Pt2
St. John's testimony is yet more explicit than that of the Synoptists. He expressly asserts that the very purpose of his Gospel is to establish the Divinity of
Jesus Christ (
John 20:31). In the prologue he identifies Him with the Word, the only-begotten of the Father, Who from all eternity exists with
God, Who is
God (
John 1:1-18). The immanence of the Son in the Father and of the Father in the Son is declared in
Christ's words to St. Philip: "Do you not believe, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?" (
14:10), and in other passages no less explicit (
14:7;
16:15;
17:21). The oneness of Their power and Their action is affirmed: "Whatever he [the Father] does, the Son also does in like manner" (
5:19, cf.
10:38); and to the Son no less than to the Father belongs the Divine attribute of conferring life on whom He will (
5:21). In
10:29, Christ expressly teaches His unity of essence with the Father: "That which my Father hath given me, is greater than all . . . I and the Father are one." The words, "That which my Father hath given me," can, having regard to the context, have no other meaning than the Divine Name, possessed in its fullness by the Son as by the Father.
Rationalist critics lay great stress upon the text: "The Father is greater than I" (
14:28). They argue that this suffices to establish that the author of the Gospel held subordinationist views, and they expound in this sense certain texts in which the Son declares His dependence on the Father (
5:19;
8:28). In point of fact the doctrine of the
Incarnation involves that, in regard of His Human Nature, the Son should be less than the Father. No argument against Catholic doctrine can, therefore, be drawn from this text. So too, the passages referring to the dependence of the Son upon the Father do but express what is essential to Trinitarian dogma, namely, that the Father is the supreme source from Whom the Divine Nature and perfections flow to the Son. (On the essential difference between St. John's doctrine as to the Person of Christ and the Logos doctrine of the Alexandrine Philo, to which many Rationalists have attempted to trace it, see
L[SIZE=-2]OGOS[/SIZE].)
In regard to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the passages which can be cited from the Synoptists as attesting His distinct personality are few. The words of
Gabriel (
Luke 1:35), having regard to the use of the term, "the Spirit," in the Old Testament, to signify
God as operative in His creatures, can hardly be said to contain a definite revelation of the doctrine. For the same reason it is dubious whether
Christ's warning to the Pharisees as regards blasphemy against the
Holy Spirit (
Matthew 12:31) can be brought forward as proof. But in
Luke 12:12, "The Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you must say" (
Matthew 10:20, and
Luke 24:49), His personality is clearly implied. These passages, taken in connection with
Matthew 28:19, postulate the existence of such teaching as we find in the discourses in the Cenacle reported by St. John (
14,
15,
16). We have in these chapters the necessary preparation for the baptismal commission. In them the Apostles are instructed not only as the personality of the Spirit, but as to His office towards the Church. His work is to teach whatsoever He shall hear (
16:13) to bring back their minds the teaching of Christ (
14:26), to convince the world of sin (
16:8). It is evident that, were the Spirit not a Person, Christ could not have spoken of His presence with the Apostles as comparable to His own presence with them (
14:16). Again, were He not a Divine Person it could not have been expedient for the Apostles that Christ should leave them, and the Paraclete take His place (
16:7). Moreover, notwithstanding the neuter form of the word (
pneuma), the pronoun used in His regard is the masculine
ekeinos. The distinction of the
Holy Spirit from the Father and from the Son is involved in the express statements that He proceeds from the Father and is sent by the Son (
15:26; cf.
14:16,
14:26). Nevertheless, He is one with Them: His presence with the Disciples is at the same time the presence of the Son (
14:17-18), while the presence of the Son is the presence of the Father (
14:23).
In the remaining New Testament writings numerous passages attest how clear and definite was the belief of the Apostolic Church in the three Divine Persons. In certain texts the coordination of Father, Son, and Spirit leaves no possible doubt as to the meaning of the writer. Thus in II Corinthians 13:13, St. Paul writes: "The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the charity of
God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost be with you all." Here the construction shows that the Apostle is speaking of three distinct Persons. Moreover, since the names
God and
Holy Ghost are alike Divine names, it follows that
Jesus Christ is also regarded as a Divine Person. So also, in I Corinthians 12:4-11: "There are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord: and there are diversities of operations, but the same
God, who worketh all [of them] in all [persons]." (Cf. also
Ephesians 4:4-6;
1 Peter 1:2-3)
