66. s.198.42; Hill, Sermons (III/11), 212; Dolbeau, Sermons, 398.
214 Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life church (Nemo uobis aliquam purgationem extra ecclesiam promittat). Augustine then goes on to develop a commonplace, delineating God as Father and church as mother especially among the congregations of northern Africa.65 In this way he reminds those present of their dual births and exhorts them not to abandon their mother by offending their Father:
If any, though, have cut themselves off from the Church by the division of schism, even though they may seem to themselves to be holding on to the Father, they are most perniciously forsaking their mother, while those who relinquish both Christian faith and mother Church (fidem christianam et matrem eccleisam) are deserting both parents. Hold on to your Father, hold on to your mother. You are a little child; stick to your mother (inhaere matri). You are a little child, suck your mother's milk, and she will bring you, nourished on milk, to the table of the Father.66
As paruuli Christians are to hold on to their mother so as to rise to the Father: milk before the table. Adherence to the church is thus the beginning of one's life with God and Augustine is intent on preserving ecclesial unity so as to ensure divine communion. Such adherence is rooted in the imagery of humility, addressed to "little ones" who are called to be humble enough to latch on to their mother. Such lowliness was first expressed, however, in God's becoming human.
Augustine next represents the Son's descent as not only the taking on of human flesh but the assumption of all those in the church: "Your savior took flesh to himself, your mediator took flesh to himself, and by taking on flesh he took the Church to himself" (Adsumpsit carnem saluator tuus, adsumpsit carnem mediator tuus, et carnem adsumendo adsumpsit ecclesiam).67 Assumption language here characterizes both
65. The celebrated example here is of course Cyprian's phrase at De Ecclesiae Catholicae Unitate §6: "Habere iam non potest deum patrem qui ecclesiam non habet matrem."; CCL 3.253.
66. s.198.42; Hill, Sermons (III/11), 212; Dolbeau, Sermons, 398. 67. s.198.43; Hill, Sermons (III/11), 212; Dolbeau, Sermons, 398.