It is difficult for the mind to grasp the vicious brutality behind the Taliban’s massacre of 132 innocent school children and 13 adults at a school in Pakistan on Tuesday, December 16th. It is equally difficult to imagine the depth of suffering of parents and loved ones of the murdered. Such inhuman cruelty numbs the mind. Retaliation, as this appears to be, is never a solution; it only escalates the cycle of violence.

Our hearts cry out to heaven, not for vengeance but for healing — healing for the families, healing for the survivors, and healing for the hatred capable of begetting such horror. In the words of Pope Francis, “I invite everyone to look to the Crucified Jesus to understand that hatred and evil must be met with forgiveness and goodness, to understand that the solution of war leads only to more evil and death!”

We cannot surrender to a culture that accepts evil as a norm and that generates hatred in God’s name. We are disciples of the one who offers forgiveness, hope and unconditional love.

 Image Credit: CNS photo/Khuram Parvez, Reuters