Whether There Is Procession in God?
Objection 1: It would seem that there cannot be any procession in God.
For procession signifies outward movement. But in God there is nothing
mobile, nor anything extraneous. Therefore neither is there procession
in God.
Obj. 2: Further, everything which proceeds differs from that whence
it proceeds. But in God there is no diversity; but supreme
simplicity. Therefore in God there is no procession.
Obj. 3: Further, to proceed from another seems to be against the
nature of the first principle. But God is the first principle, as
shown above (Q. 2, A. 3). Therefore in God there is no procession.
_On the contrary,_ Our Lord says, "From God I proceeded" (John 8:42).
_I answer that,_ Divine Scripture uses, in relation to God, names which
signify procession. This procession has been differently understood.
Some have understood it in the sense of an effect, proceeding from its
cause; so Arius took it, saying that the Son proceeds from the Father
as His primary creature, and that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the
Father and the Son as the creature of both. In this sense neither the
Son nor the Holy Ghost would be true God: and this is contrary to what
is said of the Son, "That . . . we may be in His true Son. This is
true God" (1 John 5:20). Of the Holy Ghost it is also said, "Know you
not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost?" (1 Cor.
6:19). Now, to have a temple is God's prerogative. Others take this
procession to mean the cause proceeding to the effect, as moving it,
or impressing its own likeness on it; in which sense it was understood
by Sabellius, who said that God the Father is called Son in assuming
flesh from the Virgin, and that the Father also is called Holy Ghost
in sanctifying the rational creature, and moving it to life. The words
of the Lord contradict such a meaning, when He speaks of Himself, "The
Son cannot of Himself do anything" (John 5:19); while many other
passages show the same, whereby we know that the Father is not the
Son. Careful examination shows that both of these opinions take
procession as meaning an outward act; hence neither of them affirms
procession as existing in God Himself; whereas, since procession
always supposes action, and as there is an outward procession
corresponding to the act tending to external matter, so there must be
an inward procession corresponding to the act remaining within the
agent. This applies most conspicuously to the intellect, the action of
which remains in the intelligent agent. For whenever we understand, by
the very fact of understanding there proceeds something within us,
which is a conception of the object understood, a conception issuing
from our intellectual power and proceeding from our knowledge of that
object. This conception is signified by the spoken word; and it is
called the word of the heart signified by the word of the voice.
As God is above all things, we should understand what is said of God,
not according to the mode of the lowest creatures, namely bodies, but
from the similitude of the highest creatures, the intellectual
substances; while even the similitudes derived from these fall short
in the representation of divine objects. Procession, therefore, is not
to be understood from what it is in bodies, either according to local
movement or by way of a cause proceeding forth to its exterior effect,
as, for instance, like heat from the agent to the thing made hot.
Rather it is to be understood by way of an intelligible emanation, for
example, of the intelligible word which proceeds from the speaker, yet
remains in him. In that sense the Catholic Faith understands
procession as existing in God.
Reply Obj. 1: This objection comes from the idea of procession in the
sense of local motion, or of an action tending to external matter, or
to an exterior effect; which kind of procession does not exist in
God, as we have explained.
Reply Obj. 2: Whatever proceeds by way of outward procession is
necessarily distinct from the source whence it proceeds, whereas,
whatever proceeds within by an intelligible procession is not
necessarily distinct; indeed, the more perfectly it proceeds, the
more closely it is one with the source whence it proceeds. For it is
clear that the more a thing is understood, the more closely is the
intellectual conception joined and united to the intelligent agent;
since the intellect by the very act of understanding is made one with
the object understood. Thus, as the divine intelligence is the very
supreme perfection of God (Q. 14, A. 2), the divine Word is of
necessity perfectly one with the source whence He proceeds, without
any kind of diversity.
Reply Obj. 3: To proceed from a principle, so as to be something
outside and distinct from that principle, is irreconcilable with the
idea of a first principle; whereas an intimate and uniform procession
by way of an intelligible act is included in the idea of a first
principle. For when we call the builder the principle of the house,
in the idea of such a principle is included that of his art; and it
would be included in the idea of the first principle were the builder
the first principle of the house. God, Who is the first principle of
all things, may be compared to things created as the architect is to
things designed.
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