The tide was turning against us and I was let off the boat at Gravesend, named after the point where dead bodies could safely be buried Thames and washed out to sea. After the empty calm of the sea, Gravesend was hot. I walked past a church which seemed empty and closed, but opening the door revealed it as a full Catholic church and the Passion of Our Lord had just been read.

In St. John’s Passion, there is a wonderful moment when Judas leaves and there is that simple phrase ‘As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.’

This seems to be a point where all history converges. All good and evil, past and present, a decision delayed is now acted upon. It will change the whole of human history.