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

408 Missions
of the Holy Spirit’. On the other hand, it is the character of the Son to be the
Son of the Father, the Image and Word who breathes forth the Spirit side by
side with the Father. In this capacity, he joins with the Father in being the
‘principle’ of the Gift, the ‘author’ and giver of the Holy Spirit.218 It therefore
accrues to him to be the author of sanctiWcation: together with the Father, the
Son sends the Gift which proceeds from them to human beings, the Holy
Spirit who sanctiWes. The persons’ missions come from the eternal procession,
which shapes it. This gives us one of the basic features of mission. It enables us
to explain what unites and divides the diVerent missions:
We have said that it Wts for the Son to be manifested as the author of sanctiWcation.
This makes it necessary for the visible mission of the Son to come about in an
intelligent nature, one which is capable of action, and which could be used as an
instrument of sanctiWcation. But other creaturely things could suYce for the sign of
sanctiWcation: this does not have as its prerequisite that a purpose-built, visible
creature be assumed by the Holy Spirit into the unity of his person, because it was
not assumed or used for the purpose of action, but only in order to be a sign.219
St Thomas sees a close correlation between the person’s eternal procession,
his action of sanctiWcation, and how the person is manifested in our world.
The Son acts as he is; that is, he works our salvation in a way that correlates
with his personal property. And so he sanctiWes in his capacity as giver of the
Spirit and author of sanctiWcation. This is one of the means by which the
Incarnation Wts the way things are: the Son becomes man to save human
beings with the active co-operation of the humanity he assumes. He assumes a
humanity to sanctify humanity in and through it.
On the one hand, the Son co-opts the humanity he takes into the work of
human salvation, because ‘divine wisdom requires that God takes care of each
thing in a style that is congruent to it’ (this is the providential rule we
mentioned above). God saves humanity with the co-operation of a free
humanity.220 When Thomas explains that the visible mission of the Son is
brought about ‘in an intelligent nature, one which is capable of action, and
which could be used as an instrument of sanctiWcation’, he does not mean that
a creature could be intrinsically capable of sanctifying or giving the Holy
Spirit: only God can sanctify.221 Instead, it should be understood as the action
218 ST I, q. 36. Thomas sometimes restricts the name ‘author’ to the Father, to the exclusion
of the Son (I Sent. d. 29, q. 1, a. 1). Other times, the term indicates the same reality as the name
‘principle’ (cf. CEG II, ch. 23). For more details, see above, in Chapter 8, ‘The Father: Principle
and Source’.
219 ST I, q. 43, a. 7, ad 4.
220 SCG IV, ch. 55 (no. 3935); cf. ST III, qq. 18–19.
221 I Sent. d. 14, q. 3: no creature could give the Holy Spirit, unless as a minister or an
instrument of the divine action. Cf. ST I–II, q. 112, a. 1.