As part of Catholic Students鈥� Week celebrations Feb. 4, the cardinal told the packed room that the almost 700-year-old literary work is still relevant to this day and explained how it applies to everyone鱿鱼视频app life.
The Divine Comedy was written by Dante Alighieri. It is a three-part story about how he is found in despair until a poem is sent to help bring him to heaven (paradiso). But in order to get there, he has to journey into hell (the inferno) and purgatory (purgatorio). Collins also mentioned J.R.R. Tolkien鱿鱼视频app writings in reference to the journey of searching for the plan God has ahead for us.
In life, we are always being asked who we are, where we come from and where we are going, said Collins, adding that The Divine Comedy and Tolkien鱿鱼视频app Lord of the Rings and The Quest of the Holy Grail are great works that are about the journey to seek home. These journeys consist of trying to achieve something better and pure that is beyond one鱿鱼视频app human self, where there is no easy solution to achieve glory and going through hell and back (not necessarily to the inferno like Dante) is an experience one needs in order to be victorious. The journey that begins in darkness, where we all may find ourselves at some point in our lives, said Collins, is necessary so we may come to know ourselves. When we face evil and darkness then go through purification we can become full versions of ourselves and reach salvation.
鈥淗is talk made me think that heaven and hell are real in my life and through my journey I can be closer to achieving a form of paradise in my current life,鈥� said fourth-year biology student Allie Mizzi.
Mizzi 鈥渓oved how (Collins) put the book into a historical context, and addressed the importance of that context,鈥� how he 鈥渃redited translation in order to understand Dante to its fullest鈥� and how 鈥渢he talk made (The Divine Comedy) not only more enjoyable to read, but more applicable to my life as a young person developing my faith.鈥�
The cardinal also described the theme of faith and reason present in Dante that is applicable to the way Catholics can live. Faith and reason are very applicable to young people; Collins not only described them as aspects of the mind that are fed by philosophy and intellect, but also as the support and experience that we need while we proceed on our journey as Catholics.
Collins continued by saying that the faith we find through Scripture, reason, our encounters with Christ and our relationship with Jesus that we strengthen through the sacraments don鈥檛 just come from strong intellect, but also from having good friends who journey with us and guide us all in the name of love. For friendship, in The Divine Comedy, Virgil is sent by Beatrice to accompany Dante on his journey through hell, purgatory and heaven. Then it is out of love that she is sent as his guide to brings him to paradise. As for faith and reason, Collins, quoting Blessed John Paul II, said they are the wings that help us soar through the ups and downs of life and are our means of staying out of the inferno.
Collins reminded the audience that the inferno, purgatorio and paradise all begin on Earth and are not places that exist only after we pass away. He said the chaos and destruction we see now in our everyday lives is hell and through sin we can easily be swept up in it. Purgatory, he said, is not only where we go after we die, but our purification for heaven begins with our lives on Earth. And this journey of purification is part of our journey of self-discovery, bettering and decolonizing ourselves so we may become fully alive as humans. And finally, heaven exists here on Earth when we are close to perfect God through selfless giving like in a wholesome friendship or a strong marriage.
(Mervar, 18, is a first-year religion and English student at the University of Toronto.)