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

340 Trinitarian Creation and Action
replenishing the Church with his gifts.4 We can recall again here the governing
idea behind this teaching:
The Father utters himself and every creature by the Word which he begets, in as much
as the begotten Word represents the Father and all creatures. And in the same way, he
loves himself and loves all creatures by the Holy Spirit, in that the Holy Spirit proceeds
as love for the original goodness, the motive for the Father’s loving himself and all
creatures. Thus it is manifest that, as with the Word, a second aspect of Love
proceeding is a reference to creatures.5
As we have indicated earlier, this argumentation means that the Love through
which both Father and Son are together one is also the Love through which
they net us into their communion: ‘The Father and the Son love one another
and they love us through the Holy Spirit, through ‘‘the Love’’ who proceeds.’6
The theological exposition of divine activity rests on the study of the persons
in their common essence and particular properties. St Thomas’ analysis of the
names Word, Love, and Gift showed that these names involve a relationship to
creatures.7 His exact point is that the divine person (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
is not directly related to creatures through the originary relation he enjoys
within the eternal Trinity, but through the aspect in which the relationship
includes the divine essence:
The name of a divine person does not involve relationship to creatures as to personal
relation, but as to that [within it] which touches on the nature. This does not obstruct
a divine person’s name from involving a relationship to creatures, in so far as this
name includes the essence within its meaning. Thus, in the same way that it is proper
to the Son to be Son, so it is proper to him to be begotten God and Creator as begotten.8
These nuances are at the heart of the matter. Once applied to the Trinitarian
economy, they bring us back to the elemental features of the notion of person
and of the structure of relation. Running over it quickly once more: relation
has two sides to it, (1) it is a pure relating to another, and (2) it has existence
within a subject. The Wrst aspect (the relationship to another) constitutes the
notion or ‘rationale’ proper to the relation and the second aspect renders the
being (esse) of the real relation. Both aspects are required for any real relation.
Within God, the Wrst aspect consists in the pure person-to-person relating in
terms of origin (paternity, Wliation, spiration, procession). Under the second
aspect, the divine relation is identical to the very being of the divine essence; it
4 See above, in Chapter 10, ‘Creative Love: The Universal Operation of the Holy Spirit’; ‘The
Gift of the Father and the Son’; ‘The Holy Spirit’s Gifts to Human Beings’.
5 ST I, q. 37, a. 2, ad 3.
6 ST I, q. 37, a. 2.
7 For the Word, ST I, q. 34, a. 3, ad 1; for Love, q. 37, a. 2, ad 3; for Gift, q. 38, a. 1, ad 4.
8 ST I, q. 34, a. 3, ad 1.