“A suicide bomber killed at least 65 people, mostly women and children, at a park in Lahore on Sunday in an attack claimed by a Pakistani Taliban faction which said it had targeted Christians. More than 300 other people were wounded, officials said. The explosion occurred in the parking area of Gulshan-e-lqbal Park close to children’s swings.” (Reuters)
Close to children’s swings…
If ever we needed verification that there is sheer, naked, unimaginable evil in this world, perhaps that phrase will do it. Close to children’s swings. Some hate-filled, misguided murderer strapped explosives to his body and decided to move close to children playing on the quintessential child’s toy — a swing — before he blew himself…and their little bodies…to pieces.
Much has been made of the fact that this was Easter Sunday, and that the vast majority of people in the park were of the 2% minority population (Christians) in the park. But Muslims died too. People of no particular faith died too. Hatred and barbarism know no political, ethnic, or religious bounds. We see that in the senseless acts of random violence (multiplied many times by the plethora of guns in our society) right here in the United States.
Yet, this was not a random act of a madman. This was a coordinated, planned attack on a particular group of people held on a particular day, holy to them, and to much of the world. And so 65 more souls (and probably many more in the next days and weeks as more of the injured lose their battle for life) join the “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands…” (Revelation 7:9)
For “the white robed army of martyrs” of the Te Deum continue to “praise you, O God.
Because, in the midst of it all, Christ is Risen, He is Risen indeed. Alleluia!
That We All May Be One 
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