A Divine Lent #4: Abandon every hope, all who enter


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

The 19th century translation "Abandon hope all ye who enter" frequently appears in popular fiction.  Even the creators of South Park have the Hell Director orienting new arrivals with, "Abandon all hope and yada yada yada."

This quote though is only the last of nine lines that Dante describes as the sign at the entrance to Hell to open Canto 3.  The first triplet sets an important preface.

I am the way into the doleful city,
I am the way into eternal grief,
I am the way to a forsaken race.

"I am" is the name God stated to Moses in Exodus.  "I am the way" is is a quote attributed to Jesus in the gospel of John.  Dante is seeing the result of the rejection of the "I am" and of "the way": dolefulness, grief, forsakenness, and the loss of hope.  This is the other way to go.

The first group of souls encountered though are not quite in Hell but trapped in the Vestibule, still tormented, but not entering Hell.  Virgil describes,

...the fate of those sad souls who lived a life
but lived it with no blame and with no praise.
...neither faithful nor unfaithful to God,
who undecided stood but for themselves.
Heaven ... cast them out,
but even Hell itself would not receive them...

These souls failed both the classical Greek ideal of glorifying themselves as well as the Christian ideal of glorifying God.  It is the sin of neutrality, the sin of inactivity, the sin of not making your life count.  Virgil's dismissiveness echoes the attitude these souls towards others during their time on earth.

Let's not discuss them; look and pass them by. 

How often is my attitude the same, ignoring the unpleasantness of the world, seeking neither to counter it nor spur it on?  The sin of neutrality ensures the marginalized stay that way.  Hope can only come through action, a commitment to the Holy way.  If we remain neutral, then we as well will live in a doleful city, a source of grief and foresakness, and hope abandoned.


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