Comments to Dante’s Paradiso, Cantos XIX thru XXII

Here are some random thoughts and observations on the Jupiter cantos.

Going back to Canto XVIII, the way the lights scroll across the sky, forming letters which spell words, suddenly coalesce, and then forming shapes is, if you think on it, an incredible feat of imagination for someone in Dante’s time.  This is like a video game playing itself out on a “screen” in front of Dante.  We can easily conceptualize it today, but how could someone in the Middle Ages conceptualize such visuals is stunning.  And then Dante (the author) takes it a step further in the visual “technology.”  A full bodied bird image forms then morphs into a fleur de lily, and then morphs again into the head of the eagle.  Dante is actually visualizing the morphing of shapes.  Amazing!

The eagle, if you missed it, is symbolic for the Roman Empire, and represents human justice.  When the eagle speaks, it is each individual light speaking in unison, and this has particular significance when considering the notion of justice.  What is justice but the application of a society’s values, and each individual member of that society contributes his input to establishing justice.  Think of it as a jury of twelve coming to a single verdict.  The verdict is the single, unified voice of the jury group, each member having contributed to that voice.

Notice the wonderful imagery Dante (the author) uses to describe that amalgamation of voices into one.

Just as from many coals we feel a single heat,

so from that image there came forth

the undivided sound of many loves. (XIX.19-21)

Each single coal individually provides heat, but the amalgamation of each coal’s contribution is felt as a single heat source.  And then in the following tercet, Dante addresses the eagle as an amalgamation of a variety of scents:

And I then answered: 'O everlasting blossoms

of eternal bliss, you make all odors

blend into what seems a single fragrance…(22-24)

In some of the other instances when a holy soul or Beatrice reads Dante’s mind about a question, they articulate the question and then answer it.  In this section, when Dante (the character) has his mind read on the doubt that has formulated, unlike the previous instances the eagle starts answering the question before it is articulated.  I think this might confuse some readers.  In Canto XIX, from lines 22 through 33, Dante (the character) tells the eagle he has something on his mind.  From lines 40 through 69 the eagle starts answering the question which has not been articulated.  In essence what the eagle is saying is that Dante cannot see, does not have the vision to see, the entire creation.  Finally from lines 70 to 78 the eagle articulates the hypothetical about a man born in India who can never know the faith.  Where is the justice in not having the means to salvation?

It is fitting that in the sphere of Jupiter, that of just rulers, the eagle turns judgement back at Dante (the character).  When Dante questions the justice of a pagan incapable of achieving salvation, the eagle says:

            'Now, who are you to sit upon the bench,

             judging from a thousand miles away

             with eyesight that is shorter than a span? (XIX.79-81)

To paraphrase, “Who are you with your limited eyesight to judge God?”  It’s not just questioning God; it’s judging God.

Dante (the author) seems to associate proper justice with eyesight.  Here he contextualizes Dante (the character)’s incorrect judgement of God with limited sight, but when in Canto XX the eagle catalogues six great rulers who were just, their points of light were the ones that made up the eagle’s eye.  Indeed, the eagle was known in the middle ages as the creature with the sharpest eyesight.

How ingenious of Dante to formulate an acrostic (a series of lines or verses in which the first, last, or other particular letters when taken in order spell out a word, phrase, etc.) when cataloguing the bad twelve kings that are living in Dante’s time.  The acrostic spells lue, which means plague.  These kings are a plague. 

Again Dante (the author) shows his contempt for his contemporary world by locating the good kings in the distant past and the bad ones in the present.  When you look over the geographic span of the bad rulers—from England to Spain to France to Italy to Germany to eastern Europe, he’s identifying a good three quarters, if not more) of his known world as ruled by bad kings.  You can’t have more of a condemnation of his existing world than this.

Dante (the character) is taken aback when he hears Trajan and Ripheus are saved.  He had just been told that only baptized Christians and Old Testament worthies can be saved.  How could this be?  The eagle answers:

'For from Hell, where no one may return

to righteous will, the one came back into his bones --

this his reward for living hope,

'the living hope that furnished power to the prayers

addressed to God to raise him from the dead

so that his will might find its moving force. (XX.106-111)

First the eagle alludes to hell where if you recall there was a sign “Abandon hope all who enter here.”  Second the eagle says that through the “living hope” of prayer—and notice “living hope is repeated twice—God’s will can find a way to save all righteous people.  They still must be baptized—God’s word cannot be a lie—but our limited sight cannot envision every formulation of God’s workings.  So never give up hope and never stop praying for anyone you love.

So why Trajan?  Trajan was mentioned in Purgatorio as an example of humility.  It alludes to the story of Trajan and the widow.  Trajan has gathered an army of a million men and are about to set off on campaign when a widow stops the column and asks for justice for her murdered son.  Trajan wants to ignore her but the widow is persistent, and Trajan with pity gets off his horse and stops the march until he can assess justice.  He brings justice to a sorrowful woman, a mater delorosa, over her murdered son.  Well I think you can see the allusion now. 

So why Ripheus?  Who is Ripheus?  Ripheus is a less than minor character from Vergil’s Aeneid, who is briefly mentioned as a righteous king who dies during the sack of Troy.  He is less than obscure.  So who can be saved?  Everyone from Trajan, the greatest emperor of the greatest empire, to an obscure, inconsequential name from a thousand years before the birth of Christ.  Who can be saved?  Everyone within the scope of God’s expansive arms.

