There is no more dramatic image from the coronavirus pandemic than that of the solitary figure of Pope Francis standing in the pouring rain as twilight darkened the sky, addressing an empty, cold and desolate St Peter’s Square. He delivered a meditation on one of the more perplexing passages of the New Testament, when a storm threatens the boat in which Jesus and his disciples had embarked. They called on him to save them from drowning, saying: “Do you not care if we perish?” The papal sermon, accompanied by the blessing Urbi et Orbi, which is usually reserved for Christmas and Easter, was broadcast worldwide and is still available online. It has brought comfort and encouragement to many millions.

Francis does not have a tidy answer to the disciples’ question. Jesus rebuked their lack of faith, but he did not let them drown. God does care. In his address Francis criticises the pettiness and shallowness of the values of the world, and the failures to show solidarity, which the pandemic has exposed. The virus is, as it were, revealing humanity to itself.

The calls on God to save the human race from a mess of its own making and then blaming God for not doing so are in contrast to those wonderful manifestations of solidarity with which the world is becoming familiar. “We were not shaken awake by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet. We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick. Now that we are in a stormy sea, we implore you: ‘Wake up, Lord!’”