“The Link”

When the time I knew that our course will be a course connected to metaphysics,
somehow makes an instant feeling of relief. For the reason that it was very hard for me to
understand the course on the time of the online classes during the pandemic. In addition, the
difficulties of self-study and understanding on your own, a course full of puzzle pieces is sort of
a painful headache. Ordinarily, fraction of ideas that stayed during the course of metaphysics
with the help of the reading materials given are the only source of knowledge. And honestly one
of the sciences or part of the division of philosophy that I think is very though to understand is
metaphysics. As the nucleus of philosophy, it was very important to understand and learn all the
things related in the context of this science, the basic and fundamental stuffs that we can grasp.
Perhaps, the special question on metaphysics is a gift that will enable us to be refreshed and to be
reintroduced to the metaphysical world.
Now three weeks have passed and the course produced somewhat new knowledge that is
of great help. Students were academically and philosophically challenge by this course. But the
flow of the discussion is smooth. Topics were presented on a simple and exact manner, so that all
of us can understand it clearly. The professor also imparted important topics and ideas that will
help us his students to acquire the importance of metaphysics in our studies. Furthermore, on that
threes long weeks questions were answered, answers were rebutted, thoughts were added. I can
say those weeks were productive and fruitful. But it doesn’t end there all of those knowledges
that we gain are practically a support and guide as we continue our journey towards the extreme
world of philosophy. Numerous questions on metaphysics were laid out upon the start of the
course, questions like what is transubstantiation? What does it mean? There are topics in which
we tackle evil and good, the topic of incarnation and reincarnation, suffering and those other
special questions behind them were also tackled. Although some of them needed to be
understood using being theology it seems proper to have the aid of it. Accordingly, those topics
should also be explained using philosophy which somehow proper to the course. Different text
was used to elaborate certain ideas, video clips were shown as mean of interpretation. The
discursive reasoning eventually took us to answer those questions. Certainly, those fractional
ideas or as one of our classmates said during our class meeting the book knowledge we have,
was altered not literally change but it was more clear and vivid rather than the ideas we have in
the past that was blurred. Going to the formal body of this final paper. Of all the things we have
discussed and tackled during that period of time, the topic that will be elaborated and further
explained is the topic about relation, the one that was reported by us. Now there are two question
posted and needed to be answered; first is does God have relation? And the second question is
that relation accidental? This will be the cycle that we will dwell in in this final paper.
Now all of us ordinary person has what we called relationship may it be romantic,
spiritual, or etc. we can’t deny the fact that one moment in our lives we are or we were in a
relationship. But the things are that our relation are accidental we are imperfect so we need
someone who will make up perfect thus in metaphysics accidents are those quality that makes
the substance perfect in such manner but on the other hand, we are not talking about the
relationships that humans have but rather we are going to talk and find out the relation between
the three-divine person of the Blessed Trinity. As philosophy student it was very hard for me to
study and learn the dogma behind the Trinity. Reading articles, journals, and books that are
related to the teaching of the trinity was a challenge and will make you think. But before we go
to that. We need to be familiar with the word relation. Now for what I have read on the book, we
cannot properly define the word relation but rather we can only describe what relation do to the
substance. As we all know and base on the lectures that we had before we got to the topic of The
Trinity, our professor offered us a glimpse on the nine categories or “predicamenta” in which
relation being part of that nine. Unlike the other accidents such as quality, quantity and etc.
relation is the only one who possess “esse ad” that is why its description is that an accident in
which its nature is to be reference to another. Let us remember always the word towards another
because it will be useful on the succeeding discussion in this paper. Being toward is what
relation do and on contrary “esse in” or being in is the nature of the other accidents and cannot
be present to relation. We can say that the accident of relation is unique and the only one that has
it. To further explain what relation is, there are two types of relation base on what we have
discussed. The first relation is “of reason” which means that it is only present in our minds when
the ideas of things relate themselves independently, this kind of relation are not present on the
outside reality, this belong between the concept of the mind. One example of relation of reason is
the second kind of relation is the “real relation” this are actual things which exist the best
example of this relation is the parenthood that is present on the real world. But what we are
aiming to delve on is the real relation.
