The Trinitarian Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas - El Camino ...

262 The Person of the Holy Spirit
This explanation brings us back to the ‘imprint of love’ by which the Holy
Spirit as Love is characterized, and which thus also typiWes his way of acting.
In another domain, the remission of sins provides a good example of Thomas’
theological exegesis, all the more so because it solidly teaches that in the
Christian virtue of penitence, as in the sacrament in which it partakes, the
remission of the fault springs from the charity created by faith, through the
gift of the Holy Spirit:177
Receive the Holy Spirit: those whose sins you remit, they are forgiven (Jn 20.22–23).
The forgiving of sins is a Wtting eVect of the Holy Spirit. This is because he
himself is Charity, and through the Holy Spirit charity is given to us, as it says
in Rom. 5.5: the charity of God has been spread in our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us. Now it is only through charity that sins are
forgiven, for charity covers all oVences (Prov. 10.12); charity covers a multitude of
sins (1 Pet. 4.8).178
Because the interpretation is shaped so transparently, there is no need to
linger over it. The personality of the Holy Spirit is Love, and this is why he
spreads love: from within the heart of the Trinity, he joins human beings to
the property personal to him. This doctrine enables one to show why Scripture
ascribes the remission of sins to the Holy Spirit, by pointing out that in
which the remission of sins consists—the gift of charity. All of these explanations
are set under the aegis of divine friendship.179
The study of the works of the Holy Spirit makes use of the speculative idea
of Love, but without always calling on all of its diverse features. Often,
Thomas just brings to mind what he has established elsewhere: the Holy
Spirit is properly and personally Love. This does not mean that the theme of
mutual Love is being dropped; it is present implicitly in the indication of the
personal property of the Spirit who proceeds from Father and Son. And when
the context speciWcally requires that focus, it will be mentioned explicitly.
Thus, for example, in respect of the Church’s unity:
177 Cf. ST III, q. 85, a. 5; q. 86, a. 2; q. 86, a. 6 ad 2. There can be no remission of sins without
the charity sown by the Holy Spirit. It is no diVerent in the justiWcation of the sinner which takes
place in the Wrst conversion which is baptism: justiWcation is brought about in ‘faith formed by
charity’ which the Holy Spirit brings to bear (ST I–II, q. 113, a. 4). See our article, ‘Reconciliation
with the Church and Interior Penance: The Contribution of Thomas Aquinas on the
Question of the Res et Sacramentum of Penance’, trans. Robert E. Williams, Nova et Vetera 1/2
(2003), 283–301.
178 In Ioan. 20.22–23 (no. 2541).
179 Cf. SCG IV, ch. 21 (no. 3582): ‘Since it is the Holy Spirit who establishes us as God’s
friends (Dei amici), it is also through the Holy Spirit that God remits our sins.’