Chapter XVI. Question 42

THE EQUALITY AND SIMILARITY OF THE Divine PERSONS

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HIS chapter treats of the comparison of the divine persons with one another. Six articles are presented about their equality and on the order between them and on circumincession, inasmuch as one person is in the other.

First ARTICLE

WHETHER THE DIVINE PERSONS ARE EQUAL

Reply. The reply is affirmative and of faith according to the Athanasian Creed, which professes that the divine persons are “coequal,” and the same doctrine is defined by many councils.’ In the Scriptures it is said of the Son, “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” ? The explanation given in the body of the article is this: things are said to be unequal according to a difference in quantity. But in God quantity is the perfection of divine nature, which is numerically the same in the three persons. Therefore the three persons are not unequal but all three are coequal.

In the reply to the first difhculty, St. Thomas explains that quantity is twofold: quantity of amount (molis) and quantity of power (virtutis). The latter is predicated according to perfection of nature or form. To be one in nature is to be the same; to be one in quantity is to be equal; and to be one in quality is to be similar.* Corollaries are presented in the following articles.

In the reply to the second difficulty, it is noted that the three per-¹ sons are similar because we have here equality not of amount but of power, according to communication in one form.

WHETHER THE PROCEEDING PERSON IS COETERNAL WITH HIS PRINCIPAL

State of the question. The difficulty arises because no eternal being has a principle and that which is generated begins to be. In the first difficulty St. Thomas quotes the objection of the Arians, who enumerated twelve kinds of generation in which there is no consubstantiality or coeternity.

Reply. Nevertheless the reply is that the three persons are coeternal. This is of faith according to the Scriptures: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard”; * “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 5 In the Athanasian Creed we profess, “The whole three persons are coeternal together and coequal.” The Fourth Lateran Council also declared that the three persons are “consubstantial and coequal and co-omnipotent and coeternal.” ê

The theological explanation throws a great deal of light on this somewhat obscure doctrine. The explanation is as follows: The proceeding persons are coeternal with their principles because they proceed from a principle whose active power is always perfect by instantaneous action in the one unique instant of eternity. The intellect and the will of God are, of course, always in act. Therefore the divine intellect is never without the Word nor is the divine will ever without personal love, or the Holy Ghost.

Reply to the first objection. A vestige of this coeternity is found in the sun inasmuch as the sun never lacks its brightness.

Reply to the second objection. Unparticipated eternity properly so called excludes the principle of duration but not the principle of origin. Thus the Son originates from the Father in the one instant of immobile eternity. This truth is expressed in the words, “Thou art My son, this day have I begotten Thee.” ? “Today,” that is, in

EQUALITY AND SIMILARITY OF PERSONS 297 this one unique instant of eternity, which is the stable now (nunc stans) and which is not fluent.

Reply to the third objection. The following principle, “everything that is generated begins to be,” is not verified in the Son of God because divine generation is not a transmutation, nor is it a change from non-being to being, but it takes place by the communication of uncreated being itself. Hence the Son is always generated and the Father always generates, since the “now” of eternity is not fluent but is immutably stationary.

Reply to the fourth objection. In time the perduring time is different from the indivisible fleeting point, which is the fluent instant, for time is the successive continuum which is divisible in infinity, whereas the instant is indivisible like the point that terminates a line. In eternity, however, this indivisible “now” is always stable or stationary and therefore there is no difference between the perduring eternity and this indivisible point.® Since the generation of the Son is in the “now” of eternity, we can say that the Son is always being born, or still better that the Son is always born because the “born” signifies the perfection of him who is begotten, whereas being born signifies that which is becoming and is not yet perfect.

A beautiful thesis could be written about this “now” of eternity in comparison with continuous time, which is the measure of the apparent movement of the sun, and with the discrete time of the angels, which is the measure of the angels’ successive thoughts and affections.*® Such a thesis could be combined with the doctrine concerning the life of God inasmuch as eternity is defined as “the perfect, complete, and simultaneous possession of interminable life.”

WHETHER THERE IS AN ORDER OF NATURE IN THE DIVINE PERSONS

State of the question. The precise state of the question appears in the second difficulty. This difficulty is as follows: In those things where there is an order of nature one thing is prior to another, if not in time at least in nature or intellection. But in the divine persons

8 Cf. above, q.27, a.2. ® Summa theol., Ia, q. 10, a. 4- 10 Cf. ibid., q.62, a. 4.

nothing is earlier or later, as we learn from the Athanasian Creed. Moreover, in God the nature is most simple and numerically the same in the three persons and hence there is no order in the divine nature.

Reply. Nevertheless the reply is that there is an order of nature in the divine persons, an order not according to earlier and later but according to origin.

1. This is proved from general principles in the argument sed contra as follows: Wherever there is plurality without order we have confusion. But in God there is no confusion; therefore there must be order.

2. It is also proved from particular principles. Order is always predicated with regard to some principle, for example, with regard to the principle of the line, the principle of number, the principle of demonstration, the principle of causal influence, or the chief end. But in God we predicate the principle of origin without any priority. Therefore in God there is the order of origin without priority or posteriority.

The minor was explained above: ** “Although the term ‘principle’ with regard to that from which its significance is derived seems to come from priority, it does not signify priority but origin. For that which a term signifies is not the same as that from which the term is derived, as was explained above.” 1? Thus the Latin word for stone, lapis, seems to be derived from some action of the stone, namely, to injure the foot, laedit pedem.

