Key Arguments

• He explicitly says he sought but could not find a way to gain strength to enjoy God until he embraced Christ as Mediator: "I sought a way to obtain strength enough to enjoy you; but I did not find it until I embraced ‘the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus’ (1 Tim. 2: 5), ‘who is above all things, God blessed for ever’ (Rom. 9: 5)."
• Christ identifies himself as the path and goal: "He called and said ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’ (John 14: 6)."
• Augustine interprets the Incarnation as God mixing the solid ‘food’ of wisdom with flesh to make it accessible as milk: "The food which I was too weak to accept he mingled with flesh, in that ‘The Word was made flesh’ (John 1: 14), so that our infant condition might come to suck milk from your wisdom by which you created all things."
• He acknowledges his own lack of humility as the barrier to possessing ‘my God, the humble Jesus’: "To possess my God, the humble Jesus, I was not yet humble enough. I did not know what his weakness was meant to teach."
• He presents the Word’s twofold action: as eternal truth he raises the submissive to himself; as incarnate he builds a ‘humble house’ of clay in the lower parts to detach people from themselves, carry them to himself, heal their swelling and nourish them: "Your Word, eternal truth, higher than the superior parts of your creation, raises those submissive to him to himself. In the inferior parts he built for himself a humble house of our clay. By this he detaches from themselves those who are willing to be made his subjects and carries them across to himself, healing their swelling and nourishing their"

Source Quotes

My weakness reasserted itself, and I returned to my customary condition. I carried with me only a loving memory and a desire for that of which I had the aroma but which I had not yet the capacity to eat. xviii (24) I sought a way to obtain strength enough to enjoy you; but I did not find it until I embraced ‘the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus’ (1 Tim. 2: 5), ‘who is above all things, God blessed for ever’ (Rom. 9: 5). He called and said ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’ (John 14: 6).

9: 5). He called and said ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’ (John 14: 6). The food which I was too weak to accept he mingled with flesh, in that ‘The Word was made flesh’ (John 1: 14), so that our infant condition might come to suck milk from your wisdom by which you created all things.

He called and said ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’ (John 14: 6). The food which I was too weak to accept he mingled with flesh, in that ‘The Word was made flesh’ (John 1: 14), so that our infant condition might come to suck milk from your wisdom by which you created all things. To possess my God, the humble Jesus, I was not yet humble enough.

The food which I was too weak to accept he mingled with flesh, in that ‘The Word was made flesh’ (John 1: 14), so that our infant condition might come to suck milk from your wisdom by which you created all things. To possess my God, the humble Jesus, I was not yet humble enough. I did not know what his weakness was meant to teach.

I did not know what his weakness was meant to teach. Your Word, eternal truth, higher than the superior parts of your creation, raises those submissive to him to himself. In the inferior parts he built for himself a humble house of our clay. By this he detaches from themselves those who are willing to be made his subjects and carries them across to himself, healing their swelling and nourishing their

Key Concepts

• I sought a way to obtain strength enough to enjoy you; but I did not find it until I embraced ‘the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus’ (1 Tim. 2: 5), ‘who is above all things, God blessed for ever’ (Rom. 9: 5).
• He called and said ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’ (John 14: 6).
• The food which I was too weak to accept he mingled with flesh, in that ‘The Word was made flesh’ (John 1: 14), so that our infant condition might come to suck milk from your wisdom by which you created all things.
• To possess my God, the humble Jesus, I was not yet humble enough.
• Your Word, eternal truth, higher than the superior parts of your creation, raises those submissive to him to himself. In the inferior parts he built for himself a humble house of our clay. By this he detaches from themselves those who are willing to be made his subjects and carries them across to himself, healing their swelling and nourishing their

Context

Book VII, section xviii (24): After recounting the failure of his purely philosophical ascent, Augustine identifies the Incarnate Christ as the necessary Mediator and source of strength and healing.