Dante's Glimpse Of Heaven In The Third Sphere

In Dante Alighieri's words, in Canto VIII of The Paradiso, translated by John Ciardi:

so I saw lights circling within that light
    at various speeds, each, I suppose, proportioned
    to its eternal vision of delight. [1]

I believe anyone who can describe a non-static image of Heaven, including images that defy the earthly laws of physics, has either been given a vision of the true Heaven or the likeness of Heaven that can best be grasped by the limited human mind and expressed in the even more limited human language.  I also believe that Heaven has far more beautiful sights than this planet and the universe it is in have, and they are as different as the different descriptions people have given.



[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003, p.657.
 

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.

The Religious Vows

The vows of the religious scare me because I know I could never live up to them if ever I had sworn to abide by them.  It has always been my philosophy that one ought not to take those vows unless one adheres to them without exception, no matter how difficult, no matter the intensity of the temptations. [1] 

Further to my point, I have read today in Canto V of The Divine Comedy, The Paradiso by Dante, the words of Beatrice [2]:

"Of all creation's bounty realized,
God's greatest gift, the gift in which mankind
is most like Him, the gift by Him most prized,

is the freedom He bestowed upon the will.
All His intelligent creatures, and they alone,
were so endowed, and so endowed are still.

From this your reasoning should make evident
the value of the vow, if it is so joined
that God gives His consent when you consent.

When, therefore, God and man have sealed the pact,
the man divests himself of that great treasure
of which I speak--and by his own free act,

What can you offer, then, to make amends?
How can you make good use of what is His?
Would you employ extortion to good ends?

..."

What that means, as explained by translator John Ciardi, follows:

"THE SANCTITY OF HOLY VOWS.  Dante has asked if a man may not, by other good works, make amends for an unfulfilled vow.  Beatrice replies that God's greatest gift to man is his free will, and that a vow is a direct compact with God wherein man, of his free will, offers that freedom back to God.  Once God accepts, the man's will is no longer free for it has been given to God.  How then is a man free to will what is good, his will and freedom now belonging to God?  To assert a free will that is no longer his is to seek to embezzle his way to the good." [3]

[1]  I am spiritually weak and lack the requisite unwavering commitment to holiness which each and every religious ought to have.  Therefore, I have never taken those vows and probably never will.  Because of this fact, I am sad for myself, a sadness only my Free Will can cure.  This is one of the heavy crosses I bear.  I choose to bear this heavy cross because the heavier cross of hypocrisy I would not be able to bear.
[2] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso, Canto V, page 632. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.
[3] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso, Notes, page 635. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

A Sublime Imagery By Dante

"We were received into the elements of the eternal pearl as water takes light into itself, with no change in its substance" [Emphasis added] is from Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by John Ciardi who explained that Dante and Beatrice entered the Sphere of the Moon "as light [enters] into water, as God incarnated himself into man, or as the saved soul reenters God, without disruption of the substance thus entered. [Emphasis added] " [1]


[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso, Canto II, pages 606-7. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Definition of Purgatory

 Purgatory: place "in which the very power to sin is lost." [1]


[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Canto XXVI, p. 514. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

A Different Theory, A Different Shade

The Divine Comedy has been my life-long companion but even best friends can sometimes disagree.  Alighiere Dante and I part ways in how we define the birth of the human soul and a shade.  However, as I read his masterpiece, I accept fully his views and remain awed and riveted.

In Canto XXV of The Purgatorio, Dante asked how the Gluttons could appear starved although they are non-flesh entities requiring no food.  This simple question gave way to a lecture by Statius, a friend of Virgil who had been assigned to accompany Dante through Hell and Purgatory.  Statius' words would have been incomprehensible had John Ciardi, the translator in my version, not dedicated three pages of notes out of five following the Canto explaining them.  Ciardi said,"[t]he discourse may be divided into three parts: I. The Nature of the Generative Principle; II. The Birth of the Human Soul; and III. The Nature of Aerial Bodies." [1]

Short of transcribing verbatim all three pages of Ciardi's explanation, let me summarily conclude that the "Generative Principle" ends with a successful conception.  The concept of "The Birth of the Human Soul" is more involved.  I will quote Ciardi at length to highlight Dante's beliefs and then contrast them with mine:

"With conception, the soul is born, not as a coinheritance from the mother and father, but from the active force (the formative power) of the father-blood alone, the maternal blood providing only the matter for the formative power to work on.  (Dante's views here are pure Aquinian doctrine.)

"This newly formed soul is like that of a plant (vegetative only), but with the difference that the plant soul is fully formed at this stage, whereas the human soul is only beginning.

"From this plantlike state (possessing only 'vegetative faculties') the soul grows capable of elementary motion and sensation (the 'sensitive faculties')....

