By Henry Aloysius Barry
The same saint makes the observation elsewhere that "The Holy Ghost is not extraneous to the Father and Son but of the same substance, of the same divinity, of the Father and Son, always consubstantial with the Father and the Son." (Haer. lxxii, Num. 4.) St. Gregory Nyssen, commenting upon the order of Persons in the Blessed Trinity, remarks that the divine Persons differ only in origin, principle or cause: —"We must say as much of the Holy Ghost," says the saint, "Who differs only in order. For as the Son is coupled with the Father and though He has His being of the Father, yet, for all that, has existed as long as the Father, likewise also the Holy Ghost proximately belongs to the Son, Who in thought only, that is to say as a matter of principle,— origin—is viewed as in production prior to the Spirit, because intervals of time do not figure in the life that antecedes the ages, hence, if you remove the point of principle—the matter of cause or origin— there is really no difference in the Blessed Trinity one from another." (lib. 1. contra Eunom.) The Holy Ghost, therefore, differs from the Father and the Son only in the order of relationship, of origin and procession. There is no 'before' nor 'after' in the Trinity except in the sense of One Having his origin of Another. The Son is linked to the Father so that although He has His being of the Father, He has not His existence after the Father; He simply proceeds from the Father. So, also, is the Holy Ghost linked to the Son but is after Him only in the sense that He proceedeth from Him.
Our next sainted witness is St. Cyril of Alexandria, whose words run thus, "We are obliged to confess that the Spirit is of the substance of the Son. For inasmuch as He (the Holy Ghost) has His natural existence of the Son and is sent by Him unto creatures, He works out the renewal, effects the rounding off (complementum,) of the Blessed Trinity. Now if this is so the Holy Ghost is therefore God of God and not a creature." (lib. 34, Theo.) Here the saint clearly distinguishes between the mission of the Holy Ghost and His very existence. He says that the Holy Ghost has His very existence naturally of the Son. This cuts the ground from under the so-called Greeks. He here over proceeds to demonstrate the thing. He proves that the Holy Ghost is God and of God, because He has His existence of the Son, for, He makes no mention of the Father. This existence and procession must be such that through it and by virtue of it He should have all that would so to speak, make Him God, which means that He should receive the nature of God and have divinity communicated by Him, of Whom He holds existence. The Holy Ghost must certainly, therefore, have His origin of the Son. On the side of Greek quibbling there is no possible way of evading the force of this convincing testimony. (Petavius, p. 279.) Our Lord says: "But when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will teach you all truth, for, He shall not speak of Himself but what things soever He shall hear, He shall speak, and the things that are to come He shall show you." (St. John, xvi, 13 and fol.) When the word 'receive' has a divine connection, it means procession. The Son has, according to Our Lord's own declaration, everything that the Father has—except of course the paternal relation. Now the Father has the power of "Spiration," as being distinct from paternity, and, hence, the Son has it. The future tense refers to the mission of the Holy Ghost which is the manifestation of His procession. At the time Our Lord spoke the words, "shall receive," this mission was yet to be. Thus procession is the authentic interpretation of the Lord's Words, 'He shall receive of Mine'. A proof of this is found for example in St. Athanasius, —"The Spirit proceeds from Me, (the Son). I say from Me, but, I mean also from the Father. What is Mine is the Father's. In this light we are to view the words, "He shall receive of Mine." (Or. iii, Cont. Arian. n. 24.)
