and catechism and certainly in dictionaries we have other things to discuss. With regard to the first point, the doctrine itself, we should note that the difference is not so great as is commonly supposed and that the whole question at issue is not so entirely arbitrary, the opposed assertions are not really such wanton statements about the unknowable as the non-theologian would think. It will be as well to begin by explaining what the "procession of the Holy Ghost" means. God the Father is the source of the Divine nature. The other Divine Persons receive this same nature from him. God the Son receives it by generation: he is born of the Father before all ages. Therefore he is always called the Son and he is distinguished from God the Father by this relationship of birth or generation, Filiatio. The Holy Ghost receives the same Divine nature from the Father (and also from the Son as Catholics believe) but not by generation: otherwise he, too, would be a Son of God. The Divine nature is communicated to him by another relation, to which we know nothing analogous, and for which we therefore have no proper name. For this relation the words Spiratio or Procession (Processio, ἐκπόρευσις) are used; and we say that whereas the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is born, the Third Person proceeds (procedit, ἐκπορεύεται) — at any rate from the Father. God the Son proceeds from the Father too, but for his procession we have and use the special name generation.[1] The theological difference then (apart from the other question of tampering with the Creed) is whether the Holy Ghost proceeds
- ↑ The schoolmen explain this difference by saying that God the Son proceeds from the Father by the Intellect, he is the Word (idea) of God, and they establish that to proceed in this way, if the Word is a person, exactly satisfies the conditions of birth. A Word that is a person is also necessarily the son of the person who produces it. On the other hand, the Holy Ghost proceeds by the will as the act of love. This procession does not establish the relationship of a son, so the Holy Ghost is not the Son of God. As our will does not produce an act of love really distinct from the operation, we have no way of expressing this relation, and so we must fall back on the general words "proceeds" and "procession." Our understanding, on the other hand, does produce an idea or word (verbum mentale) that is really distinct from the operation, so that we have a much closer analogy for the generation of God the Son than for the procession of the Holy Ghost. See St. Thomas, Summa theol. i, qu. xxvii., art. 2, pp. 3, 4; and Billot: de Deo uno et trino, qu. 27, theses 1, 2, 3, pp. 338-368.