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Some thoughts on the Saturn cantos. 

Saturn is the final planet in the spheres.  After Saturn will come the sphere of the fixed stars, followed by Prima Mobile, the sphere from which God controls the universe, and finally the heart of heaven, the Empyrean. 

Saturn contains those who excelled at mystical contemplation.  But didn’t we encounter a group of souls who were mystics in the second garland under the sphere of the sun?  Yes, led by St. Bonaventure, but the distinction is that those at the sun were intellectual mystics.  The mystics at Saturn were those who lived their lives under total mystical immersion into God.  The distinction is a subtle one perhaps.  The souls at Saturn tend to be monastics, not friars.

The central image in the realm of Saturn is a ladder stretching all the way up to the Empyrean (if I read correctly) with souls streaming up and down the ladder.  It’s a fantastic image and worthy of quoting the entire passage. 

Within the crystal, circling our earth,

that bears the name of the world's belovèd king,

under whose rule all wickedness lay dead,

the color of gold in a ray of sunlight,

I saw a ladder, rising to so great a height

my eyesight could not rise along with it.

I also saw, descending on its rungs,

so many splendors that I thought that every light

shining in the heavens was pouring down.

And as, following their native instinct,

rooks rise up together at the break of day,

warming their feathers, stiffened by the cold,

and some of them fly off, not to return,

while some turn back to where they had set out,

and some keep wheeling overhead,

just such varied motions did I observe

within that sparkling throng, which came as one,

as soon as it had reached a certain rung. (XXI.25-42)

The image of the ladder comes from Genesis—Jacob’s ladder—where in a dream Jacob sees angels ascending and descending between heaven and earth.  Here Dante (the author) has souls instead of angels traversing up and down, and, since they are already in heaven, Dante has the ladder stretch from Saturn up beyond eyesight toward the end of heaven, possibly to the Empyrean where God and all souls in heaven reside.  The ladder is described as the color of gold and either emits or reflects sunlight.  The souls going up and down also shine bright, so it makes for a stunning image.

The ladder is a perfect image for those immersed in mystic contemplation.  What does a contemplative do but rise up to heaven when in mystical exaltation and return back to earth to share the fruits of his contemplation?  Here at the planet closest to God, we find souls who minimize rational thought and enjoy God’s intense grace.

We see this ever increasing grace through Beatrice’s increasing beauty.  If you’ve notice, at each station Beatrice appears more intensely beautiful, and that’s because the closer the pilgrim’s travel toward God, the more intense the light that shines, which is allegorical for increasing grace.  Beatrice’s “cup” filled with grace, is getting filled higher, which was the image I provided in my comments back in Canto IV to describe a soul’s capacity to receive grace. 

So, to answer that question I had back in Canto IV, a soul may not be able to enlarge his cup, but it can get more filled. 

Two saints are featured at Saturn.  First is Peter Damian, a monastic, who was known for his asceticism and self-mortification.  Perhaps an implication can be drawn that through the self-denial and extreme penance, one climbs the ladder toward heaven.  It’s interesting he doesn’t come to greet Dante out of willingness but because ultimately he serves the Lord.

'I have come down the sacred ladder's rungs this far

only to bid you welcome with my words

and with the light that wraps me in its glow.

'It was not greater love that made me come more swiftly,

for as much and more love burns above,

as that flaming luminescence shows,

'but the profound affection prompting us

to serve the Wisdom governing the world

has brought about the outcome you perceive.' (XXI.64-72)

The mystical ecstasy he feels in God’s bosom overrides his love of neighbor, but he obeys the Will that moves the world.  That’s a pretty amazing statement, and if you think about it, monastics is doing just that—separating themselves from society for love of God.  But just as in his real life where Damian was compelled to leave the monastery to become a bishop for society, here too he leaves the Empyrean to greet the travelers.

The other featured saint is St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the Benedictine Order, the first major monastic order in the west, and creator of  rule that balanced work and prayer.  At a time of collapsing civilization the Benedictines preserved civilization through their monasteries and through copying of ancient texts.  It is the fruits of contemplation that Dante wishes to emphasize with Benedict.

'I am he who first brought up the slope

the name of Him who carried down to earth

the truth that so exalts us to the heights.

'And such abundant grace shone down on me

I led the neighboring towns away

from impious worship that misled the world.

'All these other flames spent their lives in contemplation,

kindled by that warmth which brings

both holy flowers and holy fruits to birth. (XXII. 40-48)

He was first to bring Christ up the slope of Monte Cassino and provided the truth to the neighboring towns for their conversion.  His fellow contemplatives brought down both flowers and fruits from up above.  So Peter Damian emphasizes the trip up the ladder to spiritual ecstasy, St. Benedict emphasizes the trip down the ladder to bring graces to earth.

Finally something should be said of the remarkable image of Beatrice and Dante looking down from high above and first seeing the entire solar system below them and then finally the little planet earth.  This is akin to the images of space probes we send out to the far reaches of the solar system to take pictures.  Indeed, the image of the planet earth is equivalent to the famous photos taken by early space missions where for the first time we had a picture of the earth from the outside.  Dante (the author) was over six hundred and fifty years ahead of that.