"If only you had known the path to peace this day." As God in the Old Testament frequently sighed over Israel's infidelity, so Jesus sighs over the plight of the Jews of his time who did not realize the time of God's visitation.

In one of his sermons St Augustine has a nice reflection on the difference between hearing and seeing. He uses the distinction to draw out the major difference between the Old and New Testaments, the Prophecies, and the Gospels. The Jews heard the Prophecies, the words of the greater and the Minor Prophets who spoke God's word to them. But in the Gospels we see the fulfilment of all the prophecies, the realization of all the promises. As we often hear with the ears of the body but not with the heart, so too often our spiritual problem lies in our spiritual blindness rather than in spiritual deafness: we hear the words but we do not see the reality of the Word made flesh.