A Divine Lent #13: The reason I lost Heaven was through no other fault than lack of faith


A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy.

Today's theme based on Canto 7 of Purgatory is missed opportunities, that which is left undone.  As Sordello and Virgil continue the conversation, Virgil informs Sordello,

...The reason I lost Heaven
was through no other fault than lack of faith.
...
Not what I did, but what I did not do
cost me the sight of that high Sun you seek
whose meaning was revealed to me too late.
...
I dwell with those who could not clothe themselves
in the three holy virtues but, unstained,
knew all the rest, and practiced all of them.

Thus, Virgil, in a somewhat prideful yet sorrowful way explains his eternal home in Limbo; all for the lack of faith, hope and charity.  His continued emphasis on his faultless life seems as if he still cannot let go of self-glorification.  Sordello then shows the pilgrims a new group of souls, many of them former rulers from across Europe.  While their very presence is evidence of their faith on earth, they also contemplate opportunities lost, regrets, and things left undone.   

Sordello explains an interesting law of purgatory.

There's nothing that prevents our going up
except the darkness of the shadows; this,
alone, afflicts the will with impotence.

When blocked from the light of God, these soul's express sighs similar to the hopeless sighs of Virgil's limbo.  Their song Salve Regina expresses this state of longing.

To you we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
to you we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
...
and after this, our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus.

I am reminded of the exile's voice in Psalm 137, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept..." The somber mood pervades this valley on a mountainside.  It is paralyzing.  Virgil had told Dante that the climb would get easier as they go.  They are clearly not to that point yet.  

A journey upward can still be fraught with valleys, valleys of tears, valleys of regrets, valleys of things left undone, valleys of sighs, valleys of feeling impotent, valleys of shadows, valleys that make it hard to see the light of God.  Virgil lost Heaven due to his lack of faith.  It is this faith that get us through the valley, faith that knows the light of God is still present even when our eyes fail to see it.

In Lent, let us have faith in that light, knowing that in the valley, we are still walking in the light of God.  Siyahamba.

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