Dante, that great medieval poet, authored “The Divine Comedy,” the journey of a soul from hell, through purgatory to heaven. Along the way, Dante is accompanied by a guide who knows the way through the stages of life. The “comedy” is far from funny, but it does lead from dark places to the happiness of heaven — in literary terms, a comedy.
Stephanie Paulsell in a recent issue of The Christian Century (2/24, 21) says she likes to read some book during Lent, a companion in the dark places she travels as Lent lengthens. Poetry sheds light on the ordinary details of life and helps us to see how these insights make common things unique. Artists learn to show us how to see. Van Gough paints a small boat floating on a tranquil river and I see what he wants me to see, the water is shimmering and alive as it moves. The artist Kay Dyer paints but this time in words when she looks down a well for stars at night. And, there they were.
During this Lent I’m reading “The Passion and the Cross,” a recent book by Ron Rolheiser. I’m reading it by hearing a skilled narrator unfold the book for me on my Kindle. I just open my heart and listen to Rolheiser, a companion on my journey this Lent. I am so deft at reading quickly that I can miss the meaning –as in “I’m always forgetting what I read.” So, I press “start” and I hear Rolheiser’s words spoken fresh to me and Lent, then, becomes unique to me, new again.
Passion Sunday is in two days. No palms this year, at least during the Masses. Along with the congregation, I’ll be waving virtual palms and leaning on the insights of the man who has been next to me all of Lent. It’s good to know that I do not have to make this journey alone. Easter is for all of us, the goal of the comedy.