Reply to the second objection. In created beings order is a disposition with regard to priority and posteriority in view of some principle, for example, the principle of the line or of motion, the principle of demonstration, or the principle of causality in any one of the four kinds of causes. But in God the concept of order is preserved analogically in view of the principle of origin without priority or posteriority, because posteriority either in duration or being would be an imperfection, which cannot be predicated of the Son or of the Holy Ghost. More briefly: whatever is posterior to another in nature must depend according to its own nature upon the nature of the other (as the nature of the ray depends on the nature of the sun). But we cannot

EQUALITY AND SIMILARITY OF PERSONS 299 speak of God in this way because there is but one nature in God.

In this reply to the second difficulty St. Thomas shows that where there is no priority of time in created beings there is still a priority of nature, for example, the sun is prior to its brightness. But he adds: “If we consider not the entity of the cause but the relations themselves of the cause and that which is caused, of the principle and that which is principled, it is evident that the relatives are simultaneous in nature and intellect inasmuch as the one is contained in the definition of the other. But in God the relations are subsisting persons in one nature. Therefore one person is not prior to another either on the part of the nature or on the part of the relations. Nor is one person prior to another in intellection.

We have then an order of origin without any priority, even that of nature. This is, of course, quite mysterious. Cajetan notes that many theologians admit a “priority and posteriority of origin.” His reply was: “Let them have this opinion, but let them be quiet about it.” He probably meant that they could hold this opinion inasmuch as there is a kind of priority and posteriority according to our imperfect method of understanding but not in fact, and that as far as possible we ought to try to correct our imperfect method of knowledge. To safeguard the words of the Athanasian Creed, “in this Trinity there is nothing before or after,” we ought to say with St. Thomas, “nothing is before or after, either in time or nature or honor.” We preserve the analogy by noting that “between God and creatures there is no similarity so great that there is not always a greater dissimilarity.” 1°

A trace of this truth is found in the equilateral triangle, in which the three angles are entirely similar and equal. We can say that the angles are without any priority in this sense, that in constructing the triangle we can begin with any angle, and we can invert the triangle so that the apex becomes the extremity of the base.

Reply to the third objection. “The order of nature is predicated not in the sense that the divine nature itself is ordered but that the order among the divine persons follows according to natural origin,” for the Father generates according to His own nature, and the Father and the Son spirate the Holy Ghost by the will as it is the divine nature.

Reply to the fourth objection. It is called the order of nature rather than the order of the essence because nature to a certain extent implies the idea of principle.

WHETHER THE SON IS EQUAL TO THE FATHER IN GREATNESS

State of the question. We are dealing here with the equality of perfection for the purpose of explaining Christ’s words, “the Father is greater than I.” The difficulty arises because paternity pertains to dignity and does not belong to the Son. This is a statement of the question on which we touched earlier, namely, whether paternity is a simply perfect perfection properly so called, although the Son does not possess it. It is the same question as in the first article with the special difficulty that arises from the fact that paternity appears to be a special dignity.

Reply. The reply is in the affirmative: the Son is equal to the Father in perfection. This doctrine is of faith from the Scriptures: “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” *°

The theological reason is as follows: It is of the nature of paternity and filiation that the Son by generation attains to the possession of that perfect nature which is in the Father as it is possessed by the Father. And the Son attains to that perfect nature unless the power of generation is defective. But in God the power of generation is not defective; it is exercised most perfectly from all eternity. Therefore the Son possesses the entire perfection of the Father from all eternity.

Reply to the first objection. Only as man did Christ say, “the Father is greater than I.”

Reply to the second objection. The difficulty is that the Son lacks the dignity of paternity. St. Thomas replied: “Paternity is the dignity of the Father just as the essence is the dignity of the Father, since the dignity is absolute and pertains to the essence. Just as the same essence which is the paternity in the Father is filiation in the Son, so the same dignity which is paternity in the Father is filiation in the Son. But in the Father this dignity is according to the relation of the

the Son, the Son in the Father, and both in the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost in both.

The difficulty arises because what goes out of another is not in the other. But the Son goes out of the Father from all eternity. Moreover, one of two opposites is not in the other opposite.

Reply. The affirmative reply is of faith according to the Scriptures, for Christ said: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” * Such was the interpretation of the Fathers, especially St. Augustine.*®

The theological argument is in three parts: the Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son:

1. according to essence, which is numerically the same in the persons;

2. according to the relations, because they mutually involve each other, although they are opposites;

3. according to the procession, because it is immanent or ad intra and not ad extra.

Circumincession signifies consubstantiality, the immanence of the processions, and the reciprocity of opposite relations. An analogy can be seen in the equilateral triangle, where each angle is in the other two.

Objection. One of two opposites is not in the other opposite, because the opposites are really distinct. Therefore the Father is not in the Son.

Reply. I distinguish the antecedent: one of the opposites formally as an opposite is not in the other opposite, I concede; nevertheless by reason of the same essence the relations have the same esse in and according to the esse ad they mutually refer to each other and are inseparable, although really distinct. Thus, by circumincession the Father and the Holy Ghost are with the incarnate Son in the Holy Eucharist.’

WHETHER THE SON IS EQUAL TO THE FATHER IN POWER

This article explains the following words of our Lord: “The Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He seeth the Father 11 John 14:10.

18 St, Augustine, De Trinitate, VI, last chapter. 19 Cf, Dict. théol. cath., art. “Circumincession” (A. Chollet).

EQUALITY AND SIMILARITY OF PERSONS 303 doing,” *° and, “For whatsoever He [the Father] doth, these the Son also doth in like manner.” **

Reply. The affirmative reply is of faith. The reason is that the power of acting follows the perfection of the nature, which is numerically the same in the Father and in the Son.

Reply to the first objection. But the Son has this power as He has His nature from the Father.

Reply to the third objection. St. Thomas recalls what was said in the reply to the second objection in the fourth article.

Footnotes

1. Fourth Lateran Council, chap. “Firmiter.” 2 Phil. 2:6. 8 Aristotle, in V Metaphysica, chap. 6. ↩