Divine Missions

DIVINE MISSIONS. - The mission (from the Latin mittere = to send) consists of two essential elements: the sending of one person by another and a determined task to be carried out in a place.

I. HOLY SCRIPTURE

In the Gospel of St. John, Jesus frequently recalls his sending by the Father. The two elements of mission emerge from these words: "God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through him" (Jn 3:17). At the Last Supper he promises his disciples the sending of another Comforter who will compensate them for his departure: "The Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I tell you" (ibid. 14:26; cf. also 15:26). It is clear that Jesus speaks of two missions of divine Persons: his own, inasmuch as he was sent by the Father into the world to save it; and that of the Holy Spirit, who will be sent by the Father and by himself, to instruct (and at the same time sanctify and strengthen [Acts 1:8]) his disciples.

Jesus' promise concerning the sending of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled in two ways: visibly and with particular solemnity at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4), and invisibly in all the baptized, who are called by St. Paul "God's temple" (1 Cor 3:16) or "temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own" (ibid. 6:19). These and similar fundamental texts guided the investigation of the Fathers and the theologians.

II. PATRISTIC TRADITION

Generally the writers of the patristic age speak concretely of the individual missions and determine the characteristics of each, but they do not deal with the abstract concept. For this reason one must go as far as St. Augustine, who in the De Trinitate devoted several chapters to it (bk. II, ch. 5; bk. IV, chs. 19-20; PL 42, 848, 905); indeed, precisely by determining the concept of mission he refuted the Arians, who denied the equality between the sender and the one sent. Furthermore, by broadening with a sound theological observation the meaning of the term "mission," he taught that in a certain sense it can be said that the Son was sent not only by the Father, but by the whole Trinity, inasmuch as all three divine Persons commonly brought about the Incarnation (bk. II, ch. 5). In a stricter sense, however, and this is the one used predominantly in Sacred Scripture, only the Father sent the Son, and only the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit, because mission taken in this sense implies a relation of origin of the one sent from the sender: "Sicut ergo Pater genuit, Filius genitus est; ita Pater misit, Filius missus est" (bk. IV, ch. 20, n. 29). Therefore the holy Doctor, from the fact that not only the Father but also the Son sends the Holy Spirit, concluded that the Holy Spirit proceeds also from the Son (ibid., n. 29); an argument that Latin theologians frequently used against the dissident Greeks, and of which, moreover, notable affirmations are also found among the Greek Fathers who distinguished themselves most in the anti-Arian controversy. Also from St. Augustine comes a famous formula, with which later theologians were extensively occupied: "Sicut natum esse est Filio a Patre esse, ita mitti est Filio cognosci quod ab illo sit. Et sicut Spiritui Sancto donum Dei esse est a Patre procedere, ita mitti est cognosci quia ab illo procedat" (ibid.).

The whole of antiquity dealt extensively with the visible mission of the Word, but also on this point the thought of the Fathers developed around the very mystery of the Incarnation (v.), considered in itself, in its nature and in its causes. The visible mission of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was the object of extensive exegetical commentaries.

Other visible missions of the third Person were also recognized in the Sacred Books: under the figure of a dove at the Baptism of Jesus, and in the Lord's breathing upon the Apostles, when he gave them the power to forgive sins (cf. De Trin., bk. IV, chs. 20-21, n. 29-31). St. Augustine points out that while in the visible mission of the Word in the Incarnation the second Person hypostatically assumed human nature and became man, in the visible missions of the Holy Spirit created things were used only as signs (bk. II, ch. 6, n. 11; col. 851). The invisible mission was considered predominantly in relation to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in souls, as had already been done by apostolic preaching (v. INABITAZIONE DI DIO NELL'UOMO). But it was not neglected to point out that the Father and the Son also dwell in the soul in Grace, and even to the indwelling of the Son the character of an invisible mission was recognized (St. Augustine, ibid., bk. IV, ch. 20, n. 27 ff.; col. 907).

