ are activities of a spirit, i.e., knowing and willing.‖14 According to St. Thomas Aquinas, these internal ―divine processions can be derived only from the actions which remain within the agent. In a nature which is intellectual, and in the divine nature, these actions are two, the acts of intelligence and of will.… It follows that no other procession is possible in God but the procession of the Word and of Love.‖15

Each of these internal processions—the intellectual generation of the Second Person and the loving spiration of the Third Person—can be considered according to its definition, principle, term, correspondence to the internal divine activities (of which human intellect and will are analogies), subject of revelation, Scriptural references, patristic reflection, and Church teaching and dogma.

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Who shall declare His Generation? (Isa 53, 8)

―Generation is defined according to Aristotle as the origin, from a conjoined living principle, of a living being with a like nature.‖16 The principle of divine generation is the Father, and its term is the

Son. Generation corresponds to the Divine Intellect: ―The Son proceeds from the Intellect of the Father by way of Generation. (Sent. Certa.)‖17

It was the Lord Jesus who ―revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: ‗No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the

18 Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.‘ (Mt 11, 27)‖ The Scriptures abound in references to Father and Son: ―The characteristic biblical name for the First Person is the name Father, that of the Second Person, the name Son. The Father is more closely designated as ‗own Father‘ (John 5,

18); the Son as ‗own Son‘ (Rom. 8, 32); as the ‗only born Son‘ (John 1, 14, 18; 3, 16, 18; I John 4, 9); as

‗beloved Son‘ (Mt 3, 17; 17, 5); as ‗true Son‘ (I John 5, 20). Thus, the Son is distinguished from the adopted children of God (Rom. 8, 29)‖19 In addition, the Scriptures also denote the Second Person as

Word of God. ―This name indicates that the Son is the Word (Verbum mentis), generated by an act of cognition, or the product of the knowledge of the Father.‖20

The Fathers of the Church found fertile ground for reflection in these two revealed names and came to understand by reason what they already held by faith—that the Father is God and that the Son is also God. “Accordingly, as though uttering Himself, the Father begot the Word equal to Himself in all things; for He would not have uttered Himself wholly and perfectly, if there were in His Word anything more or less than in Himself.‖21 And the reflection continues into our own day. One of the clearest explanations of how these two names help the Church correctly understand the generation of the Son is offered by apologist Frank Sheed in Theology and Sanity. He points out that ―each word provides an element that the other does not; we naturally think of a son as a distinct person, and we naturally think of a word (a mental word of course) as within the same nature; and both are needed for our understanding of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.‖22

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Church teaching on the origin of the Second Person was formulated in the Athanasian Creed, which ―confesses: The Son is from the Father alone: not made, not created, but generated.‖23 Patristic reflection on the eternal generation developed the term ―consubstantial‖ to denote the substantial equality ―of the Son with the Father from the eternal generation,‖24 a term that was included in the creed formulated at the Council of Nicea in 325. Thus, the dogma describing the relationship between the First and Second Persons is expressed: ―The Second Divine Person proceeds from the First Divine Person by

Generation, and therefore is related to Him as Son to a Father.‖25

The Spirit of the Lord

Spiration is generically defined as an act of breathing. As a divine procession, it is the breathing forth of the love of the Father and the Son as a single principle resulting in a Third Divine Person, the

Holy Spirit. Spiration corresponds to the Divine Will. As explained by St. Thomas, ―There are two processions in God; the procession of the Word, and another.‖26 Just as ―the procession of the Word is by way of an intelligible operation‖27 proper to the intellect, so too is there a corresponding procession by way of an operation of the will. ―Hence, besides the procession of the Word in God, there exists in

Him another procession called the procession of love.‖28

Unlike generation, which was revealed by Our Lord in His use of the names Father and Son, divine spiration is inferred from the mission of the Holy Spirit. ―The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time.‖29 This external mission of the Holy Spirit ―is to a certain extent the continuation of the Eternal Procession in time;‖30 and His mission to the Church, in itself, indirectly reveals the divine origin of the Holy Spirit. Since the Church knows that the Father and the Son sent the

Holy Spirit and that they both are God, it follows that Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son. ―From the mission one can therefore infer the Eternal Procession.‖31

The Scriptures reveal that the Holy Ghost proceeds from both the Father and the Son as from a single principle. ―The Holy Ghost, according to the teaching of Holy Writ, is not merely the Spirit of the

Father (Mt. 10, 20), but also the Spirit of the Son (Gal. 4, 6), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16, 7), the Spirit of

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Christ (Rom. 8, 9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil 1, 19).‖32 The sacred texts also show that He

―proceeds from the Father and from the Son as from One Single Principle and through One Single

