Purgatory: Canto 32 -- Beatrice Unveiled

Palm Sunday -- the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem, hailed as its king and liberator! The heavenly pageant, both Dante and Statius (who has also crossed Lethe) notice, heads East into the risen sun and the allegory of the corruption of the Church through the wealth it has accumulated since the alleged Donation of Constantine is played out on the spot where Dante stands.



We've also arrived at the point in La Vita Nuova where it converges most directly with La Commedia, for it is in Canto 41 that Dante first articulates the vision that prompts him to write the one-hundred canto journey to God via the intercession of Beatrice. He writes,

"Beyond the sphere that makes the widest round, passes the sigh arisen from my heart; a new intelligence that Love in tears endowed it with is urging it on high.

Once arrived at the place of its desiring it sees a lady held in reverence, splendid in light; and through her radiance the pilgrim spirit looks upon her being.

But when it tries to tell me what it saw, I cannot understand the subtle words it speaks to the sad heart that makes it speak.

I know it tells of that most gracious one, for I often hear the name of Beatrice. This much, at least, is clear to me, dear ladies" (10-3).

Dante, who is still yearning for the healing of his psychosomatic disorder, is like St. Salvator of Horta in his realization that spiritual healing lends itself to physical healing. His witnessing of this allegorical representation of Church corruption immediately following the triumph of the Church -- notice, it's a two-scene diptych -- is written in love for the value he perceives the Church to have lost in its marriage to the State. You'll notice that he's been very consistent with this theme that the Church and the State should remain separate entities since his journey through hell. In response to Fr. Earl's question, we can expect that Dante will continue to speak about it in the Paradiso, but he does so out of love for the Church Triumphant, and we're likely to find that his scenes are as carefully balanced there as they are here.

S.