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St. Thomas disagrees with the opinion of Alexander of
Hales, attributed to St. Bonaventure, according to
which the notional acts, for example, generation,
constitute the persons in such a way that active generation
is antecedent to paternity according to our method of
conception.
Reply. In St. Thomas' view the notional acts taken
actively, such as to generate and to spirate, presuppose
the persons from which they proceed as already
constituted, and the persons are constituted by the
subsisting relations, as was said above. Hence active
generation, or enunciation, proceeds from the divine
intellect as modified by the relation of paternity. And
yet these notional acts are the bases of the relations
inasmuch as the relations actually have a reference to
their termini. In our method of conceiving these things
the matter is rather obscure with regard to the active
origins; this obscurity, however, does not arise with
regard to the passive origins since a passive origin, such
as passive generation, according to our method of
conception precedes the filiation for which it is a basis.
Toward the end of the body of the article St. Thomas
replies that a relation (for example, paternity) as a
relation actually referring to the Son presupposes active
generation; but active generation presupposes the person
who generates and the personal property, paternity, as
constituting the person. Here there is indeed a mystery
but no contradiction. Similarly, in an equilateral
triangle the first angle constructed, while it is alone,
is a geometric figure but it does not yet refer to the
other two angles not yet constructed.
The reader is referred to the article in the Summa.
In question 27 we have examined the difficulty presented
by the Latin theory with regard to the proximate principle
quo of the divine processions. We concluded that this
principle is the divine intellect and will, not in
themselves, but as they are modified by the relations of
paternity and active spiration.[552]
Nevertheless the relation of paternity as actually and
actively terminated in the Son presupposes active
generation. In this most difficult expression of the
mystery we find something similar to the principle that
causes are mutually causes of each other but in different
genera. By reason of this principle, for example, the
ultimate disposition for a form precedes the form in the
order of material cause and afterward follows the form as a
property in the order of formal cause. If we have
difficulty in expressing this mutual relationship between
the material and formal disposition of corporeal beings,
it is not surprising that we should find it difficult to
express the mutual relationships between the divine
relations, such as paternity, and the notional acts,
such as active generation.
Generation presupposes the Father and is the foundation
for paternity, but not under the same aspect. The matter
is somewhat similar to the form which presupposes the
disposition and also affords the basis for the disposition
inasmuch as the disposition is also a property. An
example is the ultimate disposition for the rational soul,
whatever it may be, whether it is a movement of the heart
or something similar. When this property is destroyed by
death, the soul separates from the body, because this
property is seen under two aspects at the same time: it is
a property and a disposition for the production and
conservation of the form in the matter. If this is a
mystery in the order of sensible things, we do not wonder
that it is difficult to express how these things are in
God.
First corollary. As stated in the reply to the first
difficulty, both these statements are true: because He
generates He is the Father, and because He is the
Father He generates. In the first statement the name
"Father" is taken as designating the relation alone, or
the simple reference to the terminus; in the second
statement the name "Father" is taken as designating a
subsisting person.
Second corollary. The relation of active spiration,
since it does not constitute a person but is merely a
reference to a terminus, is posterior in our minds to the
notional act of spiration, which is attributed to the
Father and the Son.
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