Whether Any Other Procession Exists in God Besides That of the Word?
Objection 1: It would seem that no other procession exists in God
besides the generation of the Word. Because, for whatever reason we
admit another procession, we should be led to admit yet another, and
so on to infinitude; which cannot be. Therefore we must stop at the
first, and hold that there exists only one procession in God.
Obj. 2: Further, every nature possesses but one mode of
self-communication; because operations derive unity and diversity
from their terms. But procession in God is only by way of
communication of the divine nature. Therefore, as there is only one
divine nature (Q. 11, A. 4), it follows that only one procession
exists in God.
Obj. 3: Further, if any other procession but the intelligible
procession of the Word existed in God, it could only be the
procession of love, which is by the operation of the will. But such a
procession is identified with the intelligible procession of the
intellect, inasmuch as the will in God is the same as His intellect
(Q. 19, A. 1). Therefore in God there is no other procession but the
procession of the Word.
_On the contrary,_ The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father (John
15:26); and He is distinct from the Son, according to the words, "I
will ask My Father, and He will give you another Paraclete" (John
14:16). Therefore in God another procession exists besides the
procession of the Word.
_I answer that,_ There are two processions in God; the procession of the
Word, and another.
In evidence whereof we must observe that procession exists in God,
only according to an action which does not tend to anything external,
but remains in the agent itself. Such an action in an intellectual
nature is that of the intellect, and of the will. The procession of
the Word is by way of an intelligible operation. The operation of the
will within ourselves involves also another procession, that of love,
whereby the object loved is in the lover; as, by the conception of the
word, the object spoken of or understood is in the intelligent agent.
Hence, besides the procession of the Word in God, there exists in Him
another procession called the procession of love.
Reply Obj. 1: There is no need to go on to infinitude in the divine
processions; for the procession which is accomplished within the
agent in an intellectual nature terminates in the procession of the
will.
Reply Obj. 2: All that exists in God, is God (Q. 3, AA. 3, 4);
whereas the same does not apply to others. Therefore the divine
nature is communicated by every procession which is not outward, and
this does not apply to other natures.
Reply Obj. 3: Though will and intellect are not diverse in God,
nevertheless the nature of will and intellect requires the
processions belonging to each of them to exist in a certain order.
For the procession of love occurs in due order as regards the
procession of the Word; since nothing can be loved by the will unless
it is conceived in the intellect. So as there exists a certain order
of the Word to the principle whence He proceeds, although in God the
substance of the intellect and its concept are the same; so, although
in God the will and the intellect are the same, still, inasmuch as
love requires by its very nature that it proceed only from the
concept of the intellect, there is a distinction of order between the
procession of love and the procession of the Word in God.
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