Walking With Virgil: Dante's Divine Comedy and the Art of Spiritual Friendship
Just as Virgil prompts Dante to consider the horrors of the human condition, we too need people, wise and trusted friends who can point out the shadows that populate our inner lives.
By Ryan Diaz
I.
Dante’s Comedia
Midway along the journey of our life
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
for I had wandered from the straight path.
Many of us, regardless of our age, wake up feeling lost. The path has dissolved from beneath our feet. We are alone, unsure where home is, unable to get our bearings straight, our sense of direction clouded by the ever-encroaching shadow of night. We used to know who we were, we had a sense of calling and vocation, we could articulate our purpose and meaning, but now we find ourselves at a loss for words.
In the Divine Comedy, Dante uses eschatological imagery to explain the human soul’s journey from damnation to grace. Dante calls us to examine our surroundings. Are we on the straight path, or do we find ourselves in a “wilderness, savage, and stubborn”? If so, how did we get here, and how do we escape?
Alone, Dante can’t penetrate the mysteries of heaven.
2.
Alone in the Wood
The first canto in the Inferno gives us insight into Dante’s predicament. He describes himself as sleepy, saying, “How I entered I cannot truly say, I had become so sleepy at the moment when I first strayed.” It’s at this moment when his guard is down that Dante first wanders off “the path of truth.” In the Scriptures, wakefulness and sleep describe one’s spiritual condition. The sleeper is ignorant of the realities of sin; he cannot perceive his destruction because he is blissfully unaware of the state of his soul.
It’s important that Dante is alone, a prophetic critique of our age of individualism. The voices we trust the most come from within. Our algorithms tell us what we want to hear, all of us victims of confirmation bias that silences any conflicting evidence. As the poem progresses, Dante realizes that he cannot make his way out of the woods alone. His efforts are fruitless; he stands in his own way. Unable to ascend the hill and unable to flee the forest, Dante cries for help. “And when I saw him standing in this wasteland, Have pity on my soul, I cried to him, whichever you are, shade or living man!”
It’s only at the end ourselves that we realize the need for aid. The journey out of the woods is a journey we cannot take on our own. Virgil, the ancient Roman poet, acts as Dante the Pilgrim’s guide. Without Virgil’s wisdom and guidance, Dante is doomed to wander aimlessly in the dark wood of isolation. Later in the poem, Dante is met by his lost love Beatrice who leads Dante beyond himself into the mystery of God. Alone, Dante can’t penetrate the mysteries of heaven but aided by divine grace, imaged by Beatrice, Dante finds his way into the heavens.
The Divine Comedy thus serves as an argument for spiritual friendship and spiritual direction. The privatized, individualized spirituality of the twenty-first century does little for the state of our souls. Finding ourselves requires that we first find men and women to guide us. Without guides to point us in the right direction, we face the impossible task of self-discovery. By examining Dante’s journey and his companions, we can come to learn how spiritual friendship aids us in our journeys and ultimately how communal life shapes our souls.
Spiritual direction is the practice of self-examination. But there are limits to what we can see in the mirror.
3.
The Descent into Self
Abandon every hope, all you who enter.
The words inscribed on the gates of hell are meant to inspire fear. But Dante’s journey into hell is actually the foundation of his hope. This journey is a journey into the depths of Dante’s soul. With Virgil’s guidance, Dante comes face to face with himself. Virgil prompts Dante to ask questions of the lost souls they meet on the way. For instance, on the edge of the fourth circle Dante meets the prodigals and the miserly eternally locked in battle, perpetually arguing, asking each other, “Why hoard? Why Waste?” In learning about their sin and the lives that led them to hell, Dante confronts his capacity for evil, and the banality of sin itself. “For all the gold that is or ever was beneath the moon won’t buy a moments rest for even one among these weary souls.”
Just as Virgil prompts Dante to consider the horrors of the human condition, we too need people, wise and trusted friends who can point out the shadows that populate our inner lives. These shadows are often invisible. They thrive on their anonymity. It takes a loving friend to point out the darkness we ignore, and it takes a wise guide to prompt us to explore the parts of ourselves we leave unattended and unassessed. Spiritual direction is the practice of self-examination. But there are limits to what we can see in the mirror. It takes a true spiritual friend to stare with us at the ugliness that mars our image, and spiritual direction happens when they are wise enough to point it out, and we are humble enough to heed their warnings.
Maturity in Christ is a byproduct of the communal life of the church.
4.
The Journey of Repentance
I shall sing about that second realm
where man’s soul goes to purify itself
and become worthy to ascend to heaven.
