The Enchiridion 61

St Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) · De fide spe et charitate · PL 40, 230–290

61 The Church on Earth Has Been Redeemed from Sin by the Blood of a Mediator PL 40, 260

This part of the Church, then, which is made up of the holy angels and the hosts of God, shall become known to us in its true nature, when, at the end of the world, we shall be united with it in the common possession of everlasting happiness. But the other part, which, separated from it, wanders as a stranger on the earth, is better known to us, both because we belong to it, and because it is composed of men, and we too are men. This section of the Church has been redeemed from all sin by the blood of a Mediator who had no sin, and its song is: “If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.” Now it was not for the angels that Christ died. Yet what was done for the redemption of man through His death was in a sense done for the angels, because the enmity which sin had put between men and the holy angels is removed, and friendship is restored between them, and by the redemption of man the gaps which the great apostasy left in the angelic host are filled up.

Ecclesia in Angelis et in hominibus. Christus pro angelis non est mortuus. Angelos quomodo spectat hominum redemptio. Haec ergo quae in sanctis Angelis et Virtutibus Dei est Ecclesia, tunc nobis sicuti est innotescet, cum ei conjuncti fuerimus in finem, ad simul habendam beatitudinem sempiternam. Ista vero quae ab illa peregrinatur in terris, eo nobis notior est, quod in illa sumus, et quia hominum est, quod et nos sumus. Haec sanguine Mediatoris nullum habentis peccatum, ab omni redempta est peccato, ejusque vox est, Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos? Qui Filio proprio non pepercit, sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit illum . Non enim pro Angelis mortuus est Christus. Sed ideo etiam pro Angelis fit, quidquid hominum per ejus mortem redimitur et liberatur a malo, quoniam cum eis quodammodo redit in gratiam, post inimicitias quas inter homines et sanctos Angelos peccata fecerunt, et ex ipsa hominum redemptione ruinae illius angelicae detrimenta reparantur.

Philip Schaff (ed.), Buffalo/New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886-1889. Public domain: English translation first published 1885-1900 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series). Latin: Migne, Patrologia Latina (1844-1855), public domain; transcription from Corpus Corporum (University of Zurich).

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