Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Sendung (missio) - ihre gegenseitige Ordnung; Taufe

Kurzinhalt: QUESTION 28 - Are the divine missions ordered to each other? ... From all this, we gain some understanding of the order of the divine missions; for the Son was sent so that the Father might be able to love us as he loves his own Son, ...

Textausschnitt: QUESTION 28 - Are the divine missions ordered to each other?

479c Our answer is that the divine missions are indeed constituted by the relations of origin themselves of the divine persons, but that they entail an appropriate external term as a consequent condition. Now there is an order in the divine missions as regards both constitution and consequent terms. (Fs)
479d As regards constitution, then, since in God there is an order of nature or origin,1 there is no procession of love except in an order to the procession of the Word.2 Hence also, the Son is not any kind of Word, but the Word breathing forth or spirating Love.3 Therefore, since the missions are constituted by the divine processions and relations, it is clear that as to their constitution the missions have an order to each other. (Fs)

481a That there is an order as regards their terms is clear from the fact that 'God sent his Son ... so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying, "Abba, Father!"'4 From these words it seems we must understand that the mission of the Son is to make us children of God by adoption; and that the mission of the Holy Spirit is in accord with this adoption. But precisely what this connection is needs further consideration. (Fs)

481b Now, as we have said above, the Holy Spirit is sent as a special and notional divine love. The special divine love is that according to which the just are loved as ordered to the divine good. But since God does everything in accord with the order of his justice,5 this special love itself supposes a special reason.6 And this special reason cannot be other than God's own Son, who is both mediator and redeemer. (Fs)

481c The Son is mediator because as a divine person he has a human nature.7 This means that God the Father, as he loves the divine Son and gives to him by the Holy Spirit, so he loves the Son as man and gives to him by the Holy Spirit. This is revealed to us in the baptismal epiphany. For as the Father was saying, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased,' the Son coming up out of the water 'saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.'8 Here at the same time the love of the Father, which is the Holy Spirit himself, is affirmed and is manifested as the Holy Spirit himself coming and alighting on Jesus. (Fs)

481d In like manner, Christ's baptism is the exemplar of our baptism. For on account of the redemptive work of the mediator, God the Father also loves the just as he loves his own Son; as it is said, 'You have loved them even as you have loved me.'9 So then, if the Father loves us as he loves his own Son, the Father loves us as though we were his children; and our adoption as children of God is surely a consequence of this love. Again, if the Father loves us as he loves his own Son, he surely loves us and gives to us by the Holy Spirit. From all this, we gain some understanding of the order of the divine missions; for the Son was sent so that the Father might be able to love us as he loves his own Son, and the Spirit is sent because the Father does love us as he loves his own Son. Indeed, this love, which is, as it were, proper to the divine persons, is what implies and grounds the absolutely supernatural order.10 (Fs)