St. James tells us to confess our sins to each other so that we might be healed. The power of confession lies in the act itself. It is more than the admission of wrongdoing; it is an acknowledgment of our need for grace. Confession isn’t a private affair (an issue often found in many branches of Protestant Christianity). We acknowledge that both change and repentance are beyond our powers by inviting someone into our confession. In hearing the confessions of others, we also learn that we are not alone in our struggles.
In purgatory, Dante learns what it means to be repentant. With Virgil as his guide, he hears the repentant cries of those blessed souls preparing for heaven. In Canto XI of Purgatorio, those once prideful souls now pray, “our strength is only weakness.” This is the heart of repentance, an acknowledgment of our inability to redeem ourselves. The confession is made all the more potent by the presence of those we have entrusted with our spiritual well-being.
Maturity in Christ is a byproduct of the communal life of the church. In repentance, we not only acknowledge our need for God but our need for community. In community, the lie of self-reliance is put to rest. We do away with pretense. We make room for real healing by acknowledging our corporate brokenness, for healing is only available to those who recognize their need for redemption.
Beatrice’s example invites Dante into a transformative encounter with grace, a meeting that leaves the poet at a loss for words.
5.
The Ascent into God
After ascending the mount of purgatory, Dante arrives on the shores of paradise. It is here that he is greeted by Beatrice. Beatrice stands in as a symbol of divine grace. Beatrice, her face turned sunward, invites Dante to follow her gaze. It’s in following her gaze that Dante begins to feel transformed. But Dante isn’t becoming less human, nor is he transcending his humanity. By gazing upon the glory and goodness of God, Dante becomes truly human. He describes this as becoming “trasnhumanized,” which literally means to pass beyond the human. His mind is “captured… with strains of harmony tempered and tuned by [God].” Dante’s transhumanism isn’t an abandoning of his humanity but a sanctifying of his humanity. Humanity is made in the image of God, to be human is to be “God-like.” By participating in the divine life we participate in God’s divine image and find ourselves becoming what we always should have been, creatures attuned to the love and presence of God. Beatrice’s example invites Dante into a transformative encounter with grace, a meeting that leaves the poet at a loss for words. Dante’s transformation is mediated through a created being. Beatrice is the bridge through which the divine light of God shines. The light of divine life dwells in those in whom God’s Spirit dwells.
Since the Garden, God has committed to partner with humanity and fill the earth with his divine presence. The Hebrew word for image, tselem, evokes images of the great idols of the Ancient Near East. These idols served as the god’s representatives, the glory of the gods contained in the images themselves. Humans are the image and glory of God. It is through humanity that God communicates his glory to a fallen world. To thoroughly encounter God, we must be led into his presence via the gaze of our fellow man, those believers who are likewise endowed with the image and spirit of God.
As Dante travels through Paradise, Beatrice serves as his guide into the mysteries of divine life. Numerous times Dante comes across things beyond his ability to comprehend. Beatrice unravels these mysteries for her companion, explaining what she can in a way Dante might understand. We all need friends to help us process and understand our encounters with God. Our scope is narrow, our sight limited, and in the face of a God who is utterly beyond our categories, we need guidance as we enter into his mystery. Wise spiritual friends help us discern what God is and what God is not. They form our intellects and imaginations by giving us new categories and by helping us put to bed our inaccurate assumptions about God. We each see in part, but together we can see a bit more. The deposit of the church is its tradition—not traditionalism (tradition for tradition’s sake) but the rich heritage of those saints who walked through the darkness of God’s immensity before us, who in turn reveal the light of God hidden by our own darkness.
The only way out of the forest of error is to find ourselves experienced guides.
6.
A Case for Spiritual Friendship
Dante’s Divine Comedy makes a strong case for spiritual friendship. The only way out of the forest of error is to find ourselves experienced guides, guides who will point out our capacity for sin, encourage us to confess, and lead us into the very presence of God through their example. In Ephesians 4, Paul emphasizes that full maturity is dependent on the mutual exchange of truth in love between believers. Christ is not in the business of privatized spirituality. He has called us to journey alongside one another so that we might each present ourselves spotless before the bridegroom.
Ryan Diaz is a poet and writer from Queens, New York. He holds a BA in History from St. Johns University and is currently completing a MA in Biblical Studies. His work has been featured in publications like Ekstasis, Premier Christianity, Dappled Things, and Busted Halo. His first poetry collection, For Those Wandering Along the Way, was released in 2021. He currently lives in Queens, New York with his wife, Janiece. Keep up with Ryan’s work at www.avagueidea.com.