What Time Is It?
Dante the Poet begins this Canto with an elaborate excursus into how to tell the time by the fact that the sun has risen in certain areas of the sky in the Southern Hemisphere which means it has left other constellations behind. Suffice to say, the light is getting brighter here. John Ciardi calls these nine lines “erudite affectation” and I find it hard to disagree with him at one level. Yet, here at the base of Mount Purgatory, we NEED to be reminded of the movement of spheres which mark the passage of time. Every second spent on the Mount that is not used to move closer to God is a second wasted. Indeed, we find that some of the pilgrims have been waiting for months to come here and others will be forced to wait far longer due to their sloth and laziness on earth. The question ‘What Time Is It?’ is far more important than merely deciding in which quadrant the sun is to be found. It is an existential question that aligns one appropriate action to one’s circumstances. Is it time to play? Is it time to sing songs? Is it time to move one’s backside and to get busy unpacking past sins in order to be worthy for future joys and grace? I think again and again we are given the answer to the question “What Time Is It?” in powerful ways here in the Purgatorio.

Border Crossing
It is one of the joys in rereading the Commedia to compare parallel events and cantos across all three sections: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. For instance the crossing over by the pilgrims is remarkably instructive between Inferno and Purgatorio. The ferryman of Hell is Charon, who must whack sinners with the oar to get them in line. The boatman in Purgatorio is an angel who has no need of oars. The people in the Inferno crossing are all about only themselves and it is a raucous turmoil with pushing and shoving each other to see who can get on first. Here we have unity, patience and consideration. In Hell, community is riven and destroyed. In Purgatorio, community is restored. Indeed, we will see this relational concern time and again. The shared singing of Psalm 113 is a clear example of that: they sing with ONE VOICE and as we shall see, the choice of the great hymn is instructive as well.

43 At the stern stood the heavenly pilot--
44 his mere description would bring to bliss.
45 And more than a hundred souls were with him.
46 'In exitu Isräel de Aegypto'
47 they sang together with one voice,
48 and went on, singing the entire psalm.
49 Then he blessed them with the sign of Holy Cross.
50 They flung themselves upon the beach,
51 and he went off as swiftly as he came.

The beauty of the angelic boatman is obvious and the use of greater and greater light revealing the power and presence of the Holy God will be a repeating theme as we move closer to the throne of God in the next two sections: Purgatorio and Paradiso. Dante the Poet’s craft is seen in the gradual revelation of the oncoming boat, which of course, is also a metaphor of gradual revelation of God’s Truth to Dante the Pilgrim on this journey.

Play It Again Sam
We are reminded of the sinfulness of the Dante the Pilgrim here, and it is a wonderfully sly and, in fact, wise dig by Dante the Poet of his own ego and pride. When the dear friend Casella appears and is recognized, Dante the Pilgrim asks him to sing a song like in the old days. 

106 And I: 'If a new law does not take from you
107 memory or practice of the songs of love
108 that used to soothe my every sorrow,
109 'please let me hear one now to ease my soul,
110 for it is out of breath and spent,
111 joined to my body coming here.'
112 'Love that converses with me in my mind,'
113 he then began, so sweetly
114 that the sweetness sounds within me still.

As your notes in your translation will remind you, the song he sings in vs 112 is, in fact, one of Dante the Poet’s own poems that had been put to music by Casella. What we have, however, is Dante the Pilgrim stopping everything and subverting the process for which they have all arrived on these shores. Instead of unison singing as one, it is now ONE sing for them all. Instead of moving forward toward the Mount, they now stand still, no progress being made, and only listen. Instead of a holy psalm sung by God’s people, it is a love poem written by one dude who is, in fact, loving the fact that he gets to hear his own work again. There is a real problem in the next three lines, and while Dante the Poet knows this is not right, Dante the Pilgrim does not:

115 My master and I and all those standing
116 near Casella seemed untroubled,
117 as if we had no other care.
118 We were spellbound, listening to his notes…

The psalm they were singing began 'In exitu Isräel de Aegypto' which is “When Israel out of Egypt came.” And yet, just as the exiles from Egypt brought their own means of idolatry with them in the form of jewelry and gold, which ended up being cast into a golden calf to be worshiped, so too these pilgrims and even Virgil and Dante the Pilgrim are on the edge of idolatry themselves with the ‘golden’ poetry of their past lives on earth. They have supplanted the worship of the One God with the self-referent adulation of one man’s love poem sung by another man. They are spellbound. It is a form of a golden calf of their own making. Now, here in Purgatory, they are not growing, moving and mourning their sins which prevent them from seeing God’s light. There is a real lesson here for me, in that simply because something might make me happy or enable me to be “untroubled,” it is not necessarily the best thing for me. We are in the realm of intention and integrity which requires sacrifice and surrender: a very difficult place to walk for some of us. 
    Cato knows this and, like Moses coming down from the Mount in Exodus, this fiercely righteous man rushes up and sends everyone fleeing toward that which should have been foremost on their hearts as soon as they set foot on shore: growth in God. 

119 … that venerable old man appeared and cried:
120 'What is this, laggard spirits?
121 'What carelessness, what delay is this?
122 Hurry to the mountain and there shed the slough
123 that lets not God be known to you.'

Who, I wonder, will be that strong presence in our lives, in my life, when in fact I sit ‘untroubled,’ smiling, stupidly ‘spellbound’ and neglecting what is required of me by my God?

