[Russia and the Universal Church] [Previous] [Next]
God possesses positive and complete existence. He is the living God. Life means reproduction. Reproduction or generation is supreme causality, the proper action of a complete and living being. In this perfect causality, the productive cause must, in the first place, contain in itself its product or effect, for otherwise it could only be an occasional cause, and not the true cause of the product. This first phase of absolute life, in which the living effect seems absorbed in the unity of the primordial cause, is only a necessary supposition of the second, that of actual production, in which that which produces distinguishes itself in act (actu) from its product, and effectively engenders the latter. But we have already established the fact that since absolute Being can of necessity have no other secondary cause associated with it and limiting its productive action, its immediate product must be strictly adequate to it. Thus, the eternal process of the divine life cannot stop at the second term, the differentiation or reduplication of absolute Being as producer and produced. Their equality and their substantial identity mean that the manifestation of their actual and relative difference (in the act of generation) must inevitably issue in a new manifestation of their unity. And this unity is no mere repetition of that primordial unity in which the absolute cause includes and absorbs its effect in itself. Since the latter, as actually manifested, appears as the equal of that which produced it, they must of necessity enter into a reciprocal relationship. As this reciprocity is not to be found in the act of generation (in which the generator is not in turn generated, and vice versa) it necessarily demands a new act determined at one and the same time by the first cause and by its consubstantial product. And since it concerns a relationship which is essential to the Divine Being, this new act cannot be an accident or a transient state, but is eternally substantive or hypostatic in a third subject proceeding from the two first and representing their actual, living unity in the same absolute substance.
After this explanation, it will be easily seen that the names, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, given to the three hypostases of absolute Being, far from being metaphorical, find in the Divine Trinity their proper and complete application, whereas in the natural order these terms can only be used in an imperfect and approximate sense. And first, as regards the two former terms, when we speak of “father” and “son” we mean to convey no other idea but that of an absolutely intimate relationship between two hypostases of one and the same nature, which are essentially equal to one another, but of which the former gives, without receiving, existence, while the latter receives, without giving, it. The father, qua father, is distinct from the son only by having produced him, while the son, qua son, is distinct from the father only by being produced by him.
This is all that is contained in the idea of paternity as such. But it is clear that this determinate idea, so clear and distinct, cannot be applied in its purity and entirety to any class of created beings that we know: not in its entirety, for in the natural order the father is only a partial cause of the existence of the son, and the son derives his existence only partly from the father; not in its purity, because besides the specific distinction of having given and received existence, there are between fathers and sons in the natural order countless individual differences, quite foreign to the mere idea of paternity and filiation. To discover the true application of this idea we must rise to the level of absolute Being. There we have seen the relation of paternity and filiation in its purity, for the Father is the sole and unique cause of the Son; in its entirety, for the Father gives all existence to the Son, and the Son has in Himself nothing but what He receives from the Father. There is between them an absolute distinction as regards the act of existence, and an absolute unity in all the rest. Being two, they can unite in an actual relationship and in common produce a new manifestation of absolute substance; but since this substance belongs to them in common and without division, the product of their reciprocal action can only be the explicit affirmation of their unity emerging from and overcoming their actual difference. And as this synthetic unity of the Father and the Son, manifested as such, cannot be represented either by the Father as such or by the Son as such, it must necessarily be substantiated in a third hypostasis to which the name of “Spirit” is entirely applicable from two points of view. First, it is in this third hypostasis that the Divine Being, by its inner reduplication in the act of generation, achieves the manifestation of its absolute unity, returns upon itself, affirms itself as really infinite, possesses itself and enjoys itself in the fullness of its consciousness. Now, this is the specific characteristic of the spirit (in its interior, metaphysical and psychological sense) in so far as it is distinguished from the soul, the intelligence, and so forth. Again, since the Godhead attains its interior completion in its third hypostasis, it is particularly in the latter that God possesses the liberty to act outside Himself and to set in motion an external medium. But it is precisely this perfect liberty of action or movement that characterizes the spirit in the external or physical sense of the word, πνευµα, spiritus, that is to say, breath or respiration. Since neither this perfect self-possession nor this absolute liberty of external action can be found in any created being, it may reasonably be asserted that no being of the natural order is spirit in the full sense of the word, and that the only spirit properly so-called is that of God, the Holy Spirit.
