Why is the Church likened to the infirmed woman who was healed (Luke 13:10– 11)?

St. Ambrose says, “Then, so to speak, the infirm woman prefigures the Church, which, when it has fulfilled the measure of the Law and of the Resurrection, straightened to an uplifted dignity in that eternal rest, will not be able to experience the bowed state of our infirmity. Nor could this woman be healed in any other way than by fulfilling the law and Grace, the Law in precepts and the Grace in Baptism, whereby we die to the world and rise again in Christ;.”¹⁰⁹⁸

1097 St. Cyril of Alexandria, A Commentary upon the Gospel of St. Luke Part II , trans. R. Payne Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1859) Sermon 90: p. 421.

1098 St. Ambrose of Milan, Exposition of the Holy Gospel According to Saint Luke , trans. Theodosia Tomkinson (Etna, CA: Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 1998): p. 301.