Real relation has its own elements consisting it. the subject, the terminus or the term, the
basis of the order and lastly the relation itself. One of the examples that we can apply these four
elements is to use sonship. Let dissect each of the elements with the corresponding examples, the
son which is our main subject, the term we have are the parents, the basis of order is generation
in which the son have with his parents and lastly the relation itself that tell us that the son is
dependent to the parents. Another example of real relation is friendship as per applied to sonship.
You being the subject and your friend being the terminus and the basis of order is mutual
understanding between you and your friend and the relation itself is friendship. These two
examples show that that this is real that it really exists. But it doesn’t end real relation also has its
types, and I will also lay it out but we will not discuss it thoroughly. The first type of real relation
is base on the dependence of being this just mean that being whenever they exist, its very
existence depends or anchored upon another. Ne of the best example of this case is the relation of
creatures to the creator. In addition to that this kind of real relation will be the basis of our
answer to the question of the relation of the created to the creator. The second type is based on
the mutual relation based on action and passion it simply means that both of the extremes have
the same basis and are mutual with each other such that the relation of rulers to citizen is one of
its examples which build the mutual relation through the image of the government. The last type
of real relation is the fittingness based on quantity and quality, this means that the quality and
quantity can be the basis of measurement between two substance, its simple example is this a
nation whose size is thrice bigger of another nations. Thus, this create the idea that the bigger
state can be the basis of the quantity of the smaller one. Now as we end with the short
introduction and discussion of real relation. We now come to the proper discussion in which is
much related to the question posted or mentioned earlier in this final paper. We now come to talk
about the relation between the Holy Trinity and the mystery in it. As we describe what relation is
and found out that this is a reference or relation of one to another. Now the divine relation does
not depend on each other, why? It is because each of the divine person are consider as
suppositum and as discussed hypostasis means that it subsists by itself and they are distinct from
one another or by the virtue of relation. In simple words the three divine persons are not the
same. So much so the father is not the son and the Son is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is
either the Father and the Son. To have a clearer discussion concerning the relation of the Trinity.
It will be of great help if we distinguished the four-real relation in God. The first relation present
in the Trinity is paternity. Fatherhood is the divine essence possessed by the Father. Paternity of
fatherhood Is the divine essence attributed to the Father that relates Him to the Son in the person
of Jesus Christ as the one that have been generated. The next relation is filiation or sonship. It is
attributed only to the Son, it belongs to the Son who is Jesus Christ and it relates Him to the
Father who generates Him. The third has two kind, the active and passive spiration. Spiration
means the act of breathing or life giving, this means that spiration is the divine essence of the
Holy Spirt. The active spiration is common to the Father and to the Son as the one who breath
forth the Holy Spirit. The passive Spiration or procession in other term belongs to the Holy Spirit
as the one who have been breath forth by the Father and the Son. In order to have a systematic
approach with spiration we must remember that spiration belongs to the person of the Father, and
to the person of the Son and procession belongs solely to the Holy Spirit. All of these relations
are written on the sacred scripture.
The relation that the Trinity have, are not accidents. For as I mentioned earlier that each
of the person in the Trinity are suppositum. And God has no accidents like us human beings. The
entirety of God is whatever attributed to him. Let us remember that in the beginning God has no
accidents. And based on the teaching of divine simplicity it denies any physical and
metaphysical composition in the divine being. This means that unlike us human being who are
complex and compact with different aspects God is just simple. He always is what He, nothing
added or taken away. God cannot lose any attribute without losing His being as God. The
relation that the trinity has is a subsistent relation not a accidental one, since accidents perfect the
substance and God is the fullness of being. But on the contrary the relation that creatures have to
God is accident. But not just a ordinary accident but a necessary one and every creature has since
we receive “being” from God. Our relation with God is not a subsisting relation likes with the
Blessed Trinity. This final paper answers the two important question related to relation but in the
end, we cannot grasp all of the knowledge behind the Trinity and it will remain a mystery to us.
But it is also important to have a partial knowledge about the Trinity and its hidden puzzle.
Submitted By: Brian Angelo E, Olaño