We have wept with the families of the lost and wondered about the depth of evil that would imagine and then carry out such horrors.
There are no answers. There are no explanations. Evil does not fit into logical boxes or rational thought. Dachau, Rwanda, Bosnia, slave ships on the mid-Atlantic: every age seems to find new ways to torture, to terrify, and to make others' lives a waking nightmare.
Yet in every age there is joy, there is hope and there is a reason to face another day. The gentle yet firm ministry of a Mother Theresa; the clarion voice of a Martin Luther King, Jr., the long suffering dignity of a Nelson Mandela; the dogged persistence of a William Wilberforce.
May it be said of us that we refused to be terrified by the evil in this life, but instead stood with giants; fought against the darkness, and embraced the wounded.