It’s the last day of 2019! My neighbour says he knows just how we should round off the year, now that the deaths of Isis founder, Al-Bagdadi, and his spokesman, have been avenged by the executions, which took place on Christmas Day.

He wants us to look to the power of now. The point between what’s past and the New Year about to open its doors. He says, “Now that those executed have tasted death for the rest. Now that their bodies have been despatched. Now that their natural bodies have been sown. Now that the process for the replacement of their bodies have begun. Now that their weak, vulnerable, dying bodies have given way to strong, ebullient, undying bodies. Now that the feeling of triumph has evaporated and the feeling of finality faded. Now that the poison of sorrow has become the medicine of hope. Now is the moment to return vengeance to its owner, the One who said, ‘Vengeance is mine.’”