"One must still ask how this animal foetus acquires the power of human reason ...

"the instant the brain is fully formed in the human foetus, God turns to it in his joy at the art of nature in forming so perfect a thing, and breathes into it a powerful spirit peculiar to man.  This God-infused spirit draws all the life forces (vegetative, sensitive, and rational) into a single soul." [2]

In my view, the human soul is born not at the moment of conception.  The human soul is a heavenly spirit that is already in existence, and becomes the human soul when it is assigned to an infant (one that is capable of existence outside of the mother's womb) and simultaneously merged with new flesh.  At that moment it has all the faculties (in varying and unequal degrees) necessary to grow in the human realm and take flight when the flesh dies.  This view is in contrast with Dante's and therefore the Aquinian doctrine that "The Birth of the Human Soul" begins at conception even though the brain of the fetus is not yet fully formed and God has not yet "turn[ed] to it in his joy at the art of nature...and breath[ed] into it a powerful spirit peculiar to man." [3]  To accept the doctrine is to accept that there is a difference between the soul that is without any intellect or life force to exist and a soul with God's gift of the spirit that can draw "all the life forces (vegetative, sensitive, and rational) into a single soul" [4] so that the previous soul be "born again" to begin its life in the flesh.  Heaven is never to me so unnecessarily complicated or inefficient.  Moreover, it is questionable that only when "the brain is fully formed in the human foetus [that] God turns to it in his joy at the art of nature in forming so perfect a thing..." [5] as if the early formative stages of the fetus are not part of the art of nature and God is not joyful seeing a fetus develop into an infant so that a heavenly spirit would be able to experience flesh.  I think God is not joyful when free will aborts what is developing in a mother's womb before a heavenly spirit can unite with it.

My tiff with Dante does not end here.  It continues with the Nature of Aerial Bodies.  John Ciardi explained in the notes that at "the end of mortal life, the soul goes free of the flesh but takes with it, by virtue of that essence God breathed into it, all of its faculties both human (vegetative and sensitive) and divine (rational)[,]" and that "[t]hese lower (vegetative and sensitive) faculties grow passive and mute after death, since they have left behind the organs whereby they functioned.  The higher faculties, however, since they are God-inspired and now free of their mortal involvement in materiality, become more active and acute.  At the instant of death the soul miraculously falls, by an act of its own will, either to the shore of Hell for damnation, or to the mouth of the Tiber to await transport to Purgatory....[W]hichever shore the soul [ends up], the inclosing air takes on the image of that soul by virtue of the soul's indwelling formative power.  Then, ever after, and just as flame follows fire, the new form follows the soul, wherever it may move.  This new form is called a shade because it is made of insubstantial air, and because out of air it forms all the organs of sense." (Emphasis original) [5]  I thought the Dantean theory of The Birth of the Human Soul was convoluted; its theory of The Nature of Aerial Bodies is nearly impossible to digest by comparison.

The delinking of spirit and flesh at death, as I see it, is simple.  Borrowing some terms from Dantean's theory of The Nature of Aerial Bodies, a spirit has sensitive and rational faculties from its heavenly beginning.  It was never a "plant" [6] and had no vegetative faculty.  Upon union of spirit and flesh, the heavenly spirit becomes the human soul and during the course of its existence in the flesh, the soul continuously grows and finds meaning (kind or cunning) because it has Free Will, the same Free Will God gave the heavenly spirit before its incarnation.  At the death of flesh, the soul takes flight either as a heavenly spirit that will return to and join God in Heaven (possibly through Purgatory) or as a shade that will leave God and join Satan in Hell -- not "by an act of its own will" [7] but after the Final Judgment for there is not a single entity that would go willingly to Hell for an eternity.  Moreover, in Hell and in Purgatory, Dante would have an infinite number of shades following around an infinite number of souls "just as flame follows fire" [8].  That would double the work of those in charge of them -- a hellish job for any entity anywhere.

Setting aside my confusion and lack of sophisticated understanding of Alighieri Dante's work, The Divine Comedy, as translated by John Ciardi, remains a friend and a work to be revered.

Below is the answer to Dante's question above, for those who are waiting to find out:

"Not only is the shade able to receive sensory impressions, but to produce sounds and appearances that can be registered by mortal senses.  (As well as by other shades, as the narrative has made clear at many points.)

"The appearance of the shade, moreover, conforms in detail to the inner feelings of the soul.  Thus, if God fills the souls of the gluttonous with a craving for food which is then denied them, their shades appear to wither and starve, their outward appearance conforming to their inner state." [9]

When shades are defined and seen from the Dantean point of view, they create the dramatic imageries that are indispensable to The Divine Comedy.


