Angelus News | August 27, 2021 | Vol. 6 No. 17

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Virgil, Augustan poet par excellence, serves as Dante’s guide, though the final steps in “Paradiso” are led by St. Bernard. Dante knew well the murderous persecutions inflicted on Christians by the Ancient Romans, yet instead of “canceling” the past, he transformed it. “The Divine Comedy” is an illustration of St. Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians, “whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” It took the best of antiquity, emptied it of error, and converted its beauty to promote the true and good. While readers enjoy “The Divine Comedy” and its vignettes of retribution, it is also a story of redemption, including a reconciliation between Christendom and its pagan ancestors. In the present age, so quick to sacrifice European philosophy, history, and literature on the altar of political correctness, it grows increasingly difficult for people to comprehend and appreciate Dante’s art, steeped in a Christian thought. “The Divine Comedy” is an intensely personal quest, where Dante reveals his own sins and weaknesses. It is simultaneously a metaphor for humanity’s universal journey toward its Creator, described in the last line of the comedy as “the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.” Love is the guiding force of the work, personified in the beautiful Beatrice whom Dante admired from afar. It is she who sends Virgil to rescue Dante lost in sin, she who guides him through paradise. A passage of Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy" is depicted in stained glass at the apostolic nunciature in Washington, D.C., July 2. | CNS/TYLER ORSBURN Dante’s epic is laden with love. “Inferno” is populated by lovers — lovers of power, of money, of self — the author even feels a twinge of pity for the adulterous love that damned Paolo and Francesca to windswept torment in hell. Purgatory articulates the poet’s theology of love, divided into “bad love,” “too little love,” and “immoderate love,” all of which must be transformed into a pure love directed at the Lord. The greatest modern challenge to understanding “The Divine Comedy” may be in the loss of the understanding of the word “to love.” Contemporary culture invokes love at every turn, whether for the superficial, the disordered or as a weapon against “haters,” generally described as those with differing beliefs. The divergent paths of these many “meanings” of love foment division, leaving many in the same situation as Dante at the beginning of the epic, “lost in a dark wood.” Living in an age with awesome capabilities of communication brings responsibilities. The “Year of Dante” offers a remarkable opportunity to think about the privilege of literacy, the power or language for good or ill, and how to bring beauty back into our daily discourse. Elizabeth Lev is an American-born art historian who lives and works in Rome. 12 • ANGELUS • August 27, 2021
August 27, 2021 • ANGELUS • 13
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Page 34 and 35: LETTER AND SPIRIT SCOTT HAHN Scott

Angelus News | August 27, 2021 | Vol. 6 No. 17

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