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The news last night that the Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care will have caused huge distress to his family and all those who love him. I know I won’t be alone when I say I will pray for him, and for everyone who is suffering today. This news marks for the rest of us, a moment that amplifies the effects that this virus is having on our society as a whole, on individuals within it and on the way we live. That our Prime Minister is so ill also reinforces something we know instinctively but feel more acutely this morning – that this illness doesn’t discriminate, and that leaders are just as vulnerable as those they lead. For Christians, this week is Holy Week, following the story of the betrayal, arrest, trial and execution of Christ. And Christian or not, there are recognisable human threads to the story that might find some connection with the lockdown that all of us are in. The changes to the way we’re living that all of us are experiencing are echoed in this Holy Week story. Because the central figure, Jesus of Nazareth, has up to this point in his life, been purposeful, even active and public. He’s often been surrounded by crowds, interacting with people every day. But this week, he becomes no longer the subject of the action but the object. He becomes someone to whom things are done. Not someone who is in control any more. This is the dual meaning of the Passion of Christ; the suffering yes, that he has to face, but also that he submits to the powerful forces that overtake him. Holy Week and Easter are incredibly challenging psychologically as well as spiritually for those who follow its events and pray through its story. Not least because Christ’s story faces us with the human passion story; that there are weeks when we are confined, when thoughts of death come uncomfortably close, when we are at the mercy of forces beyond our control. The horror and beauty of the passion story find echoes in the horror and beauty of these days, filled as they are with the chaos and distress of grief, alongside the kindness and generosity of so many. This week, as last week, will be full both of really tough reflections and decisions, and will also find us grateful for the spectacular courage and resilience of so many workers and neighbours. Under such pressure, even on a screen or over the phone, our stubborn, messy humanity will find, is finding, new ways to be itself.