It was an extraordinary day for late September, blazing hot, with a fierce sunlight bouncing off the sea.

I took refuge behind a bush. It was quiet. A sandy path beneath my feet. The light filtered through the leaves. I opened my blackberry and read the readings for today from the Universalis website.

“How do you know me?” said Nathaniel. “Before Philip came to call you,” said Jesus, “I saw you under a fig tree.”

For me this bush was for a moment a fig tree. This sandy path running past St. Enodoc’s in Daymer Bay a sandy path 2,000 years ago in Palestine that like Nathaniel wherever we are at whatever time we can sense however fleetingly a cause, an insight, a belief.

Then I had to catch up. I stood up and walked forward into the glare. The moment passed.