Gentle Reminder
Please read the original material, each and every Canto and the notes and commentary that are part of your particular translations, before looking over my comments. I will not unpack all of the subtleties and nuances of this great work: not by a long shot. This is a blog of my own reflections as I read this miraculous work for the seventh time. Hence, I am merely thinking and reflecting aloud, so to speak. Please do read and dig and discover on your own too. Dante will amply repay all your effort.

Spilling The Beans
I am a proud father of two, daughter and son, who now also have a daughter [born to my daughter] and son [born to my son]. There were always times with both my children and grandchildren when they were very young when they could not keep a secret; especially when it came to giving gifts. One of them would bring the gift to my wife or myself, barely able to contain their excitement at what they knew would be the best gift in the world! Indeed, often they would blurt out the surprise before the package was even half opened: “Merry Christmas Mommy… It’s a dishrag I made in school for you!” And my wife and I would ooh and aah over the ‘surprise’ gift.
    That is how I’ve felt for the last month about beginning this section of the Commedia with you. The Purgatorio is truly remarkable in so many ways, I’ve started this initial blog several times… SEVERAL times. Like my beloved little ones, I realized I was telling you what to look for and what surprises awaited before we ever got to the particular Canto. However, Dante the Poet does not tell us what to expect or watch for. Instead, like a flower slowly unfolding petal by petal, he walks us through this part of the Medieval universe and we find new lessons and profound differences from and superficial similarities with our experiences in the Inferno. So, I’ve deleted all the prior reflections and decided to simply walk with Virgil and Dante the Pilgrim, listening, learning and discovering along with them. Let me encourage you, however, to stay with us on the journey. The language and poetry grow more beautiful and profound the further we go, and to assume we know about the Commedia simply based on the Inferno is like assuming you know all about Paris based on your exploration of the sewers below the city. You may wish to read about the theology of Purgatory in your translation of Purgatorio, or even check out Dorothy Sayers version with its excellent notes. However, even if you just dive in and learn as you go, there is beauty, pain, growth and grace awaiting each of us as we continue the journey. Join me.

It’s All Up From Here
In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the prisoner who is set free crawls up out of the cave where he lived only in shadows and muted light to see upon standing free the brilliant light and open space of truth. Dante, of course, discovered hard and bitter truths in the journey down, down through Hell, but now he too stands in the open air of hope and divine Grace. It is expressed in the subtlest and most beautiful of ways. As he and Virgil finish crawling down, then up the leg hairs / fur of Satan, they stand up and find color, fresh sea air and stars that had never been seen since the dawn of humanity.

13 Sweet color of oriental sapphire,
Dolce color d'orïental zaffiro,
 
14 hovering in the calm and peaceful aspect
che s'accoglieva nel sereno aspetto
 
15 of intervening air, pure to the horizon,
del mezzo, puro infino al primo giro,
 
16 pleased my eyes once more
a li occhi miei ricominciò diletto,
 
17 as soon as I had left the morbid air
tosto ch'io usci' fuor de l'aura morta
 
18 that had afflicted both my chest and eyes.
che m'avea contristati li occhi e 'l petto.

We have here a stark contrast to the fetid and choking atmosphere of self-hate, anger and fear which Dante the Pilgrim had been breathing since beginning the journey. Indeed, I would say even before he began the journey, for it was his twisted view of this world and its hatreds and prejudices and pride that led him astray in the first place. He breathed the air of war and duplicity even before he set foot in Hell. 
    Not now. As he comes up out of the self-referent, self-hating, self-absorbed realm of the Inferno we know immediately that all is different here. Love shines from Venus, “the fair planet that emboldens love.” The stars shine down in purity and nobility. The four stars he saw almost certainly were not the Southern Cross but rather the four cardinal virtues that are God given guides for us all in Classical Ethics as well as Medieval Christianity: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. These are above the world from God and not earned as a result of any moral progress on the part of humanity. Robert Hollander of Princeton notes: “What is important to understand … is that these virtues were infused and not earned -- which again points to Adam and Eve, the only humans born before Christ who had the virtues infused in their very making.”  

Surprise!
Now we need to be clear that Purgatory is not a lesser Inferno. Instead every person we meet from here on out is, in reality, heaven bound. This can better be described as heaven’s porch than anything else. That is why the first person we see should shock our socks off: Cato the non-Christian who rejected Caesar’s claim to Emperor and who ended up committing suicide as a result of losing his battle against him. Cato refused to live his life as a slave. He choose integrity, freedom and truth in the act of suicide. Hence this differs completely from the selfish and even petulant acts of the suicides we spoke with in the Inferno. But more than this we find that a pagan can be saved in God’s economy, based upon the divine truths that are part of the Imago Dei in every human being. The four cardinal virtues that shine in the stars above also seem to shine out from Cato’s very being: 

31 I saw beside me an old man, alone,
32 who by his looks was so deserving of respect
33 that no son owes his father more.
34 His beard was long and streaked with white,
35 as was his hair, which fell
36 in double strands down to his chest.
37 The rays of those four holy stars
38 adorned his face with so much light
39 he seemed to shine with brightness of the sun.

We discover that he is in fact watching over the entire mountain of Purgatory. This is a place of willing discipline, not forced suffering, for the sake of becoming closer to Christ’s Image and drawing nearer to heaven. There is a place for rest and there is a time to grow, and we will find Cato chastising these two when they do not accept the seriousness of the times and the importance of this place. All this from a pagan suicide dude.