Whether "Gift" Is the Proper Name of the Holy Ghost?
Objection 1: It would seem that Gift is not the proper name of the
Holy Ghost. For the name Gift comes from being given. But, as Isaiah
says (9:16): "A Son is given to us." Therefore to be Gift belongs to
the Son, as well as to the Holy Ghost.
Obj. 2: Further, every proper name of a person signifies a property.
But this word Gift does not signify a property of the Holy Ghost.
Therefore Gift is not a proper name of the Holy Ghost.
Obj. 3: Further, the Holy Ghost can be called the spirit of a man,
whereas He cannot be called the gift of any man, but "God's Gift"
only. Therefore Gift is not the proper name of the Holy Ghost.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Trin. iv, 20): "As 'to be born'
is, for the Son, to be from the Father, so, for the Holy Ghost, 'to be
the Gift of God' is to proceed from Father and Son." But the Holy
Ghost receives His proper name from the fact that He proceeds from
Father and Son. Therefore Gift is the proper name of the Holy Ghost.
_I answer that,_ Gift, taken personally in God, is the proper name of
the Holy Ghost.
In proof of this we must know that a gift is properly an unreturnable
giving, as Aristotle says (Topic. iv, 4)--i.e. a thing which is not
given with the intention of a return--and it thus contains the idea
of a gratuitous donation. Now, the reason of donation being
gratuitous is love; since therefore do we give something to anyone
gratuitously forasmuch as we wish him well. So what we first give him
is the love whereby we wish him well. Hence it is manifest that love
has the nature of a first gift, through which all free gifts are
given. So since the Holy Ghost proceeds as love, as stated above (Q.
27, A. 4; Q. 37, A. 1), He proceeds as the first gift. Hence
Augustine says (De Trin. xv, 24): "By the gift, which is the Holy
Ghost, many particular gifts are portioned out to the members of
Christ."
Reply Obj. 1: As the Son is properly called the Image because He
proceeds by way of a word, whose nature it is to be the similitude of
its principle, although the Holy Ghost also is like to the Father; so
also, because the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father as love, He is
properly called Gift, although the Son, too, is given. For that the
Son is given is from the Father's love, according to the words, "God
so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son" (John 3:16).
Reply Obj. 2: The name Gift involves the idea of belonging to the
Giver through its origin; and thus it imports the property of the
origin of the Holy Ghost--that is, His procession.
Reply Obj. 3: Before a gift is given, it belongs only to the giver;
but when it is given, it is his to whom it is given. Therefore,
because "Gift" does not import the actual giving, it cannot be called
a gift of man, but the Gift of God giving. When, however, it has been
given, then it is the spirit of man, or a gift bestowed on man.
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