III. THEOLOGICAL ELABORATION

St. Augustine not only summarized the thought of the earlier and contemporary patristic tradition on the subject, but deepened it. His teachings were repeated, for example, by Peter Lombard (I Sent., dd. 15-17) without notable additions, except perhaps for the well-known opinion that the Holy Spirit indwelling in the just is identified with charity, with which the faithful love God and neighbor; an opinion which, despite the prestige of the Lombard, is commonly rejected by theologians. But the great scholastics, starting from the data acquired, successfully carried out a notable work of precisification and synthesis. Their doctrine was summarized by St. Thomas Aquinas (Sum. Theol., 1a, q. 43) in the following points: a) the analysis of the concept of mission is polarized in the study of the relations of the one sent to the principle and to the term of the mission. Regarding the principle, it is noted that a divine Person cannot be sent by another or by others through a command or a counsel, which would imply a difference of authority or of wisdom, but only through the relation of origin (a. 1, ad 1). On the other hand, the term must be determined by a created effect, which however cannot imply a new presence of the divine Person where it was not before, because God, One and Triune, is present everywhere, but only a new title of presence where it was already before (ibid.). Consequently, there is no divine mission unless these two elements coexist: the eternal origin of a divine Person and a temporal effect, by which that Person may be said to be present in a new way in created things; b) the mission therefore takes place in time and is free, although one of its elements is eternal and necessary (ibid., a. 2); c) on the basis of the first element, the Father cannot be said to be sent, although he "comes" together with the other divine Persons into the just soul (a. 4); only the Father can send the Son, and only the Father and the Son can send the Holy Spirit; d) but on the basis of the second element it must be said that the whole Trinity concurs actively in every mission, because the whole Trinity is the single efficient cause of the created effect according to which the mission takes place (a. 8); e) although all three divine Persons are the single efficient principle of the created effect, nevertheless this effect can have as its term a modality to which one Person rather than another is referred. It is by this relation to the term that one can speak of the mission of a determined Person (a. 7 ad 3; more fully I Sent., d. 30, q. 1, a. 2); f) the second element can be sensible or not; therefore the mission is distinguished into visible and invisible (a. 7); g) the visible mission was realized in a different way for the Son and for the Holy Spirit: in the Incarnation a created nature was assumed hypostatically by the Word, which therefore subsists and operates in it; instead, in its visible missions the Holy Spirit did not hypostatically assume the created things in which it manifested itself, but used them only as signs (a. 7). St. Thomas, among the visible missions of the Holy Spirit, also counted the "luminous cloud" that enveloped Jesus in the Transfiguration (a. 7, ad 6). The invisible mission of the Son and of the Holy Spirit has as its common foundation sanctifying grace (a. 3; a. 5, ad 3); but since the individual supernatural gifts of wisdom and of charity, infused with grace, have a certain relation of likeness to the personal property of the Word and of the Holy Spirit, according to them the mission of the one or the other Person is considered ("attenditur") respectively (a. 5 ad 1, 2, 3); h) while the visible missions, at least the ascertained ones, took place only in the New Testament, the invisible mission also occurred in the just of the Old Testament (a. 6, ad 1). It also occurs in every increase of grace, especially when this has a particular character (ibid., ad 2). In the blessed there is an invisible mission at the beginning of beatitude; afterward there is rather an extension of it, when new mysteries are revealed to them. In the soul of Christ the invisible mission occurred only in the first instant of the Incarnation (ibid., ad 3).

This, in summary, is the teaching on which the great scholastics are substantially in agreement, and which is repeated and developed by later theologians. But starting especially from the beginning of the 16th century, strong discussions arose concerning the manner of understanding the invisible mission: not only was there discussion concerning its foundation or formal reason (v. INABITAZIONE DI DIO NELL'UOMO), but Patavius and recently others (among whom M. J. Scheeben, Th. de Régnon, G. J. Waffelaert, F. M. Catherine, S. J. Docks) in different ways have advanced and upheld the opinion that the invisible mission belongs in a special and personal manner to the Holy Spirit. The various attempts made in this direction have not succeeded in imposing themselves on the great majority of theologians, who continue to hold that the special presence of God in souls in a state of grace is common equally to all three divine Persons, but is only attributed in a special manner to the Holy Spirit by way of appropriation, inasmuch as holiness has a certain likeness to its personal property, which is that of proceeding from the Father and the Son by way of love.

IV. THE MAGISTERIUM

The Church, although it has dealt extensively with the two elements constituting the divine missions, has not had particular occasions to insist on the concept of mission itself. Hence in ecclesiastical documents one finds only sporadic references to the fact. It is particularly interesting to note the two encyclicals Divinum illud of Leo XIII (9 May 1897) and Mystici Corporis of Pius XII (29 June 1943), in which, besides recalling the common doctrine concerning the invisible mission of the Holy Spirit in individual souls, his social function within the Church is especially emphasized.

Errico di Santa Teresa