the strength of God?” (St Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 70, 1). The difficulties Jesus had to contend with were quite exceptional: Jews and Gentiles opposed him; he suffered every kind of humiliation, to the extreme of his passion and death; but what pained him most was the hardheartedness, spiritual blindness and impenitence of those whom he had come to save. The “sinners” who proved “hostile” to Jesus are not only Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate etc. but also those who continue to sin despite his