A Divine Lent #39: Free yourself from sin and shame, and cease to speak like someone in a dream


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

It's time for Dante to graduate in Canto 33 of Purgatory, the end of this volume.  He has but one task left: to drink from the other sacred stream, the EnoŃ‘ which restores the memory and strength from his good deeds, first mentioned by Matelda in Canto 28.  Beatrice explains his need of this second stream.

Then she to me: "It is my wish that you
from now on free yourself from fear and shame,
and cease to speak like someone in a dream."

These words follow Dante's timid attempts to overcome his on-going inability to speak to Beatrice.  He is still overwhelmed even after his confession and washing in Lethe, though he has no guilt to cause shame.  He needs the confidence of his own virtues restored to have the boldness to interact with Beatrice.

As representing Divine Wisdom, Beatrice is still beyond Dante's limits of human comprehension. She explains the allegory of the pageant witnessed in the last canto, but Dante is confused.

"But your desired words, why do they fly
so high above my mind?  The more I try
to follow them, the more they soar from sight."

How distant and elusive it is to understand God's wisdom at times.  Beatrice explains that one purpose of her words is to illustrate the great distance between the world's ways and God's.  The dialogue is reminiscent of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, "Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"  Lent, Christ's Passion, and Easter are annual reminders of the world's wisdom made foolish.

At the end of the canto, the entourage come to EnoŃ‘.  Matelda pulls Dante into the sacred waters to allow him to drink.  He cannot describe what took place in those waters, but only it's results: rebirth.

When he emerged from hell at the end of Inferno, Dante was relieved that at last, he could see the stars.  He looks to those same stars now, but as a different person.  Through his lessons, purgation, confession, and cleansing, the stars are not just heavenly objects to observe; they are his next destination.

This Lent, may we all share the experience of Dante: to confess our faults and be showered with grace, so that we may too may echo his closing remarks.

From those holiest waters I returned
to her reborn, a tree renewed, in bloom
with newborn foliage, immaculate,
eager to rise, now ready for the stars.

Amen.

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