Lecture 4 — Christ’s glory

^16:14^ He will glorify me; because he will receive of mine, and will show it to you. [n. 2106]

^16:15^ All things whatsoever the Father has, are mine. Therefore I said, that he will receive of mine, and show it to you. [n. 2110]

2105. Above, we saw two fruits of the coming of the Holy Spirit, which were the rebuking of the world and the instruction of the disciples. Now the third fruit is mentioned, the glorification of Christ.

First, he mentions this fruit, the glorification;

second, the reason for it: that he will receive of mine;

third, he expands on this: all things whatsoever the Father has, are mine.

2106. He says: **he will teach all truth **(John 16:13), because he will glorify me, in whom is all truth: I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6); in whom, that is, in Christ, are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:3).

He will glorify me, that is, give a clear knowledge of me. He will do this, first of all, by enlightening the disciples: for they were still carnal and attached to Christ in a carnal way, that is, in the weakness of his flesh, not realizing the grandeur of his divinity. Later, they were able to grasp this through the Holy Spirit: God has revealed to us through the Spirit (1 Cor 2:10). Second, the Spirit will give them the confidence to preach clearly, openly. Before this the disciples were so timid that they did not dare to profess Christ publicly, but when they were filled with the Holy Spirit fear was cast out, and they proclaimed Christ to the people, being somehow impelled by that same Spirit: he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives (Isa 59:19). This is why the Apostle says: the love of Christ impels us (2 Cor 5:14). Third, the Spirit will glorify Christ by accomplishing marvelous works in and through the apostles: all things are inspired by one and the same Spirit (1 Cor 12:11).

2107. Now we see the reason why the Holy Spirit will glorify Christ: it is because the Son is the principle of the Holy Spirit. For everything which is from another manifests that from which it is. Thus the Son manifests the Father because he is from the Father. And so because the Holy Spirit is from the Son, it is appropriate that the Spirit glorify the Son. He says, he will glorify me, because he will receive of mine. However, the Holy Spirit does not receive in the same way creatures do.

When creatures receive, three things are found, and two of these are not found in the divinity. In creatures, that which receives is one thing, and what is received is something else. This is not so in the divinity, since the divine persons are simple, and not composed of several elements. Indeed, the Holy Spirit receives his entire substance from whomever this Spirit receives, and so does the Son.

Another difference is that among creatures the one who receives did not have at one time what he receives, as when matter receives a form, or a subject receives an accident: for at some time the matter was without such a form, and the subject without that accident. This is not so in the divinity, because what the Son receives from the Father, the Son has from eternity, and what the Holy Spirit receives from the Father and the Son, the Spirit has from eternity. Accordingly, the Holy Spirit receives from the Son like the Son receives from the Father: that which my Father has given to me is greater than all (John 10:29). Thus, when the expression ‘to receive’ is used of the divinity, it indicates an order in origin.

2108. Note that when he says, he will receive of mine, the word of does not indicate participation, but consubstantiality, because the Spirit receives all that the Son has. For just as the Son is from the substance of the Father, because he receives the entire substance of the Father, so also the Holy Spirit is from the substance of the Son because the Spirit receives the whole substance of the Son. Thus, because he will receive of mine, and I am the Word of God, therefore he will show it to you. For the soul of a creature can in no way exist except according to its proceeding from an interiorly conceived word.

2109. Now this reason is further explained when Christ shows that the Holy Spirit received from him because of the unity and consubstantiality of the Father and the Son.

First, we see the consubstantiality of the Father and Son;

second, the conclusion is drawn, therefore I said, that he will receive of mine.

2110. He says: he will receive from me because all things whatsoever the Father has, are mine. This is like saying: although the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, yet because all things whatsoever the Father has, are mine, and the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit receives from me.

Note that one ‘has’ something in two ways: in one way as a possession, and in the other way as something existing in oneself, as a form or a part. The Father has as a possession and as something subject to himself the totality of created things: the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof (Ps 33:5). The Father also has something which is in him, indeed, which is himself, because the Father is whatever is in Christ, since the Father is his own essence, own goodness, own truth and own eternity. The word ‘has’ is being used in this sense here. And so whatever the Father has is the Son’s, because the Son has the same wisdom and the same goodness that the Father also has: for as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself (John 5:26); all things have been delivered to me by my Father (Matt 11:27).

2111. As Didymus says, some might make this objection: if all that the Father has the Son also has, then since the Father has the characteristic of fatherhood, it follows that the Son also has this.

I answer that this argument would appear to be valid if our Lord had said, all that God has is mine. But he says, all things whatsoever the Father has, are mine, and this keeps a distinction between the Father and the Son, and leads us to understand that all that the Father has is the Son’s, except that by which the Father is distinguished from the Son. For by using the word Father, Christ declares that he is the Son, and has not usurped the attribute of fatherhood.

2112. We have conceded that whatever the Father has the Son has, but not that the Son has it in the same order as the Father. For the Son has as receiving from another; while the Father has as giving to another. Thus, the distinction is not in what is had, but in the order of having. Now relations of this kind, that is, of fatherhood and sonship, signify a distinction of order: for fatherhood signifies a giving to another and sonship a receiving from another.

2113. One might ask whether a relation is something real in the divinity. It seems that it is: for if not, then since the divine persons are distinguished by relations, the distinction of the persons would not be real.

The answer to this is that in the divinity a relation is considered in two ways. In one way, a relation is considered in comparison to the essence or person of the Father. And in this way the relation of Father is not other than the essence or person of the Father. In the other way, a relation can be considered in comparison to the opposite relation, for example, to sonship. In this way fatherhood is a real relation, because it signifies an order of the nature which the Father gives the Son by an eternal generation. And this order is really in God. Therefore, if fatherhood is compared to the essence of the Father, all that the Father has the Son has, because fatherhood is not other than the essence of the Father, but the Son does not have it in the same order, as was said.

2114. Now he draws his conclusion, that the Holy Spirit receives from the Son. If all things which the Father has are the Son’s, and the Son is consubstantial to the Father, it is necessary that the Holy Spirit proceed from the Son as he proceeds from the Father, as Hilary and Didymus argue.

To understand this we should note that among created things in every procession or origination that by which the agent acts or gives what it has is the same as what the recipient receives. For instance, fire which has been generated receives the form of fire which the generating fire gives it by its own form. There is something similar to this in the origin of the divine persons, because that by which the Father gives his nature to the Son, not by will, but by nature, is the same as that which he gives. Still there is an unlikeness in this way: in creatures, that which is communicated and that by which it is communicated is only the same in species, not the same individual; but in the divinity, what the Father gives to the Son and that by which he gives or communicates it is the same individual nature.

2115. Note that we say that the Son receives from the substance of the Father, that is, he receives the substance of the Father; and we say that the Holy Spirit receives from the substance of the Father and the Son; and that the Father, by virtue of his nature, gives his substance to the Son, and the Father and the Son give to the Holy Spirit. But we do not say that the Father is from the substance of the Son, or that the Father and the Son are from the substance of the Holy Spirit, because the from signifies consubstantiality with an order of origin. Thus, what is communicated to the Holy Spirit is what is common to the Father and the Son.

Now in the divinity the principle of communication must be the same as what is communicated. And so if what is communicated to the Holy Spirit is as essence, that which communicates must be this essence. This essence, however, is common to the Father and the Son. So, if the Father gives his essence to the Holy Spirit, the Son must also do so. For this reason he says, all things whatsoever the Father has, are mine. And if the Holy Spirit receives from the Father, he will also receive from the Son. And for this reason he says, therefore I said, that he will receive of mine and show it to you, for according as he receives from me, so he will show you.