Spiration,‖33 since Jesus Himself declares ―All things whatsoever the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that he shall receive of me and show it to you.‖ (John 16, 15)

The Doctors of the Church have considered various questions regarding the spiration of the Holy

Spirit. St. Augustine demonstrated that He is sent by both the Father and the Son by virtue of their consubstantiality: ―As the Father has in Himself that the Holy Spirit should proceed from Him, so has

He given to the Son that the same Holy Spirit should proceed from Him.‖34 As to why the term generation cannot be applied to the procession of the Holy Spirit as it is to that of the Son, St. Thomas answered that since ―generation is essentially the production of like by like‖35 the term cannot be applied to an act of the will where ―the primary result is simply to attract the subject to the object of his love.‖36

Another term is needed, and ―we apply to it the name spiration, the signification of which is principally negative and by way of contrast, in the sense that it affirms a Procession peculiar to the Holy Ghost and exclusive of filiation.‖37

Church councils have progressively enhanced the dogmatic formulation of the Procession of the

Holy Spirit. ―The 11th Council of Toledo (675) declared: ‗that the Holy Ghost proceeds from both is seen by this that He is known as the love or sanctity of both.‘‖38 The dogma that ―The Holy Ghost eternally proceeds from the Father and from the Son as from a Single Principle through a Single

Spiration‖39 (Filioque, rather than per Filium or through the Son) was promulgated at Second General

Council of Lyons in 1274 and reaffirmed at the Council of Florence in 1439. 40

Relations in the Holy Trinity

By way of conclusion, a brief consideration of the implications of the Divine Processions is in order, for ultimately these processions explain how God may be said to be three Persons subsisting in one Divine

Nature. ―The existence of relations in the Godhead may be immediately inferred from the doctrine of processions, and as such is a truth of Revelation. Where there is a real procession the principle and the

5 | THAT THEY MAY KNOW THEE L. BROWN term are really related.‖41 Given two processions that relate their respective principles and terms, it follows that there are four relations in the Holy Trinity: ―two of origination (paternitas and spiratio) and two of procession (filiatio and processio). These relations are what constitute the distinction between the

Persons.‖42 Of the four, only the three relatively opposed relations (paternitas, filatio, and processio) are Persons. ―Inasmuch as the relations, and they alone, are distinct realities in the Godhead, it follows that the Divine Persons are none other than these relations. The Father is the Divine Paternity, the Son the Divine Filiation, the Holy Spirit the Divine Procession.‖43 Glory be to them all.

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Endnotes

1 George Joyce, ―The Blessed Trinity,‖ The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 15, (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912), http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, (Rockford: Tan Books, 1974), 61.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 St. Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, Part I, Question 43, Article 1. (Second and Revised Edition, 1920). http://www.newadvent.org/summa. (S. th. I, 43, 1)

10 Ott, Fundamentals, 61.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 Ott, Fundamentals, 66.

15 S. th. I, 27, 5.

16 Ott, Fundamentals, 66.

17 Ibid., 65.

18 Catechism of the , Article 240. http://old.usccb.org/catechism/text. (CCC 240)

19 Ott, Fundamentals, 62.

20 Ibid., 65.

21 St. , De Trinitate, Book XV, Chapter 14, Article 23. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1301.htm. (De Trin. XV, 14, 23)

22 Frank J. Sheed, Theology and Sanity, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993), 99.

23 Ott, Fundamentals, 62.

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24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 S. th. I, 27, 3.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

29 CCC 244.

30 Ott, Fundamentals, 63.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid.

33 Ibid.

34 De Trin. XV, 26, 47.

35 Joyce, ―The Blessed Trinity.‖

36 Ibid.

37 Jacques Forget, ―Holy Ghost,‖ The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7, (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910). http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07409a.htm.

38 Ott, Fundamentals, 66.

39 Ott, Fundamentals, 62.

40 Ott, Fundamentals, 62-63.

41 Joyce, ―The Blessed Trinity.‖

42 Joyce, ―The Blessed Trinity.‖

43 Joyce, ―The Blessed Trinity.‖

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Bibliography

Aquinas, St. Thomas. The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas. Second and Revised Edition, 1920. Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Online Edition at http://www.newadvent.org/summa.

Catechism of the Catholic Church. English translation for the United States of America copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Online Edition at http://old.usccb.org/catechism/text.

Hippo, St. Augustine, De Trinitate. [Source: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 3. Translated by Arthur West Haddan. Edited by Philip Schaff. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.] Online Edition at http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1301.htm.

Forget, Jacques. ―Holy Ghost.‖ The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. Online edition at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07409a.htm.

Joyce, George. ―The Blessed Trinity.‖ The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. Online edition at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm.

Ott, Ludwig. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. Rockford: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1974.

Sheed, Frank J. Theology and Sanity. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993.

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