I was trying to get to sleep by saying the Rosary and I came to Christ’s Passion. I was struck as I have not been struck before by his curious interests. So vigorous before so active; at the moment of supreme trial, he says virtually nothing and when he does so, it is along the lines of “If you say so, so be it”.

No doubt this is obvious to others but previously I have focussed on the events, on the pain and horror, but in all this whirlpool I now realise there is a calm acceptance after the Garden and this Gabriel is I suppose the point of all this. Even for those who search and who do not yet completely believe this acceptance of fate and suffering and inevitable death that comes to all of us, the supreme moral of the story. If it was in a work of Tolstoy it would be immortal on its own, but because it is suffused with mystery it is extraordinarily powerful, whatever one’s beliefs.