Dante's Divine Comedy! (This will bore most of you)

January 2, 2008

The end of the Divine Comedy!

I figured I would take a few minutes and devote an entry to a very surprisingly, very good set of books that were very different from anything I had ever read. Anyone who gets bored by talking about books, I would go ahead and skip this entry :)

I’ll start with the problems. There were two problems that persisted in the books that I took notice of….one for Dante, and one for me. First, Dante seemed to have a problem throughout the books with the fact that the Church (to which I will reference one large C Church as he does) never could say that it was possible for non-Christian souls to enter his levels of Purgatory or Heaven….he portrayed even the best of them as having to remain in Limbo, the highest level of Hell for lack of belief. He did bend the rules here and there, as his guide was Virgil throughout Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, as well as a select few others that were either prayed for by earthly souls, or in one case of a Trojan warrior, given a preview of Redemption so as to be saved through that belief….part of the commentary says this:

“In reward for his love of justice, God, in His unfathomable Will and infinite grace, has made him an astonishing exception to the law that, in pagan times, no one could be saved.”

….haha crazy stuff. Nowadays, and I’m not 100 percent positive on this, I think the Catechism says that the Sacraments are basically definite passageways of God’s Grace, but just comes out and says that God is not limited or confined to the them. Therefore, if someone living as a Moslem in the remote area of Vietnam never comes to hear of a Christ, yet was a pious soul etc., all we can do is pray that God’s grace work there, but there is no guarantee of salvation, nor of condemnation. Usually the rule is, if you don’t know the specifics, make a general statement and move on :). Now, that might just be me talking out of my butt, but I feel like I’ve read something like that before…if not, it sounds good haha.

Now, my problem. So, reading the Inferno was first, and there were different levels of Hell, depending on the degree of sin attached to the soul at his time of death, of course this is all chosen by Dante, but he basically bases it on the offenses against the nature of things….usually broken up into the sins against God, against yourself, and against others…..a mirror of the triadic reality if I’m not mistaken….in our lives we mirror the Trinity in our relationship with God above, within ourselves, and to others (the image of Christ within us relating to God the Father, us understanding the image of Christ we have within ourselves, and then coming from those two springs a love towards others….a mirror of the HS). Anyways, I digress. In Purgatorio, there were also levels, portrayed as a mountain, in which the soul could only climb during the day (the light of the Sun was a parallel to God’s Grace, without it, nothing is possible). Each level was devoted to one of the seven deadly sins, and the scars that the particular sin had made on the soul were worked out on those levels. All that I understood. In Paradiso though, there also exist levels. In Paradiso, Dante experiences the same questions when he comes to the first level, where he meets those religious who had broken their vows due to violence of others, of no act of their own…an example, being of a nun who was kidnapped from a convent and forced to marry a political figure. Dante poses this question to the soul:

“But tell me: though you’re happy here, do you
desire a higher place in order to
see more and to be still more close to Him?”
Together with her fellow shades she smiled
at first; then she replied to me with such
gladness, like one who burns with love’s first flame:
“Brother, the power of love appeases our
will so—we only long for what we have;
we do not thirst for greater blessedness.
Should we desire a higher sphere than ours,
then our desires would be discordant with
the will of Him who has assigned us here,
but you’ll see no such discord in these spheres;
to live in love is—here—necessity,
if you think on love’s nature carefully.
The essence of this blessed life consists
in keeping to the boundaries of God’s will,
through which our wills become on single will;
so that, as we are ranged from step to step
throughout this kingdom, all this kingdom wills
that which will please the King whose will is rule.”

Paradiso, Canto III

His guide, then tempers their statement, with her own:

“These are the questions that, within your will,
Press equally for answer; therefore, I
Shall treat the most insidious question first.
Neither the Seraph closest unto God,
Nor Moses, Samuel, nor either John—
Whichever one you will—nor Mary has,
I say, their place in any other heaven
Than that which houses those souls you just saw,
Nor will their blessedness last any longer.
But all those souls grace the Empyrean;
And each of them has gentle life—though some
Sense the Eternal Spirit more, some less.
They showed themselves to you here not because
This is their sphere, but as a sign for you
That in the Empyrean their place is lowest.
Such signs are suited to your mind, since from
The sense only can it apprehend
What then becomes fit for the intellect.
And this is why the Bible condescends
To human powers, assigning feet and hands
To God, but meaning something else instead.
And Gabriel and Michael and the angel
Who healed the eyes of Tobit are portrayed
By Holy Church with human visages.”

Paradiso, Canto IV

The commentary of these lines does a good job explaining this part:
“Line 28…the Seraph…the highest angel in the highest order of angels, the Seraphim, who are closest to God (Par. XXVIII, 99). The souls whom Dante has seen in the Moon live eternally in the same Heaven (the Empyrean) as the angels, the greatest Jewish prophets, and the greatest Christian saints (including both St. Johns, the Baptist and the Evangelist). They are in the Moon now only for the benefit of the living Dante,so that his human senses can perceive that theirs is the lowest degree of bliss. Each soul in Paradise is perfectly happy, according to its individual capacity to receive and enjoy the vision of God.”

I kind of think of the whole system he presents here as gauges of wire that you would use for your entertainment center. From the socket, the same amount of energy is always being pumped out, but each gauge can be completely filled, but each one has a different capacity….yet all together as part of the same system. I guess the reason he presents as to why we have different gauges/capacities are the temporal effects of sin on our soul (intellect and will)…..with a little bit of well that’s just the way it’s going to be…haha.

