Posted on: 27th January 2025

One of the beautiful elements of a film is the way a moment of dialogue can get in your head and become part of your own language and narrative. If you have ever watched the recent Batman films (The Dark Knight Trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan), it is full of dark but insightful and spiritual dialogue (a far cry from the comedic pastiche of the original 1960s TV series, if you are old enough to remember that!). One of the quotes that is associated with the second film in the series (The Dark Knight) is ‘The night is darkest just before the dawn.’ The quote doesn’t actually originate from a screenwriter though, its origins reach back to the 17th Century, being coined by Thomas Fuller a writer (and priest) as he travelled around the Holy Land, gathering material to complete one of his most famous works. In a few brief words, Fuller left the world a phrase of hope, words that take us from the reality of living in the darkness of despair, to
being given the promise of new beginnings. 

Here at the Crypt our eyes are already turning towards Lent and Easter, and last week as I prepared for a planning meeting, I sat back and re-read the resurrection story from the Gospel according to St Luke. It struck me that for all the light and energy of that first Easter morning, it started in darkness. Mary Magdalene and the women who came to the tomb that morning, came in the darkness before dawn, and they came in spiritual darkness as well, because they made that journey not knowing the miracle that God was about to bring into being. All they expected to find was death.

Maybe that is why Thomas Fuller’s words so resonate with our work here at the Crypt. For many of our friends who come through these doors, life has dealt them the worst cards, and in a way all they expect from today is death, to continue in a living death. Yet the hope flowing from the Easter story is that as the women reached the tomb and the dawn broke, life changed. We try and offer our friends the same hope, that tomorrow doesn’t need to be the same as today. We offer a comfort which is entwined in God’s resurrection promise, that whilst the night is darkest just before the dawn, the dawn is when a new day begins.