29. gest. Pel. 13.28; Teske, The Deeds of Pelagius (I/23), 353–54. (continued)
194 Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life sum of its enrolled members. As the mediator between permanence and dissolution, Christ has assumed humanity in order to conform all humans to himself. This is the church for Augustine: a mystical person comprised of both a divine and human head as well as angelic and human members. But the central question of Augustine's ecclesiology and unity remains: how does the incarnate Word join human persons to himself?
To answer this, let us now examine the formula which best encapsulates such unity for Augustine, the totus Christus. Augustine understands that in the incarnation, the Word of God united himself to humanity and in so doing made possible the union of each human with the Word. This is how Augustine chooses to interpret such curious scriptural lines as Matthew 25 and Acts 9 (as we saw earlier). In both instances Christ speaks about his followers in the first person. In Matthew 25 he proclaims, "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me," while in Acts 9 he inquires of Saul, "Why do you persecute me?" To make sense of such passages Augustine develops a hermeneutic of the "whole Christ" to be examined more closely below. As we shall see, while many statements in such a context may appear to be facile hyperbole, they nonetheless point to an attempt on behalf of our author to root the experience of each member of the church in the life of Christ himself. Augustine writes:
Now, however, I wonder if we shouldn't have a look at ourselves, if we shouldn't think about his body, because he is also us (quia et nos ipse est). After all, if we weren't him, this wouldn't be true: When you did it for one of the least of mine, you did it for me (Matt. 25:40). If we weren't him, this wouldn't be true: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? (Acts 9:4). So we too are him, because we are his organs, because we are his body, because he is our head, because the whole Christ is both head and body.30
30. s. 133.8; Hill, Sermons (III/4), 338: "Iam uero si nos ipsos attendamus, si corpus eius cogitemus, quia et nos ipse est. Nam etsi nos ipse non essemus, non esset uerum,