Which brings me to the last parts…. The parts I enjoyed. Dante did a really good job of including throughout all the books, especially the last two, that the human is just not capable of comprehending all of this stuff, that as much of our faith is, we know things exist, but just not able to understand the fullness of how….hence, the mysteries of faith. For example, to my knowledge, the Church has never proclaimed anything about Purgatory….just that there is some necessity for some sort of purification before entering heaven where nothing unclean shall enter. It could happen in the snap of a finger, could be a long process, only God knows, but as C.S. Lewis says in Letter to Malcolm, our soul’s should beg for it before entering the final rest. The same mysteries reside on the topics of the Eucharist and Salvation, and all we do is grasp the parts that Grace (the sunlight, in the Divine Comedy) allows us to…as Peter did in his profession of faith.

Finally, I also enjoyed how he chided pretty much everyone in all three books, from Popes to Emperors, to politicians, lay people, etc. You find some of each in each level. I find it funny that he blames the Holy Roman Emperors for the chaos that is Italy and Europe for lack of keeping order as is their job… as well as chides them for leaving temporal power in the hands of the Popes during this time. He then turns around and blasts the latest Popes for letting that temporal power corrupt the curia in Rome…their jobs are as spiritual shepherds, not temporal senators. He also hit on the fact that this temporal corruption had caused them to disregard their duty to call another crusade and take back the Holy Land. That kind of goes against the whole negative notion we give to the Crusades nowadays.

The last thing he pushes throughout the last two books is the fact that no matter the person, no matter who it is, always has the choice to repent, up until the last seconds of their life….so we should not pass judgment, in the Hell or Heaven sense. He uses the example of someone who had been excommunicated, but was found in Purgatorio. The use of excommunication is to protect the Church, and guard the deposit (when used correctly). It also serves as a warning to the person that if they continue in a certain manner, they are endangering their soul when they stand before God in judgment. If they continue, and die, then we assume they are sizzling, but no one knows their final thoughts. This was the case with Manfred?, I think, in Purgatorio, and the commentary relates that Dante is reminding the Church to pray for these people anyways (or at least be not quick to condemn), in the case that they did have a conversion in the end.
Oh yeah, and pretty much the theme of all three books….prayer. Those in Hell wish that prayer could help them, those in Purgatory all chase Dante down so that people might pray for them, and Dante is soliciting prayers while in Paradise.

It was a good time reading them, it makes things realer, even if it is just his possible interpretation of things. (haha, yes realer is a word) I will say though, these kinds of books are the great thing about history….especially Church History, in that we have so many PRIMARY sources. If you want to know about Greek History, you can read a summary by some contemporary author, but after read the accounts of Livy (well more Latin), or Socrates, or Thucydides, or Homer or countless other authors from that time. If you want to know about Church History, you can read general stuff by contemporary authors, but by all means read Against Heresies by Irenaeus, read letters of Justin Martyr, Ignatius and Clement, read the writings of Jerome, Cyril, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, Athanasius, councils…and read them in their entirety. That’s where you’ll find the good stuff, and less bits and pieces that the authors have picked through to support a point.

Mary was hit and miss throughout the books, but she came in heavy in the last few chapters of Paradiso when Dante reach the highest parts of heaven.

End of Canto XXXII, Paradiso: St. Bernard talking of Mary to Dante:

“‘But lest you now fall back when, even as
You move your wings, you think that you advance,
Imploring grace, through prayer you must beseech
Grace from that one who has the power to help you;
And do you follow me with your affection—
So many my words and your heart share one way.’
And he began this holy supplication:”

Canto XXXIII, Paradiso

“‘Virgin mother, daughter of your Son,
More humble and sublime than any creature,
Fixed goal decreed from all eternity,
You are the one who gave to human nature
So much nobility that its Creator
Did not disdain His being made its creature.
That love whose warmth allowed this flower to bloom
Within the everlasting peace—was love
Rekindled in your womb; for us above,
You are the noonday torch of charity,
And there below, on earth, among the mortals, you are a living spring of hope. Lady,
You are so high, you can so intercede,
That he who would have grace but does not seek
Your aid, may long to fly but has no wings….
And I, who never burned for my own vision
More than I burn for his, do offer you
All of my prayers—and pray that they may not
Fall short—that, with your prayers, you may disperse
All of the clouds of his mortality
So that the Highest Joy be his to see….
May your protection curb his mortal passions.
See Beatrice—how many saints with her!
They join my prayers! They clasp their hands to you!’
[now Dante speaks] The eyes that are revered and loved by God,
Now fixed upon the supplicant, showed us
How welcome such devotions are to her;
Then her eyes turned to the Eternal Light—
There, do not think that any creature’s eye
can find its way as clearly as her sight.
And I, who now was nearing Him who is
The end of all desires, as I ought,
Lifted my longing to its ardent limit.
Bernard was signaling—he smiled—to me
To turn my eyes on high; but I, already
Was doing what he wanted me to do,
Because my sight, becoming pure, was able
To penetrate the ray of Light more deeply—
That Light, sublime, which in Itself is true.
From that point on, what I could see was greater
Than speech can show: at such a sight, it fails—
And memory fails when faced with such excess….”