Between Heaven and Hell

I've been reading "My Brother the Pope" (I highly recommend it!) and there was a line in there that the author mentions that Joseph Ratzinger's birthplace was located literally between heaven and hell, halfway between the Marian Shrine and the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn where years earlier a man was born who loomed over the childhood of little Joseph and his brother Georg, Adolf Hitler.

I know when the press attacked the Pope and accused him falsely and tried to bring up anything they could against Pope Benedict of being a Nazi sympathizer, supporter, Hitler's go to guy, whatever - I mean I knew it was outright false. I just didn't know how outright false it was. Man, the UK press that started that whole smear campaign are idiots!

At the age of fourteen Joseph Ratzinger had a choice to make. He could attend a Hilter youth group meeting and  his family on fixed income could get a much needed tuition discount and be spared the full rate tuition for his and his brother's school (minor seminary). His teacher a Nazi supporter tried to get him just to go to one meeting so he could have the documents so he could get the tuition discount. Joseph Ratzinger at the tender age of 14 told him clearly that "No, I will not do that."

Wow, just wow! What kind of courage does it take to say no to something like that with such a tempting incentive? He could have followed the crowd, done what his contemporaries were doing, swim with the stream but he chose to swim against the stream and take the tougher stand. When people say "just go with the flow" - you must realize that those fish that go with the flow, um they are the dead ones. If you're going to have life, eternal life, you are going to find that you will always be swimming against the flow. Those are the fish that are alive. To be a Christian means to be counter-cultural.