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THIS question is the basis for the question on the
missions of the divine persons (question 43) and it is
also fundamental to the questions on grace. For a clear
understanding of the following articles we must first
present a few notes on the differences between the Latin
and Greek Fathers.[491]
For the Latin Fathers the natural order, or the order
of creation, depends efficiently and finally on the one
God, the author of nature; the supernatural order, or
the order of grace, depends efficiently and finally on the
triune God, the author of grace. For the Greeks, the
natural order is also produced by God ad extra through
efficient causality and by the command whereby God in
pronouncing the fiat produced all created things from
nothing. The supernatural order, however, for the
Greeks is rather the indwelling of the divine persons in
the just than an effect of efficient causality ad extra.
This indwelling is in a sense a prolongation of the divine
processions ad extra, distinct from the creative action as
living is distinct from commanding. Living is an action
essentially immanent whereas the divine command is
something that refers to things outside the divine nature.
It was in this sense that the Greek Fathers interpreted
St. Peter's words, "My whom He hath given us most
great and precious promises: that by these you may be made
partakers of the divine nature."[492] In order that
the intimate life of God may come to us it is necessary
that the divine persons themselves, without whom this
intimate life of God cannot exist, should come to us in
their substantial reality. It is not enough that the
Father should have the simple will of adopting; He must
operate, as it were, by His nature or according to His
intimate life by sending us the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Thus in the mind of the Greek Fathers the order of grace
is rather the order of substantial indwelling than an
effect of divine causality, and therefore the Greeks
insist that we receive not only grace, which is a created
effect, but the Holy Ghost, who is the gift par
excellence. For Origen[493] and the Alexandrian
Fathers, the Holy Ghost is the substantial font of all
graces. For Didymus[494] the Holy Ghost is the
seal impressed on the soul, and sanctifying grace is the
impression of this seal in its passive aspect, and this
seal must remain in the soul.[495]
Similarly St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen call
our sanctification a deification, and this deification is
described as the projection of God's inner life ad extra
by the divine missions.
For the Greek Fathers, then, the Holy Ghost is the
uncreated gift and at the same time the enexgeia
metaphorically expressed by the figure of the spring of
living water; and this uncreated gift is prior, on the
part of God who gives it, to the created gift of grace.
In this sense they also understood the words, "The
charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the
Holy Ghost, who is given to us."[496]
St. Thomas does not appear to recede from this position
of the Greek Fathers, although he does insist that
habitual grace is a previous disposition on the part of the
subject, man, for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
This does not preclude the idea that the Holy Ghost on
the part of the efficient cause, which is God, is given
prior to grace. Causes are often causes of each other;
thus the ultimate disposition for a perfection precedes the
perfection in the order of material cause and follows it as
a property in the order of formal cause. In the theory of
the Greek Fathers, although the entire Trinity dwells
in the just, the Holy Ghost is in the just by a special
presence which is more than the presence by appropriation
of which the Latin Fathers speak. In other words, the
theory of the Greek Fathers, which considers the three
persons prior to the divine nature, finds it easier to
explain the special nature of the mission of the Holy
Ghost, which as a mission is something more than simple
appropriation.
In the Greek mind the Father, in order to sanctify men
and angels, sends them the uncreated gift, namely, the
Holy Ghost, who dwells personally in the just and by
circumincession, as it were, draws the Son, who is also
sent, and the Father, who is not sent but who comes.
Thus the Holy Ghost dwells in us formally as a person
and as the uncreated gift. There is not, however, a
hypostatic union of the soul of the just man with the Holy
Ghost because the just man retains his own personality and
the union with the Holy Ghost is not substantial but only
accidental.
According to the theory of the Latin Fathers the Holy
Ghost dwells in us by reason of the divine nature,
because the Latins considered the divine nature before the
three persons, and in the souls of the just they
considered first the participation in the divine nature,
which is created grace, before they considered the
uncreated gift, for which grace disposes the soul. These
are two aspects of the same mystery, and divine
Providence has arranged that both be studied so that we
might understand this mystery better although we shall
never be able to express it adequately.
From this it is clear that the Greeks understood the
absolute distinction between the order of nature and the
order of grace; indeed they declare that without the
uncreated gift we cannot be made partakers of the divine
nature; that is, habitual grace cannot be infused except
through the divine persons dwelling in the just,
especially by the Holy Ghost, who is the uncreated
gift, the living spring of all graces.[497]
This at all events is the interpretation of the doctrine
of the Greek Fathers proposed by many modern authors
although the doctrine of the Greek Fathers in other texts
seems to be closer to St. Augustine and the Latin
Fathers.
We shall now consider how St. Thomas preserved the
doctrine of the Greek Fathers and how he reconciled it to
the Latin theory of the two processions after the manner
of intellection and of love. This question has two
articles: 1. whether "the Gift" can be taken as a
personal name; 2. whether it is a proper name of the
Holy Ghost. Such is St. Thomas' procedure because
the Son of God is also given to us, and he wished to
show that the Holy Ghost is properly the gift.
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