Christ became man so we could feast with the angels; Angels: Day 319

The angels feed on the vision of  the Word, says St. Augustine. We can’t see the whole vision yet—only  the angels can do that. But Christ became man, taking on weak human flesh, so that we could have that angelic food in a way we could comprehend.

He who was born of a virgin brought you a temporal miracle: he was not born of a father—not of a man for his father, I mean—yet he was born of the flesh. But it shouldn’t seem impossible to you that he was born of his mother alone, since he made man before there was a father or a mother.

So he brought you a temporal miracle, so that you may seek and admire him who is eternal. For he who came forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber—that is, out of the womb of the virgin—he brought a temporal miracle, but he himself is eternal. He is coeternal with the Father.

He is the one who “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” ( John 1:1). He did what it took to cure you, so that you could see what you didn’t see before.

What you despise in Christ is not yet the contemplation of someone who is cured, but the medicine of the sick. Don’t run to the vision of the whole too quickly. The angels see it; the angels rejoice; the angels feed on it and live. What they feed on never fails, and their food never lessens. In the thrones of glory, in the regions of the heavens, in the places above the heavens, the Word is seen by the angels, and that is their joy and their food, and the Word endures.

But so that we could eat the bread of angels, the Lord of the angels became man. This is our salvation—the medicine of the weak, the food of the healthy. –St. Augustine, Sermon 76 on the New Testament, 5-6

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

The Word became flesh so that flesh could see what the pure spirits see in Heaven— and share the feast of Heaven even here on earth. This is the wonder of salvation.

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, who gave us the bread of angels to be our food, send your Holy Spirit to enlighten my mind as I contemplate your holy Word.

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