Whether One Person Without Another Can Assume a Created Nature?
Objection 1: It would seem that one Person cannot assume a created
nature without another assuming it. For "the works of the Trinity are
inseparable," as Augustine says (Enchiridion xxxviii). But as the
three Persons have one essence, so likewise They have one operation.
Now to assume is an operation. Therefore it cannot belong to one
without belonging to another.
Obj. 2: Further, as we say the Person of the Son became incarnate, so
also did the Nature; for "the whole Divine Nature became incarnate in
one of Its hypostases," as Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii, 6). But
the Nature is common to the three Persons. Therefore the assumption
is.
Obj. 3: Further, as the human nature in Christ is assumed by God, so
likewise are men assumed by Him through grace, according to Rom.
14:3: "God hath taken him to Him." But this assumption pertains to
all the Persons; therefore the first also.
_On the contrary,_ Dionysius says (Div. Nom. ii) that the mystery of
the Incarnation pertains to "discrete theology," i.e. according to
which something "distinct" is said of the Divine Persons.
_I answer that,_ As was said above (A. 1), assumption implies two
things, viz. the act of assuming and the term of assumption. Now the
act of assumption proceeds from the Divine power, which is common to
the three Persons, but the term of the assumption is a Person, as
stated above (A. 2). Hence what has to do with action in the
assumption is common to the three Persons; but what pertains to the
nature of term belongs to one Person in such a manner as not to
belong to another; for the three Persons caused the human nature to
be united to the one Person of the Son.
Reply Obj. 1: This reason regards the operation, and the conclusion
would follow if it implied this operation only, without the term,
which is a Person.
Reply Obj. 2: The Nature is said to be incarnate, and to assume by
reason of the Person in Whom the union is terminated, as stated above
(AA. 1, 2), and not as it is common to the three Persons. Now "the
whole Divine Nature is" said to be "incarnate"; not that It is
incarnate in all the Persons, but inasmuch as nothing is wanting to
the perfection of the Divine Nature of the Person incarnate, as
Damascene explains there.
Reply Obj. 3: The assumption which takes place by the grace of
adoption is terminated in a certain participation of the Divine
Nature, by an assimilation to Its goodness, according to 2 Pet. 1:4:
"That you may be made partakers of the Divine Nature"; and hence this
assumption is common to the three Persons, in regard to the principle
and the term. But the assumption which is by the grace of union is
common on the part of the principle, but not on the part of the term,
as was said above.
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