Kairos & Ambiguities

The Citadel of Reason

I don't want to keep my reflections of Dante in Limbo for that is the next stop on my reflections of Dante's journey through hell.  Limbo is the 1st circle of hell and home of the virtuous pagans and those not baptized.  All the great virtuous heroes of the past are there, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Aristotle, and of course this is the home of his guide Virgil.  Even Saladin is here in a place of honor.

The most prominent feature of the 1st circle is a great citadel, the citadel of human reason.  The citadel is built "as if it were [on] firm ground."  It omits a light that represents the radiance of human reason.  This is the highest state humanity can achieve without God, and the glory of it dazzles Dante, but he knows also that it is nothing compared to the glory of God.

I can remember reading an article a few months back in The Atlantic Monthly about today's university searching for meaning.  The premise of the article was that universities were initially founded and based upon the Christian faith.  During the enlightenment period, the joined the great experiment to found a structure, science, and art world on pure reason.  The post-modern critical eye of relativism has exposed the sandy ground upon which our ivory towers have been built.  So now universities are seeking "the faith" upon which they will build their towers of reason on.  But there is a shakiness to this and an unsureness of purpose as crept into the mix.

Dante reminds us that there is a dazzling light to human reason.  But reason with out hope leaves the inhabitants of limbo with a face of gray pallor.  Hope and color and brightness has been drained from their lives.

Tillich expresses the same idea in Dynamics of Faith.  Tillich reminds us that all reason is built on some sort of faith.  Flaws in our faith produce flaws in our reason.  And that is really what happens in the next circles of hell.  Reason is perverted by sin and desire and extinguishes the light not only of the hope of glory, but human reason.  Canto IV ends with these words as they leave the peace of human reason for the other circles of hell.

"My master leads me by another road out of that serenity to the roar and trembling air of Hell.  I pass from light into the kingdom of eternal night."

May the light of human reason transformed by the light and glory of God guide you on your way and give you a hope that shall never perish.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

I Can't Help Myself

I can't help myself, I have been meditating on Dante again.  I guess the last time I thought about this we left off at the gates of hell.  So abandon hope all you who read on.

Again what strikes me is that people get what they want in hell.  Their punishment is to live out their hearts desires to their ends.  The first souls Dante meets inside the gates of hell are "These nearly soulless whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise.  They are mixed here with the despicable corps of angels who were neither for God nor Satan, but only for themselves."

These souls run about in a haze.  You can't really see them for who they are, they have no names, though some may recognize them by shape.  They stand between heaven and hell, because they would not pick sides in life.  Nameless, because they would not let their name be associated with any cause either of heaven or of hell.  So in reality Dante points out they are really for themselves.

I think this image cuts through many of our modern/post-modern attempts at mock objectivity and open mindedness.  We want to keep our sterile safe position as critic.  Really we aren't about those things, but really out for ourselves.  We want to protect our reputation, keep our options open, don't ripple to waters because we might have to move through them.  In the end we fear being categorized, or fear our next situation, over having a healthy fear of God.  Choosing neither things of God nor evil things, we choose ourselves and become shadows of what God created us to be.

Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.

Until next time...Grace and Peace

Reflections on Dante #2

Thinking about Dante again, although I will skip over mid-life crisis stuff and wondering around and jump to the gates of hell.  Of course most people remember the writing on the gate "Abandon all hope Ye Who Enter Here,"  but I think most people miss the middle phrase on the gate.  It is in all capital letters in my translation.

"I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE.

I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE.

I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW.

SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.

I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,

PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT.

ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR

WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND.

ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.

What is interesting in reading is how Dante learns as he travels through hell that it is really sacred justice that is at work there.  As Dante talks to the people in hell he at first feels a lot of sympathy for them, as he can't hear the deceit and self justification in their speech, for they only tell half of the story.  (How often that is true of me as I rationalize my own sin.)  But, as Dante travels through hell he gets better ears to hear the evil and see the justice.

It is not accident that law of Dante's Hell is the law of symbolic retribution.  As they sinned so are they punished.  It reminds me of that great C.S. Lewis symbol of judgment.  That on the last day of judgment those who are believers will say, "Thy will be done."  And those who are unrepentant will hear, "Thy will be done."  Sin brings its own punishment, both temporal and eternal.

I am tempted to go into Tillich's understanding of the unity of love, power and justice, but that must wait for another day.  So I simply ask this blessing for you:  May the love of Christ be the foundation for your life, may the power of Christ bring you hope against which the gates of hell may not stand, and may the justice of Christ work in your to make you perfect in righteousness.

Until next time...Grace & Peace 

Reflections on Dante #1

I have been reading Dante lately and once again I have been driven to think about God and life in new and powerful ways.  I wanted to share a few of those reflections with you.

I had a professor who told asked the question, how do you get into Dante's hell?  The answer is of course you have to be dead (technically you have to be dead before 1300), but that is not the whole answer.  The answer must certainly include that you must be dead and be a sinner.  Yet that is not the whole answer either because sinners are in heaven as well (you see the truth Dante understood is that we are all sinners).  To be in Dante's hell you must be dead, you must be a sinner, and you must be unrepentant.  The unrepentant part is very important.

What Dante makes us do is struggle with the price of not repenting of our sins (Inferno), the cost and path of repentance (Purgatorio), and fruit or end of repentance (Paradiso).  I find it interesting that our church doesn't want to even want to mention or talk about repentance.

At the 2006 Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference P62 Request of the Council of Bishops was adopted.  The request asked the Bishops of the Church to prepare a written teaching regarding the meaning and application of repentance as transmitted by the apostolic faith.  The request came out of the flurry of activity surrounding Judicial Decision 1032.  Yet, there has been no response from this request, nor has there been much public discussion of the meaning of repentance by the leadership in our church.

As I have struggled with the meaning of repentance I have come to a couple of conclusions.  First, repentance is tied directly to the work of the Holy Spirit in administering personal redemption through grace.

1. The Spirit works the restraint of sin, by which the Spirit provides time for repentance.
2. The Spirit works the conviction of sin, by which the Spirit awakens the sinner to the awareness of sin.
3. Repentance, by which the Spirit leads the penitent to godly sorrow for sin, reform of behavior, reparation for harm done to others, revulsion against sin, and confession of sin.

Second, I am reminded how much a part of the gospel repentance is.

1. Mark 1:14 "Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
2. Acts 2:37-38 "Now when the heard this, there were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, 'Brothers, what should we do?'  Peter said to them, 'Repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Third, I am thankful that God is full of grace.  In the Purgatorio, Dante meets Manfred, whose Father (the emperor) is in hell for crimes against the church.  Manfred was following in his Father's footsteps, but just before he dies (in battle), he makes a confession.  This confession seems to be with his dying breath, really just a sliver of the first syllable of the first word, of his confession. He put it this way Canto III line 121 & 133

"My sins were horrible in the extreme,                                                   

Yet such the infinite mercy's wide embrace,

Its arms go out to all who turn to them....

Their curse cannot so damn a man for ever

That the eternal love may not return

While one green hope puts forth the feeblest sliver."

May you know this repentance, forgiveness, and grace in your heart!

Until next time...Grace & Peace