Canto XXXIII. Dante and Beatrice walk on together. Beatrice prophesies that the wrongs done by secular power to the Church, and corruptions within the Church, will be put to rights. Matilda dips Dante in the River Eunoe, the twin of the Lethe, which restores his recollections of the good. He is now prepared for the third and final part of his journey.

Beatrice is Dante's God-bearing image. She is a figure of the Church, and of theology, and here she starts to instruct him. He struggles, in part because he is still overawed, but also because he is still in need of the full restoration of his memory in the Eunoe. Matilda is a figure of the active life, which prepares and enables us fully to participate in the contemplation of the mysteries of faith revealed through the Church. Even in the Earthly Paradise, Matilda has her role, of preparing and quickening the mind, building in it the facility to understand what the Church has to teach. In many ways, Lent is Matilda's season --- a season of preparation --- in which all our human capacities are prepared to celebrate the central mystery of the faith. In this way our journey up Mount Purgatory with Dante in Lent can prepare us too, to `mount up to the stars'.

Dante and Statius cross the Eunoe.

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/jpegs/holkham/misc/48/1000/04800490.jpg