wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Christ,5 and concealed in the poverty
54 SAINT A UG USTINE - SERMONS reconciled by good will and so earn peace. You see, the song of the angels really does belong to today, the song they poured out exultantly when the Savior was bom to us: Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace to people of good will (Lk 2:14).
They then praise him suitably; we should praise him obediently. They are his messengers, we are his cattle. He has loaded their table in heaven, he has filled our manger on earth. He is the fare on their table, because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1). He is the fodder in our manger, because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). In order that man, you see, might eat the bread of angels,4 the creator of angels became man. They praise him by living with him, we by believing in him; they by enjoying, we by seeking him; they by grasping him, we by inquiring; they by entering, we by knocking.
The treasures of wisdom and knowledge
3. Is there any human being, after all, that has known all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Christ,5 and concealed in the poverty of his flesh? Because for our sake he became poor, though he was rich, that we might be enriched by his poverty (2 Cor 8:9). You see, when he assumed mortality and consumed death, he showed himself in poverty; but that meant that he promised us riches he was deferring, not that he had lost riches he had forfeited. How multitudinous his sweetness, which he has hidden for those who fear him, but perfected for those who hope in him!6 For we know in part, until that which is perfect has come.7
In order to render us fit for grasping that, he being equal to God in the form of God and made like us in the form of a slave,8 reforms us to the likeness of God; and having become a son of man though he is the one and only Son of God, he makes many sons and daughters of men into sons and daughters of God; and by rearing slaves on the visible form of a slave, he perfects them as free persons for seeing the form of God. After all, we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. And we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2).
I mean, why talk about those treasures of wisdom and knowledge, about those divine riches, if not because they are what suffices us? And why talk about that multitudinous sweetness, if not because it is what satisfies us? So, show us the Father, and it suffices us (Jn 14:8). And in one of the psalms somebody, one of us, or in us, or for us says to him, I will be satisfied when your glory is revealed (Ps 17.15). But he and the Father are one (Jn 10:30); and whoever sees him also sees the Father (Jn 14:9). Therefore, the Lord of powers, he is the king of glory (Ps 24:10).9 He will convert us and show us his face, and we shall be saved
(Ps 80:4); and we shall be satisfied, and it will suffice us.