The essence of the message

Bill Gnade writes some of the best blogging content on the web. He's just completed a four-part series, "The Problem of Knowing Good and Evil." In Part 3, Bill commented on the recent visit of Benedict XVI, a former Hitler youth and World-War II German soldier, to Auschwitz:

There is something essentially Christian about Benedict XVI standing within the gates of death. There is something essentially Christian about the very idea of redemption: St. Paul, the outstanding Jew who was a murderer, is the quintessence of the Christian message: all are saved who would be saved. God, as St. Paul says, takes the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; He is a God of gracious irony, proving that grace, love and mercy always trump the rules. My own earthly father taught me this: he taught me that he loved me more than he loved his rules, his reputation, his honor. I was more important than a statute, a commandment. The sheep is more important than the sheepfold; a hole in the fence did not mean that the fence was broken but that a sheep was lost, and in jeopardy. God cares for the lost, He pursues them; and He finds them in order to make them whole. This is what my father taught me, and it is essentially Christ's message to the world.

Amen. You may also be interested in reading Part 1, Part 2, and Part 4.