Like many others, I lit a candle in the window on the evening of Mothering Sunday in hope. Light is a good thing. It dispels darkness and also shows up what the darkness conceals.

Quite rightly, people lit their candles in hope. Hope is a beautiful thing. Indeed, as someone from one of the Star Wars films said, ‘Hope is what rebellions are built on’. I lit mine in defiance as well.

That met with some interesting comments on Twitter. My interlocuters thought that defiance was a negative expression, and I should be channelling all my energies into the positivity of hope. Such an argument does not for me chime with what I understand to be the hope fashioned by the Christian faith. I am not hopeful because we will get through this; I anticipate we will. Sadly, we will lose a number of people. Disease does that.

I am defiant because it comes out lament. Lament allows for expressions of anger, frustration and defiance. Lament prompts action, both spiritual and physical.

Therefore, I lit the candle with defiance and in hope