Thinking today about the famous ending of Purgatory XXVII. Where Virgil says to the Pilgrim Dante:

“No longer wait for what I do or say,

Your judgment is now free and whole and true;

To fail to follow its will would be to stray.

Lord of yourself I crown and miter you.”

In this famous passage, Virgil is passing the guidance of the Pilgrim over—not yet to Beatrice—but to Dante himself. He is claiming that now that Dante has seen sin for what it is and has reached the top of the Mountain of Suffering (and learned its lessons) that he is now ready to be his own guide. Virgil’s job is done. He famously disappears in canto XXX. This passage is often one where Dante, the most Catholic (and perhaps most Christian) of poets, is said to exhibit his Catholicism (with all its Medieval warts) most. Here, say some of my Protestant friends, is proof of the poet—and of Medieval Catholic—error concerning grace. See, they say, Dante is now ready to stand on his own. He has his own righteousness. He does not need Christ. His works and his own suffering have saved him. This easy polemic reading, however, is NOT what Dante is saying at all.

I think what he is affirming is that sanctification is taking us somewhere. It is not taking us (it can’t) toward the ability to save ourselves. God is, however, growing us up. He is making us into the image of His Son. This is not a weak image. Some of the hymns describe us as worms and sinful worms at that. This is true. We are (me at the head of the column) broken, sinful, fall-over-at-the-first-chance patsies. We are betrayers, evil-doers, vicious fiends, and thieves. This is not what we always will be, however. God is making us into Jesus. This does not preclude our need of His grace. We are permanently in need of that. As Dante stands at the top of the world and prepares to spring into heaven, he is not denying his need of Christ’s grace. He is simply stating that God’s grace does only starts by saving us. He means with us (as with the Universe) to completely redeem us and make us into people saved by grace and made to stand like our Elder Brother Jesus.

Thomas said it this way (Dante would echo) Grace does not destroy nature. Grace perfects nature.