"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Dante's Paradiso Cantos XXXI thru XXXIII, Summary

Canto XXXI

In the Empyrean, Dante (the character) surveys what is around him now that his eyes have been fully opened.  He sees the heavenly structure before him that is in the shape of a white rose.  This is the Empyrean and it is filled with all the blessed souls in paradise.  He sees angels flying around, going back and forth from the center point, which is God, to the flowers, who are the souls sitting inside the white rose.  He is so awestruck he feels like a barbarian who has lived in huts stepping into the glory of the city of Rome for the first time.  He stares into the rose and for the first time since coming to paradise can see clear faces, other than that of Beatrice.  He turns to ask Beatrice some questions but finds that she is gone and in her place is a kindly, old man who later we learn is St. Bernard of Clairvaux.  Bernard tells Dante to look at the third to last row of the rose and there he can see the beautiful face of Beatrice who has taken her assigned heavenly seat.  Though the distance may be hundreds of miles away, Dante can clearly see her face as if it were close by.  Realizing that his time with Beatrice is over, he says a prayer of homage and gratitude to her for saving his soul.  She smiles back in acknowledgement that she has heard his prayer.  Bernard instructs Dante to now focus on the Queen of heaven if he wishes to experience the complete divine vision.  Looking up Dante sees the brightest face of the Empyrean, the Blessed Virgin, shining like the sun and with a host of angels dancing about her, bringing pleasure to all the other souls.  Dante and Bernard stare at the Virgin Mother in fixed mystical gaze.


Canto XXXII

At the Empyrean, St. Bernard describes to Dante the structure of the rose and points out several of the inhabitants, using Mary as the frame of reference.  Sitting below the Blessed Mother is Eve, and below Eve is Rachel.  To Rachel's right across the dividing line that separates the pre-Christian and post-Christian souls is Beatrice.  Below Rachel in successive rows are Sarah, Rebecca, and Ruth.  These women form a wall that separates those that believed in the coming messiah (the Old Testament Jews) from those that believed in Christ that is the messiah.  Bernard points out that the Old Testament half is filled while the Christian half, which has the same number of seating, is unfilled and to be filled.  Directly across the Virgin Mother on the Christian side is St. John the Baptist.  In subsequent rows below him are Francis, Benedict, and Augustine.  This is the upper half of the rose.  In the lower half reside a multitude of saved babies, children that were too young to commit willful sins.  These children are divided into three categories:  the Jewish infants before circumcision was instituted, the Jewish infants who are circumcised, and the Christian infants that are baptized.  Unbaptized children who don't fit these categories are in Limbo.  Bernard redirects Dante's gaze back "to the face that most resembles Christ," Mary.  The angel Gabriel has come singing the Ave Maria to her.  Bernard continues to point out more of the blessed: Adam, St. Peter, St. John the Evangelist, Moses, St. Anne, and St. Lucy.  Finally Bernard tells Dante it is time to seek the complete vision of God and the only way to do it is to pray to Mary for such a grace.  Bernard will start the prayer but asks Dante to join his heart to it.


Canto XXXIII


Continuing from where the previous canto ended, St. Bernard offers a prayer to the Virgin Mother to grant Dante the complete vision of God.  He starts by paying homage to the Blessed Mother, a lady both humble and exalted who through her acceptance of God's will changed human history.  Bernard continues by citing her virtues, kindness, compassionate, munificent.  He appeals to her on Dante's behalf to grant him the most blessed theophany which no living person has ever seen.  He begs her to use her prayers for him, not only to see God but to preserve his purity after the vision and protect him from his mortal inclinations.  He further implores that Beatrice and other souls in the rose are joining him in this prayer.  Mary's eyes, which are fixed on Bernard, signal her appreciation, and then turn toward the center light.  Dante, staring upward, feels his sight grow purer and sharper, penetrating the exalted light of God.  What he sees he cannot now articulate, and stepping out of the narrative appeals to God to recall what he saw so that now he can express it.  He now recalls that his sight merged with the "goodness that is infinite" and felt the love that unifies the differed elements of the universe.  At that moment, in a flash, Dante understands "the universal form" that unites all disparate, knotted things.  What he sees are three overlaying circles of different colors, yet fused into one.  As if from the colors themselves and within the circles, the face of Christ suddenly appears, and in a moment as instant as lightning, the vision disappears.


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