The Beatitudes in Dante’s Purgatorio: Meditation II
This is the second of three Lenten meditations on the Beatitudes in Dante’s Purgatorio. The first is posted here, and the third here.
“Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb”
Blessed, indeed, is Mary, the fruit of whose womb is Jesus. Blessed, indeed, is Mary among women and blessed, indeed, among us all. The Feast of the Annunciation falls, more often than not, in the season of Lent yet properly belongs to the consideration of the Beatitudes. No one is more rightly named blessed among humans than her through whom all our blessings come. The Beatitudes are really about the quality of our life in Christ, our being defined by our end in him and our life with him. Mary in so many ways signifies the perfection of our humanity considered simply in itself; the real vocation and purpose of our humanity is seen in her.
The connection between the Beatitudes and the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dante’s Purgatorio is about the vision of our humanity in its purity and truth. Just as there is an appropriate Beatitude for each sin that is being purged in relation to the corresponding virtue that is bestowed, so, too, Mary, in Dante’s vision, appears as the exemplar of human virtue in relation to each of the seven deadly sins. Mary serves as the example of the virtue to be acquired over and against each of them and so there is a correspondence between Mary and the Beatitudes in Dante’s careful vision and understanding. She is always the first example of the necessary virtue to be acquired on each of the cornices of Mount Purgatory.
On the cornice of Pride, Mary is the outstanding exemplar of humility which stands in stark contrast to pride. The proud penitents contemplate, while bent double, the images of the Angel’s Ave to Mary and her response, Ecce ancilla Dei, Behold the handmaid of God (Dante substituting, for reasons of meter, Dei for Domini), and, assuming in a kind of ellipsis the rest of her response, her fiat mihi, “be it unto me according to thy word;” words which capture the very essence of humility. It is about our ‘yes’ to God, our being defined not by self-will but by God’s will working through and with our wills; all of which is wonderfully concentrated in the figure of Mary who represents the perfection of our humanity qua human. Only in her purity and perfection – as created by God – can God become man and effect our salvation.