Why were the elect believers, or the holy Church, called “the little flock” (Luke 12:32)?

St. Cyril the Great says, “He calls these on earth a ‘little flock.’ For we are inferior to the multitude of the angels, who are innumerable, and incomparably surpass in might our mortal things. And this too the Savior has Himself taught us, in that parable in the Gospels so excellently framed for our instruction: for He said, ‘What man of you, that has a hundred sheep, and one of them go astray, will not leave the ninety and nine upon the mountains, and go to seek that which has strayed? And if he chance to find it, verily I say unto you, that he will rejoice in it more than in the ninety and nine which went not astray’ (Matt. 18:12–13). Observe therefore, that while the number of rational created beings extends to ten times ten, the flock that is upon earth is but as one out of a hundred. But though it is little, both by nature and number and dignity, compared with the countless troops of the spirits that are above, yet has the goodness of the Father, which surpasses all description, given also to it the portion of those transcendent spirits, I mean the kingdom of heaven.”¹⁰⁹⁷