Children And The Last Hour

'Pueri, novissima hora est.' In hac lectione pueros alloquitur; ut festinent crescere, quia novissima hora est. Aetas corporis non est in voluntate. Ita nullus secundum carnem crescit quando vult; sicut nullus quando vult nascitur: ubi autem nativitas in voluntate est, et crementum in voluntate est. Nemo ex aqua et Spiritu nascitur nisi volens. Ergo si vult, crescit: si vult, decrescit. Quid est crescere? Proficere. Quid est decrescere? Deficere. Quisquis novit natum se esse, audiat quia puer est et infans; avide inhiet uberibus matris, et cito crescit. Est autem mater Ecclesia; et ubera eius duo Testamenta Scripturarum divinarum. Hinc sugatur lac omnium sacramentorum temporaliter pro aeterna salute nostra gestorum, ut nutritus atque roboratus perveniat ad manducandum cibum, quod est: In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Lac nostrum Christus humilis est; cibus noster, idem ipse Christus aequalis Patri. Lacte te nutrit, ut pane pascat: nam corde contingere Iesum spiritaliter, hoc est cognoscere quia aequalis est Patri. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis,In Evangelium Ionannis, Tractatus III Source: Migne PL 35.1997-1998

Children, it is the last hour. 1 In this passage he addresses the children that they may make haste to grow, because 'it is the last hour.' The age of the body is not determined by one's own will. Thus no one grows in respect of the flesh when he will, just as no one is born when he will, but where being born is a matter of the will, the growth also is with the will. No one is 'born of water and the Spirit,' 2 unless he wills it. Therefore if he will, he increases; if he will, he decreases. What is it to grow? To advance. What is it to decrease? To go back. Whoever knows that he is born, let him hear that he is a child; let him eagerly cling to the breasts of his mother, and he grows quickly. The mother is the Church, and her breasts are the two Testaments of the Divine Scriptures. Hence let him suck the milk of all the the mysteries which were done in time for our eternal salvation, that nourished and strengthened he may attain to the eating of solid food, which is, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' 3 Our milk is Christ who is humble, our solid food the same Christ equal with the Father. With milk He nourishes you, that He may feed you with bread, for to touch Christ spiritually in the heart is to know that He is equal with the Father. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from the Third Tractate on the First Letter of John 1 1 Jn 2.18 2 Jn 3.5 3 Jn 1.1