Dante Alighieri was a very intelligent man. Not only did he give Italian to Italy and the world, just like Rome gave us Latin, the man gave us a map to understand our Soul.
It’s right there on the sinistra – lefthand side of the painting. That’s a nice word, eh: sinistra. Hence, sinister. Meaning all things Left are bad. Of course, I digress, for one could easily claim both Hell and Purgatory are situated on his righthand side. But that’s besides the point.
That we are all peccatores – sinners, that is well established by now. That we all, as Martin Luther put it, “peccat fortiter” or persist in sin, that is also pretty founded in fact. What is not clearly perceived, and has always been so, is the fact that our salvation doesn’t lie at the end of the path from Hell to Heaven.
No, signori e signore.
The path to Salvation lies in the journey itself. You may not see it, but not only the path to Hell but also that to Heaven, is paved only with the best of intentions. Dante’s chief merit is that he pointed that out some 714 years ago.
It is for this reason that I love his poetry and his spirit. Because the Poet glimpsed into the soul of men and saw more than just the daggers Shakespeare saw in their smiles. Master Alighieri identified the Culprit all too well. Sin is the culprit. And Man’s propensity for Sin is only exceeded by his aptitude to persevere and attain diabolical proportions of iniquity.
Errare humanum est – perseverare diabolicum!
To err is human – to persevere diabolical!
Dante was not right about everything. In fact, he was on the wrong side of the debate regarding the center of the heavens, which he mistakenly identified as our Earth. But that’s ok. Errare humanum est. I am sure he would have come about, had he had the opportunity to know more.
But he was right about Hell and Purgatory. And he was right about the Journey. And he was also right about getting lost along the way.
As I write these words, I listen to Wagner’s Prelude to Lohengrin majestically conducted by Simon Rattle. And the spirit of Dante guides my thoughts. He seems to want me to say this.
In this life, my friends, we are alone. We get lost. The forest is dark. The temptation forever present to sin. Do not sin! Do not sin! Because if you do, it will condemn you to a life of sin. The world, oh fuck the world, you it is you who needs less sin in his/her life.
Because who wants a journey marred by regret, by sin, self-recrimination, more sin, and an eternity in damnation, spent halfway in Purgatory, and the other endless half, in Hell.
Because, Heaven, ladies and gents, is not the destination. Heaven is the Journey. Everything that exists, exists now and here. And will never be the same. The Past is forever gone. The moment you think about anything, the wind of change blows it away from you.
And when we cling on to anything, we cling on to a Past that was never ours to start with.
Past is never the point of Life, of Us, of God, of here and now.
The Future is the entire point of everything. And it is the ever winding road that lies ahead of us, and that Master Alighieri so aptly described in his Divina Comedia, that makes any difference.
I truly believe the Church should anoint him, for he has done more for the Salvation of our Souls than a myriad of theologists, along with Jesus’ disciples too.
Jesus was born to die for our Sins and to show us the Way.
Dante was born to remind us about It in clearer unequivocal terms.
God is Alpha and Omega. Jehovah – YHWH is at the Center of it all. יוֹשֻׁעַ
And Dante is the Homer of Christianity. Showing us, telling us, our place in the economy of the Cosmos. We’d be wise to recognize this and learn more from this Cartographer of the Soul.
Götterdämmerung 