This is a book of 43 Good Friday sermons from the Papal Preacher, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa. Now, I admit I only bought this book because I have read other writings/preachings by Cardinal Cantalamessa. He goes very deep. But 43 sermons on Good Friday? I fully expected this book to be boring. I decided to read the sermons though, one a day, starting the Friday after Ash Wednesday, so I would finish on Good Friday. So as of today, I have read the first three --- and I believe I can write this review now.
The first two days’ sermons were deep, as I expected, and I made a number of underlines in my book to point out things I will want to read and meditate upon again. Today’s sermon, however, read in the chapel, had me crying. Was it the Spirit overwhelming me with grace, or was it just my emotions at what was being said. I’m not sure, but I do know that I was sobbing deeply at the words, as I looked up at Jesus in the monstrance on the altar and the overhanging crucifix. The words cut to my heart.
I write this review now, having only read 3 sermons, confident that this is a book I want to recommend for Lenten reading, so I write these words that others might read them and perhaps begin this journey, this Lenten journey which Cardinal Cantalamessa walks you on, as you see may clearly in your heart why Jesus chose to die --- for you. This is a book which will not just give you factual, historical, or even Christian perspectives, it will touch your soul --- with His.
In the first sermon, from First Friday in 1980, Cardinal Cantalamessa spoke:
God was God and Father before the existence of the world, angels and humans, but he was not yet Lord. He became Lord, Dominus, the moment creatures existed over whom he could exercise his dominion and who freely accepted his dominion. In the Trinity, there are no lords because there are no servants, and all three persons are equal. In a certain sense, it is us who make God Lord! God’s dominion, rejected by sin, was reestablished by Christ, the New Adam. In Christ, God has become Lord again, by an even greater right … that of redemption. God reigns again from the cross. “For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” (Rom 14:9)
But in the third sermon from 1982, he spoke:
Peter spoke to the people “You crucified Jesus of Nazareth! God raised him up! Repent!” God cries out the same words to us… “You are the one! You killed Jesus of Nazareth! You were there that day; you shouted with the crowd, Crucify him!” The certainty that Christ died for our sins is at the very heart of our faith. … Only if I am deeply convinced that I am the cause of Christ’s suffering, that I inflicted it, can I really grasp what these sufferings were. Jesus says to you what he said to the holy women “Do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves.” (Lk 23:28) Weep for your sins!
God wants to be merciful to us, but he can’t be if we deny our sin, the very object of God’s mercy. … Our greatest misfortune is that we do not acknowledge our sin from the depths of our hearts, we tell ourselves: “Look, what evil have I really done?” You can’t see your sin? Know this, then, that your sin is precisely that you can’t see it! Your sin is self-righteousness.
The book of Revelation contains seven letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor… A close reading shows that the word metanoia, which means “repent, convert,” appears prominently at the center of each letter. Anyone who has an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church today knows that he is saying the same thing. “Repent!”
That third sermon started out speaking of how modern man argues about whether the Jews or the Romans were responsible for the death of Jesus. Cantalamessa quickly provides the answer, in a most convicting way.
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