Few of us escape the time of dereliction, when all around us is dark and our thoughts end in a blind alley. Existence feels like a bottomless void, and the future seems so hollow in its menacing futility that we could wish for death and a cessation of life's pain. What meaning life may have held for us has totally evaporated, and we are left with the wreckage - indeed, we are the wreckage. So did Job see himself when his life collapsed around him after disaster had struck; even his health was ruined. Jeremiah regretted the day of his birth in the throes of his suffering (Jer. 15.10), while Jesus felt totally deserted as he hung from the cross, to all present a deluded figure in a tragedy of cosmic proportions (Mark 15.33-4).

However, triumph was to crown all their suffering. The fictional Job was to see the divine presence while still alive in the flesh, but Jeremiah and Jesus were vindicated after their death. Jeremiah became something of a patron saint of the Jews during the Maccabaean uprising (2 Macc. 15.13-16), while the resurrected Christ was the focus of a new religious revelation. It is probable that the figure of Jeremiah provided the model for both Job and the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, later to be fulfilled in the person of Jesus.

And so, when we too are cast into darkness, we should see the experience as an opportunity for approaching and developing deeper aspects of our personality. The night time is especially taxing, for then there is no distraction from our inner misery. The way forward is to press on, regardless of what we feel. Remembering others in prayer - however hard praying may be - helps to take our attention away from ourself to the needs of our fellows. On occasions, it must be frankly admitted, prayer does become meaningless amid the enveloping gloom, and all we can do is to proceed by faith as if there was no power, no purpose, to sustain us, to guide us, other than life itself. As Bonhoeffer said, "The only way to be honest is to recognize that we have to live in the world even if God is not there" (Letters and Papers from Prison).

If the condition is one of clinical depression, the relevant professional psychological aid must be sought, If the precipitating factor is the death of a loved one, we have to learn gradually to cope with the bereavement, and it is here that friends who understand the situation can be of great help - not so much by what they say as by their constant availability. To know there is someone who cares is a great boon; Job's three friends may have been useless for lightening his burden, but at least their presence helped to distract him from a despair that could have ended in suicide.

St Mechthild of Magdeburg, who lived in the thirteenth century, prayed: "Lord, since thou hast taken from me all that I had of thee, yet of thy grace leave me the gift which every dog has by nature: that of being true to thee in my distress, when I am deprived of all consolation. This I desire more fervently than thy heavenly kingdom." Indeed, this is the heavenly kingdom; stripped of all accessories, we can pass through the eye of the needle (Mark 10.25) to the realm beyond. It is the ultimate test, but one that confirms our humanity in general and our identity in particular.

Finally, it is always important to remember that in our desolation we are not alone: not only are we members of a greater humanity struggling to find meaning amid the chaos that befalls it day by day, but we are also in deeper communion with the martyrs of our race who died in tragedy, only to live eternally, again, like Jeremiah and Jesus, guiding us all to mastery.

May I have the faith, Lord, to face my difficulty without flinching, the perseverance to persist in the face of all discouragement, the patience to smile with all who give me unsought advice, and the love to remember those worse off than I am.