Cartoonist Charles Schultz charmed the world for years with his cartoons. His gospel according to Peanuts includes a character by the name of Snoopy who longs to be a writer. Snoopy begins every story he writes with those familiar words, “It was a dark and stormy night."

Maundy Thursday, so long ago, was a dark and stormy night. The Bible says in John 13:30, “After receiving the bread, Judas went out and it was night." If there was no storm in the sky there certainly was a storm in the souls of the disciples. Maybe all of us have been there one time or another. I suspect we have. As Dante said in the Divine Comedy:

Midway through this life we've bound upon,
I woke to find myself in a dark woods,
Where the right road was wholly lost and gone.

It was a dark and stormy night. Dark nights, …