Canto XIII. The poets are now on the second cornice of Purgatory, where the envious are purged. In life their self-love led them to resent the good of others, and to delight in others’ misfortune. They are now no longer able to look enviously on their neighbours, as their eyelids are sealed. The whip of envy is spoken by heavenly voices, which give examples of generous concern for others’ needs, starting with Our Lady’s intercession on behalf of the hosts of the marriage at Cana.

It may be obvious, but the difference between Dante and the souls he meets is that they have died, and he is still alive; obvious, but important. On contemplating a vice such as envy, Dante, and we, should be motivated to try, with the help of God, better to order our loves (see Canto X) in virtuous ways. In short, we must strive for the good life. The holy souls are different. They have failed in a virtue, but now they are not striving for the good life that Dante could, in principle, enjoy on earth. Rather they are purging the attachments that the sin created in them so that they might truly die, and embrace the new life that Christ was the first to enter on his resurrection. In The New Creation, Herbert McCabe OP writes 'what is required at death is that we abandon ourselves totally, that we accept the dissolution of all that self has meant to us'. This, he says, is only possible if we live the Divine life. 'The Christian,' he says 'holds in tension these two ideas: the importance of human achievement and the need to transcend it'.

So for Dante (and us) human achievement (even human achievement dependent on grace) is important, that is to say we must strive for the good life, the life ordered by the cardinal virtues enlivened by Divine love. At the same time we look, ultimately, to its loss and replacement by something utterly new, the life of Christ. For the souls in purgatory it is this loss and gain that they are struggling, by grace, to complete.

This may seem a bit abstract, but it is an important key to understanding penance, not only in Lent. A penance, McCabe writes, self-denial, is 'the attitude of a man towards his desires with a view to transcending the good life', in short, it is training in the business of dying with Christ. Self-control, on the other hand, 'is the attitude of a good man towards his desires with a view to living well'. In our present life we need both.