The night before I had tuned into the BBC to watch the amazing story of one of Jupiter’s Moons, Io. This is a tortured world. Despite being so far out in the cooler part of the solar system it has hugely active volcanoes. Given its size and location we would have expected these, like those on Mars, to have run dry long ago.

But the volcanoes appeared to have been formed by the huge forces of gravity exerted on Io by the vast mass of Jupiter and the other moons. As always I questioned how God alone could have created such wonders. However, the extraordinary virtues of Jesus described to us in the Passion the day before somehow makes it possible.

The reading from Isaiah, perhaps our greatest poet, is appropriate.

Thus says God, the Lord who created the heavens and spread them out. Who gave shape to the earth and what comes from it. Who gave breath to the people and life to the creatures that move in it. (Isaiah 42:1-7)