20 Apr 2005
It turns out that the newly-appointed Pope, perhaps inevitably given his generation, was a member of the Hitler Youth. Now, those of you who know me might realize that I'm not the greatest fan of Roman Catholicism; even so, this is not an attack on the Pope. Neither is it a veiled defence.
You've possibly seen the arguments flying around - the young Ratzinger should not have joined at any cost, it was better for him to join and be inconspicuous, it was better for him to risk gassing than join, he could work from within, he should have deserted, he should not have deserted at all, he should have deserted sooner, the Pope, in fact, must die.
And maybe some, or all, of these arguments have merit. Yes, as Christians we should fight evil wherever we find it. Yes, martyrdom is part and parcel of the Christian experience. Then again, we are to submit to those in authority (although that's a whole iBible series in itself), we are to try to live a 'quiet life' I Thessalonians 4:11. Maybe I'll address those ideas more fully in another piece.
But all that is so much empty air. Could the man who was to become Pope have done something different, something more radical? Undoubtably. He lived according to the light he had, or maybe his conscience was seared by what he did: Before we criticize him I want to remind you of someone else. Someone who had all the lights that were possible to have, who lived and breathed and ate and drank with the Messiah for three years, who would have died for the man (just one, not even a whole nation) he loved. Despite all his protestations of love and commitment, Simon Peter - the man you might think of as the first ever Pope - denied he was a follower of Jesus, denied he even knew the man, three times in the space of one night.
So maybe our Benedict XVI is in good company. But that is not what I'm driving at. The point is that Simon Peter repented, that he was forgiven, that he went on to lead the embryonic church through its baptism with holy fire (Acts 2:2-4) and onto things he never dreamed of. He was redeemed. And that, my friends, is what this whole church, Pope, archbishop, Christianity thing is about.
We're all ratbags, we're all hypocrites. But it doesn't matter: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus Romans 3:23-24.
Redemption. That's the name of the game.
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