A Divine Lent #26: God's grace shines in your living presence here


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

Dante and Virgil continue their path around the fifth terrace of avarice in Canto 20 of Purgatory.  Dante leaves behind Pope Adrian and declares avarice as the most common sin among the faithful.  Three times in the canto Dante mentions how difficult it is to find a path to walk among all of the souls lying face down on the ground; it's just too crowded.  There are two loud curses at Greed, one by the narrator and one by the highlighted soul of this canto, the French monarch Hugh Capet.

Dante reminds the reader of the beast encountered in the opening canto of The Divine Comedy blocking the pilgrim's way up the mountain.

God damn you, ageless She-Wolf, you whose greed,
whose never-sated appetite, has claimed
more victims than all other beasts of prey!

Hugh Capet laments Greed's hold on his descendants.

O Avarice, what more harm can you do?
You have so fascinated all my heirs,
they have no care for their own flesh and blood.

Greed is itself greedy according to Dante.  Never satisfied, greed is always on the hunt for new victims to tempt.  How much more would Dante complain today if he saw the modern level of commercialism and consumerism.  While I may feel good about not wanting a new car, a larger house, or more stuff, is it because I have conquered greed, or because have I simply attained a level of affluence that at least for the moment has satisfies?  Greed is also manifest in the attachment to what is already acquired.

In the lower terraces of purgatory, Dante was typically bargaining with souls.  He would promise intercessory prayers in exchange for information about the souls and their penance.  In the fifth terrace, things are different.  With Pope Adrian in the previous canto and now with Hugh Capet, Dante offers the exchange, but it is refused.  Hugh Capet recognizes that Dante's mere presence is a act of divine grace and that alone is reason to answer.

"I'll answer you," he said, "not out of hope
for any help from your world, but because
God's grace shines in your living presence here."

Why can't I have this same attitude toward everyone I encounter?  It is too easy to see life as merely transactional.  Transactions that represent an equal exchange of value are considered good.  If I can get an even better deal, then all the better for me.  That sounds a lot like greed.  Removing the context of transaction-based encounters leaves us with grace-based encounters.  No exchange is necessary; goods are freely offered, for God's grace shine in us all.

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