Wise Words on Wednesday: The Church is a whore?
Today’s “Wise Words on Wednesday” is a correction of a quotation I’ll periodically see people quote on the Internet:
The Church is a whore, but she’s also my mother
St. Augustine?
This is a poor paraphrase of something which St. Augustine wrote in Sermon 213:
“Let us honor the Catholic Church, our true Mother, the true Bride of her Husband, because she is the wife of so great a Lord. And what shall I say? How great is that Husband and of singular rank, that he discovered a prostitute and made her a virgin. Because she should not deny that she was a prostitute, lest she forget the mercy of her liberator. How can it be said that she was not a prostitute when she fornicated with demons and idols?”
Sermon 213 on the Creed
The ordering is really important here. The Bride of Christ was once unfaithful, but she was liberated by Him – the emphasis is on Christ’s ability to heal, save, and sanctify the lost.