Jesus speaks of the Father sending us the Spirit and giving us the Spirit. How can the Spirit be

sent if the Spirit is with us already? If we give something to someone, that person possesses what

we give. Can we “possess” the Spirit?

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, we come or are sent when we go where we have not been or

when we come in a new way.

Thomas first explains how God is already with us, “God is in everything by His essence, power

and presence.”

God’s essence is what He is. Because God is what He is, we exist. We wouldn’t be unless God

could bring us into existence.

God’s power maintains us in being. The ramifications are far-reaching. Our basic mistake, as

humans, is to think that we exist on our own and can leave God on the periphery. Over and over

again, through the history of God’s People and in our own experiences, we repeat this mistake.

God is present to each thing by His “presence.” Thomas insists that God is present with each

thing that He has created. This principle is very important because it means that God is never far

from us or from anything.

People who see God’s presence in nature appreciate this aspect; God is with every tree, every

flower, every rock, every living thing, every river. But, God is even more present with rational

creatures because, as Thomas states, “other creatures can be acted upon by a divine Person, but

not in such a way that they have it in their power to be united in love to the divine Person” (1a.

43, 3).

We have the capacity to respond to God, “as the known in the knower and the loved in the

lover.” When we know someone or something, that person or thing is with us. When we love

someone or something, that person is with us. According to Thomas, God dwells in the rational

being “as in his temple.” In other words, we are His home.

A Divine Person comes to us in a new way: “An invisible mission does take place in connection

with growth in virtue or an increase of grace…” (1a. 43, 6, ad 2).

The coming of the divine Persons to us is not a change in Them: “A divine person is present in a

new way in anyone or is possessed in time by anyone is not a change in the divine Person, but in

the creature…” (1a. 43, 2, ad 2).

In a sense, we “possess” the Divine Person, as Thomas says “it is in our power to use and enjoy

it at will.” Of course, we cannot manipulate a Divine Person, but we can relate freely to the

Divine Persons and as Thomas says, we can “rest joyfully in a divine Person.”

Of course, this is by grace, that is, God’s free gift enables us to “possess” Him and to “rest

joyfully” in Him.

Thomas insists that this gift of grace is not an occasional experience but that it is “habitually”

ours and lost by our choices.

God’s grace is not the extent to which we experience God. His grace enables us to experience

His actual presence, “as grace is given the Holy Spirit Himself is possessed and dwells in a

person and so it is He Himself who is given and sent” (1a. 43, 3).

God’s grace enables us to have a “loving union with the divine Person.” A person who opens

him or herself to God’s presence, may, by the free gift of God’s grace, “becomes a sharer in the

divine Word and in the divine Love proceeding, so that he has at his disposal a power to know

God and to love Him rightly” (1a. 43, 3).

The “Divine Word” is, of course the Son, whose unique role in the Trinity is enlightenment

while the “Divine Love proceeding” is the Spirit, whole unique role is the impulse of love.

Thomas affirms: “We cannot, however, come to this by our own resources; it must be given to us

from above” (1a. 43, 3).

While the roles of the Son and the Spirit are distinct, “One person cannot be present without the

other” (1a. 43, 5, ad 3).The one accompanies the other:

The Son in turn is the Word; not just any word, but the Word breathing Love; 1 as

Augustine says, “The Word I want the meaning understood is a knowledge accompanied

by love.” 2 Consequently not just any enhancing of the mind indicates the Son being sent,

but only that sort of enlightenment that bursts forth into love…So Augustine says

pointedly, ‘The Son is being sent whenever someone has knowledge or perception of

Him,’ for perception points to a kind of experiential awareness…(1a. 43, 5, ad 2).

The Son comes to us not with every insight but when our insights are accompanied by the

impulse of love.

Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.