The Holy Spirit is a Person who is the relationship between the first and second persons — the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit has been called the “Gift” of the first and second person to each other.
What is that relationship? It is perfect, mutual self-giving love. It is the mutual and perfect self-giving of the Father and Son to each other. Because the relationship is one of perfect, infinite self-giving persons, the Father to the Son and the Son returning himself to the Father, what (or who) they are mutually exchanging is themselves, their self-images if you like. Since they are perfect and infinite persons, therefore what (or who) they are exchanging also has personhood. A third person not only issues from, but is the relationship of, the first and second persons, with whom he is co-equal. Because the first person, the Father, begets his image, a Son, the next logical step is that a relationship then exists between them. As the eternal and active relationship between two eternal beings (the first and second persons), the third person has an eternal identity of his own. All relationships have their own identity separate from the things they connect. For example, the marriage bond between a man and woman is a different thing from the man or the woman themselves. However, in the special case of perfect and infinite divine persons, who are are engaged in the perfect exchange of themselves among themselves, the perfect and infinite communication of their personhood also has the characteristics of an infinite and perfect person.
For example, if someone wanted to perfectly communicate an apple to another person, a picture or a verbal description would be woefully inadequate. What the first person should do is gift the second person an actual juicy red apple. Even more, they should eat the apple to fully share the experience of the apple together.1 If we wished to communicate ourselves to another person as fully as possible, the first person would place himself in an intimate physical presence as possible with the second person and engage in limitless conversation. We wouldn’t write a letter and send a picture. In other words, the more perfect the communication, the closer it would get to being an actual apple in the first example or the actual living person in the second.2
The perfect communication of personhood, just as the perfect image of personhood, must also logically be a person. As a person, the Holy Spirit has his own self-consciousness, will, and self-possession. He knows that he is the communication between the persons of the Father and the Son. Since he is the Being exchanged between them, he is also of the same divine substance. If any piece of the triangle were missing, the identity of God would be completely different. The identity of each divine person either causes or depends upon the existence of the other two.
There is a further step that can be taken in our understanding of the Holy Spirit. It is the intention of the Holy Spirit that the Father and the Son love each other. Classically, the Holy Spirit has also been called the “spiration” (or “breath”) of God. The Holy Spirit is the sigh of love between the Father and the Son. Because love is freely given, the Holy Spirit (being divine love personified) enables the person of the Son to be separate and independent of the person of the Father. At the same time, the intention of love that comes from the Holy Spirit also requires the Father to “let go” of his Son, the person he loves the most—the person that is the same nature and substance as himself. It is exactly the Holy Spirit that allows the Son to be free from the Father, even though the Son is dependent upon the Father for his existence. This distinction is important to keep in mind later when we are thinking about the Passion of Christ. The Son chooses to do the will of the Father. The Son must have the ability to act freely. But at the same time, perfect love in the person of the Holy Spirit binds them together in the most sublime and perfect unity. Perfect freedom must be the companion of perfect love. Love can never be coerced or it ceases to be love. Perfect love is the essence of unity among persons, whether they are divine persons or human persons. The Holy Spirit can be seen as the principle of unity that binds together the persons of the Trinity, but He will also be the principle of unity that holds together the members of the Church into one body with Christ.3
The notion of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son is not simply a philosophical speculation; it is explicitly Scriptural. John writes,
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1).
At the Ascension of Jesus after his Resurrection, Mark writes,
So, then after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16.19).
The “throne of God” is a reference by John to the Father. Mark reveals that at the right hand of God sits his Son. The Lamb of course refers to Christ who is the incarnate Son. God could not exist as a Trinity or be defined as Love if the Holy Spirit were not proceeding from both the Father and the Son. In the original Greek, “proceeding” is εκπορευομαι or ekporeuomai which clearly means to be discharged, proceed, come forth out of, issue or depart from. John makes crystal clear that this proceeding is coming from the other two divine persons.
If he were proceeding only from the Father, then the Holy Spirit would not differ from the Son. He would be another perfect image of the Father. The Father would then have begotten twin Sons. The idea of twin sons is illogical because, as we know, the Son is the perfect, eternally begotten self-image of the Father. A person can only have one true, accurate, and perfect self-image. Another self-image would mean he is another person. The Trinity is the Father and two duplicate Sons? They are mere copies of each other because they are copies (images) of the same Father? The revealed names of each of the Persons of the Trinity define their relationships to the other Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If the Father begat both the Son and the Holy Spirit, their relationship to the Father would be the same because they are the same identical Sons of the same Father.
In addition, if the Father begets twin copies of Sons instead of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the relationship between the Father and the one begotten Son, it is then hard to define God as Love. In order to have a perfect self-giving communication of a divine Person to another person, that perfect self-giving communication of a perfect Person to another perfect Person would also have to be a perfect Person. Anything other than a perfect person would not be perfect self-giving of perfect persons to each other.
Persons have their own wills or they would not be persons.4 The Relationship between the Father and Son is a Person. By definition, a relationship is something that binds two distinct things. Something cannot have a relationship with itself nor can a person have a relationship with himself. Any relationship therefore proceeds from the persons that are connected by it. Eliminate either of the persons and the relationship is also eliminated. We can see why John was shown the image of the water of life “proceeding” from the throne of God and the Lamb (Revelation 22); in other words, he saw the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son.
There is also ample indirect evidence of the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. In just one example, when the resurrected Jesus appears to the apostles after his resurrection, he explicitly “breathes” upon them the Holy Spirit.
And when He had said this, He breathed upon them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (John 20:22).
Breath comes from inside of us. Jesus could have sent the wind but he could not breathe the wind which by definition is something outside of a person. The Holy Spirit comes from Jesus the Son just as he comes from the Father specifically because the Son is in a furious communication5 and infinite exchange of himself as the Image with the Father. Therefore, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon them. If the Holy Spirit were a separate person of the Trinity who was equally begotten of the Father the way Jesus the Son is, Jesus could have only “sent” or “bestowed” or even “invited” the Holy Spirit upon them. To describe the Holy Spirit as being breathed by him upon the Apostles suggests that the Holy Spirit originates, comes from, or proceeds from him (and the Father).
The Greek word used here by John is εμφυσαω or emphusao which explicitly means to breathe upon. This word is used only six other times in the entire Bible—including in Genesis 2:7 where God breathes upon Adam and he becomes a living soul. Just as Adam was created as a new living soul in the old Creation, these men are re-created by the Holy Spirit as new living souls in the New Creation. In this New Creation, men explicitly share in the very nature and life of God through the Holy Spirit. They are not just living in pleasant harmony with God like Adam did before the Fall, they now share the inner life of the Trinity, which is Love. The word emphusao is also used in Ezekiel 37:9 to cause the resurrection of the bones in the desert. Another interesting use is 1 Kings 17:21 where Elijah resurrects the dead son of the widow who had been taking care of him.6
“Eucharist” anyone?
If the Person being communicated is also perfect spiritual food as the infinite Lamb of God, then they might eat Him too?
Union is his job.
They would be avatars, not persons.
Hence the image of the Holy Spirit as fire.
Every English translation except the Brenton Septuagint has Elijah “lay upon” the boy three times, even though the original Greek Septuagint clearly has Elijah “breathe upon” the boy three times. Usually the motivation for blatant mistranslations can be traced to doctrinal disputes. What purpose this clear and unequivocal mistranslation would serve anyone is unclear.