In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Read Chapter 2
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
On consideration, your Majesty, of the reason for which many have so far gone astray, or that many—alas!—should follow diverse ways of belief concerning the Son of God, the marvel seems to be not at all that human knowledge has been baffled in dealing with superhuman things, but that it has not submitted to the authority of the Scriptures. What reason, indeed, is there to wonder, if by their worldly wisdom men failed to comprehend the mystery of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, that mystery of which not even angels have been able to obtain knowledge, except by revelation? Of the Christian Faith–.
Herein is all the worth of grace, by which he saves those who believe, containing in itself deep treasures of wisdom and knowledge and steeping in faith the minds which it draws to the eternal contemplation of unchangeable truth. Suppose the omnipotent had created his humanity by forming it otherwise than in a mother’s womb and had presented himself suddenly to our sight. Suppose he had not passed through the stages from childhood to youth, had taken no food, no sleep: would he not have given ground for the erroneous opinion which believed that he had not really become a human being? And by doing everything miraculously, would he not have obscured the effect of his mercy? But now he has appeared as Mediator between God and men, in such a way as to join both natures in the unity of one Person. He has both raised the commonplace to the heights of the uncommon and brought down the uncommon to the commonplace. .
Pay attention, dearly beloved, and see how sound the apostle’s advice is, when he says, “As therefore you received Christ Jesus our Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and confirmed in the faith.” What we have to do, after all, is to abide firmly in him through the simplicity and assurance of this faith, so that he may open up to us, as faithful believers, the treasure that is hidden in him. The same apostle says, “In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.” He didn’t hide them in order to deny them to us but to rouse our desire for what is hidden. That is the value of secrets.
The disciple’s leaning upon the master’s breast was a sign not only of present love but also of future mystery. Already at that time it was prefigured that the Gospel which this same disciple was going to write would include the hidden mysteries of divine majesty more copiously and profoundly than the rest of the pages of sacred Scripture. For because in Jesus’ breast “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” it was fitting that the one who leaned upon his breast was the one to whom he had granted a larger gift of unique wisdom and knowledge than to the rest.
Can the workman be ignorant of his work? We read of Christ in St. Paul: “In whom are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Note: “all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Not that some are and some are not in him but that they are hidden. That which is in him, therefore, is not lacking to him, even though it be hidden to us. If, moreover, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ, we must find out why they are hidden. If we men were to know the day of judgment, that, for example, it would not be for two thousand years, and if we knew it so long ahead of time, we would be more careless on that account. We would say, for instance, What is it to me if the day of judgment will not be here for two thousand years? Scripture says, therefore, for our benefit, that “the Son does not know the day of judgment,” because we do not know when the day of judgment will be upon us; and further: “Take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is.” Not “we do not kno...
“In whom are all the treasures.” Christ himself knows all things. “Hid,” for don’t think that you truly and already have all things. These are hidden also even from angels, not from you only; so that you ought to ask all things from him. He himself gives wisdom and knowledge. Now by saying “treasures,” he shows their magnificence, by saying “all,” that he is ignorant of nothing, by “hid,” that he alone knows.
For, although he was impassible, he became subject to the experience of human passions and was made minister of our salvation. Now, they who say that he is a servant divide the one Christ into two, just as Nestorius did. But we say that he is Lord and Master of all creation, the one Christ, the same being at once God and man, and that he knows all things, “for in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
