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TRACTATE 3 On 1 In 2.18-27 HILDREN, it is the last hour." In this reading he speaks to them as children that they may hasten to grow because it is the last hour. The body's age does not lie in the will. Thus no one grows in the flesh when he wills it, just as no one is born when he wills it. But where birth lies in the will, growth also lies in the will. No one is born of water and the Spiritl except one willing. Therefore, if he wills, he increases in growth; if he wills, he decreases. What is to increase in growth? To make progress. What is to decrease? To retrogress . Whoever knows that he has been born, let him hear that he is a child and an infant; let him eagerly crave his mother's breasts, and he grows quickly. Now his mother is the Church, and her breasts are the two testaments of the sacred Scriptures . From this let the milk of all mysteries be sucked that have been accomplished in time for our eternal salvation, in order that, nourished and strengthened, one may come to eating the solid food which is, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.,,2 Our milk is Christ in his humility; our solid foodS is the very same Christ, equal to the Father. With milk he nourishes you that he may feed you with bread, for to touch Jesus spiritually with the heart, this is to know that he is equal to the Father. 2. For this reason he also forbade Mary to touch him and said to her, "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.,,4 What is this? Did he offer himselfto the disciples 1. See In 3.5. 2. In 1.1. 3. This metaphor of nourishment, first by milk, then by solid food, to illustrate the growth in the kind of knowledge of God in the Christian is a frequent theme in the Tr in Ev See, e.g., Tr in Ev 1.7, 12, 13, and 17; 7.2, 23, and 24; and 9.10, of those delivered before this one. See DT 12, 13, and 14, where, as Burnaby, Homilies, 279, points out, Augustine calls the milk knowledge of the Incarnate Christ and the solid food, for which the milk prepares us, the wisdom gained in the contemplation of the Eternal Word. 4. Cf.Jn 20.17; see TrinEv 26.3 and 121.3· 159 160 ST. AUGUSTINE to be handled and avoided the touch of Mary? Is it not he who said to the doubting disciple, "Put your fingers and touch the scars,,?5 Had he ascended to the Father yet? Why then does he forbid Mary and say, "Do not touch me, for I have not ascended to the Father"? Or are we to say this, that he was not afraid to be touched by men but was afraid to be touched by women? The touching of him cleanses all flesh. Was he afraid to be touched by these to whom he wanted to be revealed first? Was not his resurrection announced to the men by the women so that the serpent might be defeated by [his own] stratagem reversed? For because that [serpent] announced death to the first man through a woman, life was also announced to the men through a woman. Why, therefore, was he unwilling that he be touched except that he wanted that touching to be understood as spiritual? For spiritual touching is from a pure heart. That person touches6 Christ from a pure heart who understands that he is coequal to the Father. But he who does not yet understand Christ's divinity gets as far as the flesh, does not get as far as the divinity. But what great thing is it to touch as far as that, as far as the persecutors who crucified? This is a great thing: to understand the Word as God with God in the beginning, through whom all things were made,' such as he wanted himself to be known when he said to Philip, "Have I been with you so long a time and have you not known me, Philip? He who sees me sees the Father also."s 3. But, that no one may be sluggish in making progress, let him hear, "Children, it is the last...

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