Canto VII - Paradiso - The Divine Comedy (Continued)

While other tercets in Dante's Paradiso's Canto VII are also powerful and edifying, I quote only the tercets in the Canto on Original Sin and redemption, as translated by John Ciardi [1], [2], [3], [4]:

Sin is the one power that can take away
    its freedom and its likeness to True Good,        80
    whereby it shines less brightly in Its ray.

Its innate worth, so lost, it can regain
    only by pouring back what guilt has spilled,
    repaying evil pleasure with just pain.

Your nature, when it took sin to its seed,               85
    sinned totally.  It lost this innate worth,
    and it lost Paradise by the same deed.

Nor could they be regained (if you heed my words
    with scrupulous attention) by any road
    that does not lead to one of these two fords:   90

either that God, by courtesy alone,
    forgive his sin; or that the man himself,
    by his own penitence and pain, atone.

Now fix your eye, unmoving, on the abyss
    of the Eternal Wisdom, and your mind               95
    on every word I say concerning this!

Limited man, by subsequent obedience,
    could never make amends; he could not go
    as low in his humility as once,

rebellious, he had sought to rise in pride.               100
    Thus was he shut from every means himself
    to meet God's claim that He be satisfied.

Thus it was up to God, to him alone
    in His own ways--by one or both, I say--
    to give man back his whole life and perfection.      105

But since a deed done is more prized the more
    it manifests within itself the mark
    of the loving heart and goodness of the doer,

the Everlasting Love, whose seal is plain
    on all the wax of the world was pleased to move    110
    in all His ways to raise you up again.

There was not, nor will be, from the first day
    to the last night, an act so glorious
    and so magnificent, on either way.

For God, in giving Himself that man might be         115
    able to raise himself, gave even more
    than if he had forgiven him in mercy.

All other means would have been short, I say,
    of perfect justice, but that God's own Son
    humbled Himself to take on mortal clay.             120

[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003, p.651-2.
[2] The tercets quoted are indicated by lines 79-120. 
[3] The other tercets that are powerful and edifying in Paradiso's Canto VII, indicated by lines 25-51, have not been quoted except for the tercet indicated by lines 46-48 which was quoted in my last entry.  However, I will quote the notes written by John Ciardi for these lines:

THE CRUCIFIXION. Beatrice argues that the death of Christ was just because [H]e had taken upon Himself both the nature and guilt of mankind.  His expiation was just because the sin of His human nature was great.  But since He was also a God, the pain suffered upon His divinity was a sacrilege and demanded punishment.

See  Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003, p.654.
[4] The notes written by John Ciardi  on line 81, lines 85-86, lines 97, lines 104-105 and line 114 follow:
Line 81:  "it shines less brightly in Its ray:  Since God's fire rays forth most brightly in that which is most like God, and since sin makes man less like God, sin makes man shine less brightly in God's ray."  Emphasis original
Lines 85-86:  "seed . . . totally:  The seed of Adam.  By his sin, all mankind fell from its first innate worth and lost Paradise."  Emphasis original.
Line 97:  "Limited man:  Man is limited by his mortal means.  Within them, no depth of humility to which he could descend could be proportionate to the height he had sought in his rebellious sin.  For man's sin was in seeking to become God, and there is no equivalent depth to which he could sink in recompense, for in sinning he had already damned himself to Hell." Emphasis original.
Lines 105-105:  "by one (way):  Mercy or both:  Mercy and Justice.  Since man could not save himself, God could have forgiven him outright as an act of mercy.  Or [H]e could have created a man so perfect that he was capable of just expiation (that would have been the way of Justice).  But in giving Himself through His own Son, He chose the double way that was both divine mercy and human justice."  Emphasis original.
Line 114:  "on either way:  On the way of mercy or the way of justice."  Emphasis original.
See Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003, p.654-5.