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Objection 1: It would seem that a divine person cannot be properly
sent. For one who is sent is less than the sender. But one divine
person is not less than another. Therefore one person is not sent by
another.
Objection 2: Further, what is sent is separated from the sender;
hence Jerome says, commenting on Ezech. 16:53: "What is
joined and tied in one body cannot be sent." But in the divine
persons there is nothing that is separable, as Hilary says (De
Trin. vii). Therefore one person is not sent by another.
Objection 3: Further, whoever is sent, departs from one place and
comes anew into another. But this does not apply to a divine person,
Who is everywhere. Therefore it is not suitable for a divine person
to be sent.
On the contrary, It is said (Jn. 8:16): "I am not alone,
but I and the Father that sent Me."
I answer that, the notion of mission includes two things: the
habitude of the one sent to the sender; and that of the one sent to the
end whereto he is sent. Anyone being sent implies a certain kind of
procession of the one sent from the sender: either according to
command, as the master sends the servant; or according to counsel, as
an adviser may be said to send the king to battle; or according to
origin, as a tree sends forth its flowers. The habitude to the term
to which he is sent is also shown, so that in some way he begins to be
present there: either because in no way was he present before in the
place whereto he is sent, or because he begins to be there in some way
in which he was not there hitherto. Thus the mission of a divine
person is a fitting thing, as meaning in one way the procession of
origin from the sender, and as meaning a new way of existing in
another; thus the Son is said to be sent by the Father into the
world, inasmuch as He began to exist visibly in the world by taking
our nature; whereas "He was" previously "in the world" (Jn.
1:1).
Reply to Objection 1: Mission implies inferiority in the one sent,
when it means procession from the sender as principle, by command or
counsel; forasmuch as the one commanding is the greater, and the
counsellor is the wiser. In God, however, it means only procession
of origin, which is according to equality, as explained above
(Question 42, Articles 4,6).
Reply to Objection 2: What is so sent as to begin to exist where
previously it did not exist, is locally moved by being sent; hence it
is necessarily separated locally from the sender. This, however, has
no place in the mission of a divine person; for the divine person sent
neither begins to exist where he did not previously exist, nor ceases
to exist where He was. Hence such a mission takes place without a
separation, having only distinction of origin.
Reply to Objection 3: This objection rests on the idea of mission
according to local motion, which is not in God.
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