The Summa of Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas volume 1
1. Can “Gift” be a personal name?
2. Is it a proper name of the Holy Spirit?
Article 1 — Can “Don” be a personal name?
Objections:
1. Every personal name evokes a distinction in God. But that of gift does not evoke a distinction in God, since, according to St. Augustine, the Holy Spirit, “gift of God, is so given that he gives himself insofar as he is God”. Therefore “the gift” is not a personal name.
2 . No personal name fits the divine essence. Now, according to S. Hilaire, the divine essence is the gift that the Father gives to the Son. “The gift” is therefore not a personal name.
3 . According to S. Damascene, there is neither subject nor servant in the divine Persons. But the qualification of gift evokes a certain dependence both on the one who receives and on the one who gives. “The gift” is therefore not a name for a divine Person.
4 . “The gift” implies a relationship with the creature. It therefore attributes itself to God in time, as it seems. But personal names, such as those of Father and Son, are attributed to God eternally. Therefore, “the gift” is not a personal name.
In the opposite sense , “just as the body of flesh is nothing other than the flesh,” says St. Augustine, “the gift of the Holy Spirit is nothing other than the Holy Spirit.” Now “the Holy Spirit” is indeed a personal name; therefore “the gift” is also a personal noun.
Answer :
We call “gift” what is capable of being given. Now, what we give relates to both the donor and the beneficiary; if someone gives something, it is his; and if he gives it to another, it is so that it henceforth belongs to that other. A divine Person is also said to be “of another”, either because of his origin, for example: “the Son of the Father”, or because he is in the possession of another. . What do you mean ? We possess what we can freely use or enjoy at will; in this sense, a divine Person can only be possessed by the rational creature united to God. Other creatures can well be moved by a divine Person: this does not confer on them the power to enjoy this divine Person, nor to use its effect. But the reasonable creature sometimes obtains this privilege, when it begins to participate in the divine Word and the Love which proceeds, to the point of being able to freely know God in truth and love him perfectly. Therefore only the rational creature can possess a divine person. As for achieving this possession, it cannot achieve it by its own strength: it must be given to it from above, since, what we hold elsewhere, we say that it is given to us. This is how it becomes a divine Person to be given, and to be a Gift.
Solutions:
1. To the extent that, in the expression “Gift from such and such”, the complement refers us to the origin, the term gift clearly evokes a personal distinction. This does not prevent the Holy Spirit from giving himself, since he belongs to himself and can use or better, enjoy himself. Does not S. Augustine say: “What is there that is as yours as you? ” But we can say differently and better: the gift must belong to the donor in some capacity; and this relationship of belonging: being to someone, or of someone, can be verified in several ways. First by identity, as in the passage just cited from St. Augustine: then the gift is not distinguished from the donor, but only from the one to whom it is given. In this sense, it is said that the Holy Spirit gives himself. A thing can also be called “someone’s” thing, such as one’s property or one’s slave; then the gift is essentially distinguished from the donor. In this sense, the “gift of God” is something created. Finally we say: this is the thing “of so-and-so”, based solely on its origin; thus we say: the Son of the Father, the Holy Spirit of both. If it is in this sense that we relate the gift to the donor in the expression Gift of God, the Gift is then distinguished personally from the Donor, and Don is a personal name.
2 .The gift must belong to the donor in some capacity; among these possible titles are identity and origin. Now it is in the first of these titles that the essence is qualified as a gift from the Father in the first of the senses above; in other words, the essence is “of the Father” by identity.
3. As a personal name in God, Don does not imply any dependence: it says pure relationship of origin to the donor. But in relation to the one to whom the donation is made, it evokes free use or enjoyment.
4. We speak of a gift without there being an actual donation, insofar as the thing is capable of being given. The divine person is therefore eternally called Gift, although it is given in time. Moreover, the fact that this name implies a relationship with the creature is not enough to make it an essential attribute; this simply supposes that something essential is included in its notion, as essence is included in the notion of person, as we saw above.
Article 2 — Is “Gift” a proper name of the Holy Spirit?
Objections:
1. What is given is called gift. Now, according to Isaiah (9:6), “the Son has been given to us.” So this name “Gift” suits both the Son and the Holy Spirit.
2. Any proper name of a person means one of his properties. But this name Gift does not signify any property of the Holy Spirit. It is therefore not a proper name of this Person.
3 . We have seen it: of the Holy Spirit, we can say that he is “the Spirit of such a man”. But we cannot say that it is the Gift of such a man, but only the Gift of God. It is therefore that the appellation of Don is not a proper name of the Holy Spirit.
In the opposite sense , S. Augustine said: “For the Son, to be born is to have his being from the Father; in the same way for the Holy Spirit, to be the Gift of God is to proceed from the Father and the Son. ” But if proceeding from the Father and the Son gives a name to the Holy Spirit, it will be his proper name. From then on, Gift is the proper name of the Holy Spirit.
Answer:
Taken in the personal sense in God, “the Gift” is a proper name of the Holy Spirit. We will realize this by the following consideration. According to the Philosopher, there is a gift in the literal sense when there is a donation without return, that is to say when one gives without expecting retribution; “donation” thus implies a free donation. Now, the reason for a free donation is love; why do we give something to someone for free? Because we want him well. The first gift that we grant him is therefore love, which makes us wish him well. We therefore see that love constitutes the first gift, by virtue of which all free gifts are given.
Also, since the Holy Spirit proceeds as Love, as we have already said, he proceeds as the first Gift. This is what St. Augustine says: “By the Gift, which is the Holy Spirit, a multitude of gifts are distributed to the members of Christ. ”
Solutions:
1 . Because the Son proceeds as Word, therefore, by definition, in the likeness of his principle, the name Image is proper to the Son, although the Holy Spirit, too, is similar to the Father. Likewise, because the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as Love, the name Gift is proper to the Holy Spirit, although the Son also is given. Because the very fact that the Son is given to us comes from the Love of the Father: “God,” says St. John (3:13), “so loved the world that he gave it his only Son. ”
2 . The name Don says relation to the donor as origin. By this he includes the original property of the Holy Spirit, that is, procession.
3 . Before a gift is given, it belongs only to the giver; but after it has been given, it belongs to whom it was given. The quality of Don therefore does not necessarily imply his current giving; and under these conditions, it cannot be called the Gift of man, but only the Gift of God, that is to say of the giver. When it has been given, then it is the Spirit or Gift “of man.”
We have so far dealt with the divine Persons considered in themselves. It remains for us to compare them to essence (Q.39), properties (Q.40) and notional acts (Q.41); then to compare them with each other (Q. 42).