IWKnights Corner For September 12, 2021
– 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Did you know this about the IW Knights of Columbus?

What follows below is an excerpt from an excellent article by Anthony Esolen which appears in the latest Columbia online magazine.  If you are interested in reading the entire article please follow one of our links in the final paragraph.

“Dante Alighieri’s Commedia is, in the view of many, the greatest poem in the history of literature.  That alone should recommend it to people of our day, except that we are in the habit of overlooking what is old.  It has been 700 years since Dante’s death in September 1321.  We now have automobiles, televisions and computers.  We have come a long way.  What could that long-dead Florentine say for us today?

A thousand things — but I will choose one.  ‘We are going somewhere’, and the journey we are on is not in our choice.  Sure, we can choose wrong and fail to complete it.  But, the destinations, and the means for arrival, are not up to us.  The destination is to behold God and to delight in his glory.  And Christ alone is the way.

Let us look closely at the first lines of the poem:

Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself in a dark wilderness,
for I had wandered from the straight and true.

This is not just Dante’s way of seizing our attention.  Every word counts.  He does not say my life.  It is our life.  Dante stands for each person and for all of us together.  The Italian word I’ve translated as journey is cammino, and it suggests a pilgrimage, as in the beloved Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James in Compostela.  No one is merely alone on a medieval pilgrimage.  Even if you set out by yourself, you will be with fellow pilgrims; you will pray together and hear Mass along the way.  And if you make it home, you will bring back memories to share with those you love.

Now, Dante says that he was midway upon the journey, and again he wants to be understood precisely. The typical lifespan for man, after the flood, is “three score years and ten” or 70 (cf. Ps 90:10).  This means Dante was 35 when the narrative takes place, and since he was born in 1265, his imagined journey to the hereafter occurred in 1300.  That year is important to him for personal and historical reasons, but there’s more.  Dante did not make up his first line from his own head.  He is echoing Scripture in a powerful way — especially powerful for us now, when we seem to have lost any sense that we are going anywhere at all.

The scene is this.  The good king Hezekiah fell ill, and the prophet Isaiah came to him to tell him to settle his house affairs, because he would surely die.  But Hezekiah wept and prayed to God, saying, ‘Lord, remember, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and a perfect heart, and did what was good in your eyes’ (Is 38:3).

The Lord heard Hezekiah’s prayer and sent Isaiah to him again to say that he would live another 15 years. As a sign, God made the shadow of the sundial go backwards 10 degrees.  Then Hezekiah burst out in a song of thanksgiving, beginning, ‘In the middle of my days I went down to the gates of hell’ (Is 38:10). And that is precisely what Dante the pilgrim is about to do.  We will soon see those very gates, and the terrible final line of their inscription: ‘Abandon all hope, you who enter here’.”"

To find the link to our feature story - and other information about the Knights of Columbus -  can be found at IWKnights9981.com/bulletin or on facebook.com/IWknights9981 and NOW on Twitter at twitter.com/IwKnights.

Links Related to this week’s column:

Where Are You Going?
	Dante reminds us that our lives have a destination — and it is Love.
		By Anthony Esolen, Knights of Columbus' Columbia Magazine (9/1/2021)
			Click here for Article

Prayer for Protection in Time of Pandemic
	A Novena which seeks Our Lady’s Intercession for Protection in Time of Pandemic
		By His Holiness, Pope Francis (3/2020)
		A PRAYER FOR PROTECTION IN TIME OF PANDEMIC (PDF Version)
				Click here for the Prayer