Raniero Cantalamessa

People can be—or act as though they are—enemies of God, but God will never be the enemy of any human being. That is the terrible advantage children have over their fathers and mothers.

Raniero Cantalamessa (born July 22, 1934) is an Italian Catholic priest in the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and theologian. He has served as the Preacher to the Papal Household since 1980, under Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Quotes

• There is a “diaspora,” a dispersion, even within ourselves. If Jesus were to ask me, as He did that poor demoniac in the Gospel: “What is your name?” I too would have to reply: “My name is legion, for there are many of us” (Mk 5:9). There are as many of us as there are desires, plans and regrets which we harbor, each one different from and contrary to others which pull us in opposite directions. They literally distract us, drag us apart. Virginity is a powerful aid to progress toward interior unity, in virtue of the fact that it enables us to live united to the Lord, and able to devote ourselves to Him “without distractions.”
  • Virginity, trans. Charles Serignat (1995), p. 31.

• “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” Jesus said at the Last Supper (John 15:13). […] The word “friends” in the active sense indicates those who love you, but in the passive sense it indicates those whom you love. Jesus calls Judas “friend” (Matthew 26:50), not because Judas loved him, but because he loved Judas! There is no greater love than giving one's life for one's enemies while considering them friends; this is what Jesus meant by his statement. People can be—or act as though they are—enemies of God, but God will never be the enemy of any human being. That is the terrible advantage children have over their fathers and mothers.
  • The Gaze of Mercy, trans. Marsha Daigle-Williamson (2015), ch. 10, § 3.

• From the investigation into Jesus, one gets the impression that it sometimes turns into gossip about Jesus. However, there is an explanation for this phenomenon. There has always been a tendency to dress Christ in the clothes of one's own era or ideology. In the past, however questionable, these were serious and far-reaching causes: the idealistic, socialist, revolutionary Christ... Our age, obsessed with sex, cannot conceive of him as anything other than grappling with emotional problems. I believe that combining an avowedly alternative journalistic vision with a historical vision that is also radical and minimalist has led to an overall result that is unacceptable, not only for people of faith, but also for historians. Upon finishing the book, one asks oneself: how did Jesus, who brought absolutely nothing new to Judaism, who did not want to found any religion, who performed no miracles and did not rise from the dead except in the altered minds of his followers, how did he, I repeat, become "the man who changed the world"?
  • Dall'inchiesta su Gesù si ha l'impressione che si passi a volte al pettegolezzo su Gesù. Il fenomeno ha però una spiegazione. È sempre esistita la tendenza a rivestire Cristo dei panni della propria epoca o della propria ideologia. In passato, per quanto discutibili, erano cause serie e di grande respiro: il Cristo idealista, socialista, rivoluzionario… La nostra epoca, ossessionata dal sesso, non riesce a pensarlo che alle prese con problemi sentimentali. Io credo che il fatto di aver messo insieme una visione di taglio giornalistico dichiaratamente alternativa con una visione storica anch'essa radicale e minimalista ha portato a un risultato d'insieme inaccettabile, non solo per l'uomo di fede, ma anche per lo storico. A lettura ultimata uno si pone la domanda: come ha fatto Gesù, che non ha portato assolutamente nulla di nuovo rispetto all'ebraismo, che non ha voluto fondare nessuna religione, che non ha fatto nessun miracolo e non è risorto se non nella mente alterata dei suoi seguaci, come ha fatto, ripeto, a diventare "l'uomo che ha cambiato il mondo"?
    • Augias-Pesce e Inchiesta su Gesù: una valutazione storico-critica ed una riflessione sui pre-giudizi dei credenti e dei non credenti, Avvenire (November 18, 2006)

• Maria is the only one who believed "in the contemporary situation", that is, while it was happening, before any confirmation or validation by events and history.
  • Maria è l'unica ad aver creduto "in situazione di contemporaneità", cioè mentre la cosa accadeva, prima di ogni conferma e di ogni convalida da parte degli eventi e della storia.
    • As quoted in Maria, madre e modello del sacerdote, in Sito ufficiale di Raniero Cantalamessa

• If the purpose is not carried out, Jesus is conceived but not born.
  • Se il proposito non è messo in atto, Gesù è concepito, ma non è partorito.
    • As quoted in Maria, madre e modello del sacerdote, in Sito ufficiale di Raniero Cantalamessa