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.

Canto VII - Paradiso - The Divine Comedy

Line 47 (the middle line) in Canto VII of Paradiso is for me the most powerful stanza in Dante's Divine Comedy: [1]

In Italian by author Dante Alighieri:

Però d’un atto uscir cose diverse:
ch’a Dio e a’ Giudei piacque una morte;
per lei tremò la terra e ‘l ciel s’aperse.  [2]

 Translated by John Ciardi:

Thus, various sequels flow from one event:
    God and the Jews concurred in the same death;
    for it the earth shook and the heavens were rent.  [3]

Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

From one act therefore issued things diverse;
  To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing;
  Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened. [4]

Anyone interested in reading The Divine Comedy in its entirety, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, can go here:  http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/dante/dante-longfellow.pdf  [5]


[1] The tercet quoted (as originally written and two translations) is from Dante's Paradiso, Canto VII, lines 46-48.  Other stanzas in this Canto are also edifying and I plan to quote them too in a later entry.  I actually have not finished reading Dante's Paradiso, but I cannot imagine the author coming up with a line that more loaded than this line 47, by placing God (the "Chooser") on one side and the Jews (the "Chosen") on another that is diametrically opposed to God's, caused by a disagreement as to why Christ had to die, and simultaneously bringing them together in agreement by their sharing of a common solution, namely, the death of Christ, with just nine words.
[2] http://divinacommedia.weebly.com/paradiso-canto-vii.html
[3] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003, p.650.
[4] http://www.thefinalclub.org/view-work.php?work_id=12&section_id=296
[5] I prefer John Ciardi's translation but I think it is at present available in print only.

Making A Difference – Part 7 – Final Thoughts

Something that sounds simple is seldom easy to accomplish.

In his commencement speech at Stanford on June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs said, “I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do” but people still take jobs they do not love and stay married even after the love is gone.

Circa 1982, a little schoolgirl in Oakland raised her hand and asked Mrs. Nancy Reagan what to do if someone offered her drugs. Mrs. Reagan responded that she was to “just say no” but 29 years later the war on drugs is still ongoing.

In my recent search for God’s truth, the pursuit of which would automatically lead to good works that cure acedia [1], the revelation was simply love but knowing it has not transformed my life.



[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 434. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003. This is where the translator wrote that “[a]cedia … is not simply the failure to perform good works for others, though it readily involves that failure. It is, more specifically, the failure to pay enough attention to the good, to make enough demands upon oneself. Were one to give all of his energy and attention to the pursuit of God’s truth, good works would follow automatically [emphasis added]” and where my inspiration to seek out God’s truth came from. John Ciardi continued to state that “[a]cedia may consist in being too torpid to arrive at a vision of the good, or in achieving that vision but neglecting to pursue it.” This I disagree with because I believe that we are born with a vision of the good. It requires no effort to achieve and torpidity does not prevent it from existence. Only when one freely allows oneself to be contaminated by evil does one’s vision of the good go blind. In other words, to claim that a vision of the good is the result of a willful achievement is to suggest that evil predominates naturally unless free will replaces it with good. That is plainly wrong for life springs from all that is good and remains good until evil is permitted to destroy it.

Making A Difference – Part 6 – What Kind Of Love?

I think that in order for a deed to qualify as good works, it would require a kind of love that is uncomplicated with no ulterior motive, that is whole and wholesome, seeks no reciprocation and has no reservation and that is enthusiastic, energetic and inexhaustible.

This love, if permitted to prevail over a task no matter how trivial and permeate its every aspect, it will transform what is ordinary into something extraordinary. In other words, an action that is motivated by and carried out with such love is absolute: its quality can neither be enhanced by popularity, recognition, awards, the breath of its coverage or the duration of its impact nor diminished by a lack thereof.

I am unable to imagine a deed integrally tied to this kind of love can have an ill effect on others and their surround but certain that its goodness can emanate beyond the recognizable or the immediate.