A Divine Lent #22: The world, brother, is blind, and obviously the world is where you're from!


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

At the end of Canto 15 of Purgatory Virgil and Dante are enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke as the reach the next terrace, the Terrace of the Wrathful.  Canto 16 is set wholly in the midst of this dense, acrid smoke representing the blindness of wrath.  Dante hears the voices sing Agnus Dei, Lamb of God, which ends in a request to grant us peace, the opposite of wrath.

The travelers encounter Marco of Lombard.  Unlike the souls encountered among the Proud or the Envious, Marco must be fairly far along in his penance of wrath.  He describes little of his life on earth to explain his presence on this terrace.

I knew about the world, I loved that good
at which men now no longer aim their bows.

He pursued valor and virtue but fears no one follows that path today.  Maybe within his statement that he knew about the world there's a deeper story.  Dante sees this as an opening to ask Marco why is the world so evil?  Marco comments that the question demonstrates Dante and the world's blindness.

...The world, brother, is blind,
and obviously the world is where you're from!

  Dante is blind in the fog and blind to the source of evil.  Marco sheds some light.

You men on earth attribute everything
to the spheres' influence alone, as if
with some predestined plan they moved all things.
...
you have the light that shows you right from wrong,
and your Free Will, .... can still
surmount all obstacles if nurtured well.
...
So if the world today has gone astray,
the cause lies in yourselves and only there!

It is tempting to shrug my shoulders at the world's problems, the social and economic inequities, and hot spots of turmoil and just say "That's the way it is."  The word "systemic" is a nice way of absolving personal responsibility.  To Marco, it is clear; the problem is seen in the mirror.  Marco continues to discuss man's need for good leadership and the failure of the Church and State.  His  commentary seems like a modern tweet.

...bad leadership has caused
the present state of evil in the world...

And who elected the poor leadership?  As Marco states, "the cause lies in yourselves and only there!"  These are good words to hear as we head to vote in the primaries in the midst of Lent.  May we also be able to see through the smoke of the wrathful.

Comments

  1. Karen M.March 13, 2018 at 7:25 AM

    "Dante hears the voices sing Agnus Dei, Lamb of God, which ends in a request to grant us peace, the opposite of wrath." I would like to know more about wrath and peace. And forgiveness. Anger and forgiveness are hard ones for me.

    ReplyDelete

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