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Until earlier this week I had not heard of Ariana Grande. I didn’t know about her music or that she was so popular with children. But I do now, and that her fans call her the “Arianator”. Her fans went joyfully and expectantly with their parents to see her in concert in Manchester Arena. And soon after the bombing, she responded by saying “Broken from the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don't have words.” Yesterday she announced she will hold a benefit concert for the victims and their families. Our world is in pain, groaning and longing to be liberated from futility and hatred. The deliberate targeting of children and their families - with a calculated and callous equation of evil - demonstrated that hatred. A deliberate act contorted and twisted within the framework of a brutalist ideology that exists outside the understanding of shared humanity. My heart and prayers go out to the families and friends of all those who were murdered and injured. One of the fundamental laws of physics reminds us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It’s a law that such jihadists - the purveyors of these heinous criminal acts across cities and continents – fail to understand. Within minutes of the bombing in Manchester, that law was demonstrated by the emergency services and countless acts of love and kindness by many. I experienced it myself at the vigil in Albert Square. The opposite reaction to the action of a lone bomber - a coming together of love. The love that we have witnessed stands in stark opposition to the evil that sought to taunt it. It’s the love often heard read at weddings and funerals: that great hymn of love from 1 Corinthians 13. The love which contends with tragedy, endures hardship, is steadfast in difficulty and in the end wins out. That strong and long-lasting love that carries people through both good times and bad. The love that many waters cannot quench or blow apart. The pain, grief, righteous anger and the consequences of the bombing will endure for years in the lives of those who have lost loved ones. But the hatred that inspired that criminal act will lose. It will not have the final word. As Martin Luther King Jr once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” And in the opening verses of John’s Gospel, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”