While it is essential to admit three hypostatized modes in the inner development of the Divine life, it is impossible to admit more. In taking as our starting-point the fullness of existence which necessarily belongs to God, we are obliged to add that it is not enough for God to exist simply in Himself, but that He must manifest this existence for Himself, and that even that is not enough unless He can enjoy His existence, thus manifested, in affirming the dominance of His absolute identity and unchangeable unity over the very act of His inner reduplication. But granted this last affirmation, this perfect enjoyment of His absolute being, the immanent development of the Divine life is completed. To possess His existence as pure act in Himself, to manifest it for Himself in absolute actuality, and to have the perfect enjoyment of it — this is all that God can do, without going outside His inner being; if He does anything else, it is no longer in the sphere of his immanent life, but outside it, in a subject which is not God.
Before passing to this new subject, let us note that the trinitarian development of the Divine life, eternally substantiated in the three hypostases, far from modifying the unity of absolute Being, or the supreme Monarchia, is simply its full expression, and that for two essential reasons. The divine Monarchia is expressed in the first place by the indivisible unity and indissoluble bond between the three hypostases which have no existence at all in a separate state. It is not only that the Father never is without the Son and the Spirit, just as the Son never is without the Father and the Spirit, nor the Last without the Two Former, but it must also be admitted that the Father is not the Father or first principle, except in so far as He begets the Son and is with Him the cause of the procession of the Holy Spirit. The Father is only a distinct hypostasis, and that the first, with and for the whole Trinity. He could not be the absolute cause if He did not have in the Son His absolute effect, and find in the Spirit the reciprocal and synthetic unity of cause and effect.
It is the same, mutatis mutandis, with the two other hypostases. On the other hand, in spite of this mutual dependence, or rather by reason of it, each of the three hypostases possesses the absolute fullness of the divine being. The Father is never limited to existence in Himself or to absolute and primordial reality (actus purus); He translates this reality into action, He acts and He enjoys, but He never does so alone — He acts always through the Son, and He enjoys always with the Son in the Spirit. The Son on His part is not only absolute action or manifestation; He also has being in Himself and enjoyment of this being, but He has them only in His perfect unity with the two other hypostases: He has both the self-subsistence of the Father, and the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit. Lastly, the Latter, as the absolute unity of the Two Former, is necessarily what They are, and possesses in act (actu) all that They have, but with Them and through Them.
Thus, each of the three hypostases has absolute being, and has it completely: in reality, in action and in enjoyment. Each is therefore true God. But as this absolute fullness of the divine being belongs to each only in union with the other two and in virtue of the indissoluble bond which unites them, it follows that there are not three Gods. For the hypostases must be isolated in order to be counted; but none of them, isolated from the others, can be true God, since it cannot even be in such a condition. It is permissible to represent the Holy Trinity as three separate Beings since no other representation is possible. But the impotence of the imagination is no argument against the truth of the rational idea, which is clearly and distinctly recognized by pure thought. In truth, there is only one indivisible God, realizing Himself eternally in the three hypostatic phases of absolute existence; and each one of these phases, constantly finding itself internally completed by the two others, contains and represents the entire Godhead, is true God through unity and in unity, not through exclusion or in separation.
This effectual unity of the three hypostases derives from the unity of their principle; and this is the second reason for the divine Monarchia, or rather a second aspect of it. There is in the Trinity only one first cause, the Father, and thence arises a determinate order which makes the Son ontologically dependent upon the Father, and the Holy Spirit upon the Father and the Son. This order is based upon the trinitary relationship itself. For it is clear that action implies reality, and enjoyment implies both.
No comments:
Post a Comment