“We have books in our hands, but the facts before our eyes,” said Saint Augustine in speaking of fulfillment of the prophecies in the Scriptures by Jesus. Jesus’ facts were his miracles, his gestures of compassion, his forgiveness of sinners, and the sacrifice of his life for us. The eyes of our sons and daughters, of our pupils, or of our coworkers are fixed on us too: they expect not perfection but love; not convincing eloquence, but truth. They want to “see” that God’s mercy can truly permeate, (or better, “anoint”) all our life, all our actions, all our dreams, even our failures: nothing excluded.