[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 506. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.
[2] Op. cit. at p. 507.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Op. cit. at p. 508.
[6] Op. cit. at p. 507
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Op. cit. at p. 508

Note: I had in previous posts referred to humans as shades when they are doing Satan's work on earth.  These "human shades" do not give light and they are unable to shine and lift up the spirits of others in a positive and genuine way; instead, they live on "borrowed light" which is light that is reflected upon them by others.  They are able to have the light of others by deceit just as Satan is able to own a person's soul by false promises that lead ultimately to eternal emptiness, despair and regret

Definition of Hell

"where sin lasts beyond the end of time:  Hell." [1]

[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 497. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Revisiting My Acedia, God's Will, Good Works And God's Truth

On December 30, 2010, I asked God for the vision and the voice, the courage and the confidence, the strength and the stamina to do His will. Nothing happened. A few days ago, I read the last of Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio's evening sermons preached at Paris on October 4, 1267. It was difficult to read and over my head because it was full of quotes from the Bible and I am not a biblical scholar. However, one sentence that I did get stood out from the 6 1/2-page sermon:

"If we are ready to do what pleases God He will make His will known to us." [1]

I suppose I am not ready for my mind goes blank with fear and I freeze in place whenever I think of any good that I might be capable of doing. After all the reading, thinking and analysis that I have done in the hope that I would be able to make a difference have proven to be futile. [2]

I am back to an ordinary life, in my mind only, for I have not stepped out of it in reality.

[1] Armstrong, Regis J. O.F.M. Cap. et.al. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, Volume II, The Founder. Page 760. New York: New York City Press, 2000. [1.1]

[1.1] The sentence quoted above began a paragraph. This sentence ended it: "God, who is Creator, Sanctifier, and Glorifier, wills only what is good." Ibid at [1]

[2] See blog entries Parts 1 through 7 under "Making A Difference" in October and November of 2011.

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.

Making A Difference – Part 5 - Alive And Looking For God's Truth

Finding God’s truth [1] is a daunting task, requiring a strategy. It would combine an analysis of the words of various sages including Mahatma Gandhi, Khalil Gibran and Confucius aka Kǒng Zǐ and in religious books such as the Bible, the Torah and the Koran with an amalgamation of different definitions and descriptions of truth. Then God’s truth ought to become apparent as a result.

Wasting no time, I began googling. The task turned out to be excruciatingly tedious. Within two days I had lost interest and quit.

Unable to think of an alternative approach, I became obsessed. A prayer was in order. I said one and gave my mind a rest. It remained blank for a few moments or maybe even a day when preceded by nothingness the answer came. It was a single word.

The word was love. I was stunned and did not know what to think. How could love be equated with truth? There would be no sympathetic ear for my childish protests. It was decreed.

What followed was a writer’s disappointment. Love was not my next topic. In my amorphous plan for this blog I would ultimately address it but not until I have finished reading Dante’s Purgatorio and found inspiration in Dante’s Paradiso. It would not be anytime soon. The plan had been changed.

Had the concept of love not entered my consciousness, I would have nonetheless carried on despite obsessing over the lack of a “plan B.” In preparation for it, I had all my mental faculties fully sharpened, ready to discover God’s truth and state it in my own words. At the time I had no clue what to say but in retrospect I would probably have begun examining the issues of the day, to see if God’s truth could reasonably be found hidden somewhere among human sufferings. I realize now that that would have been a waste of time since God’s truth does not reside in the brain; it resides in the heart. Being told that love, not ever being cerebral, is God’s truth, God’s truth is therefore beyond analysis and superior to reason.

I now know that to make a meaningful difference, good works must be done out of love, but what kind of love?

[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 433-4. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Making A Difference – Part 4 – Where Is God’s Truth?

Knowing that God exists does not help with knowing God’s truth. According to John Ciardi, good works would follow automatically if one were to give all of his energy and attention to the pursuit of God’s truth. [1] I agree with him, so I need to find out where is God’s truth and what it is. Otherwise, how could life have even a scintilla of meaning when one tries to make a difference by doing good works that turn out not to be good works in God’s eyes? With God’s grace I would get to the divine truth.

There is no guarantee that grace would be granted, however. In that case, how could I be so arrogant as to think that I would find God’s truth and state what it is? But what is the alternative? The alternative is to live life without knowing or caring about it. Many are doing just that, allowing worldly matters to consume all of their energy and attention.

That is fine too. Free will permits each of us to choose what to consume and how much. Nonetheless, God’s truth exists. Despite its existence, the world has far more interest in the other kinds of truths, such as scientific truths, observable truths, undiscovered truths, partial truths, obfuscated truths and manufactured truths. The latter three truths are also known as fiction, or lies. All these earthly truths or lies, compared to God’s truth, are presumably unremarkable. Yet they are powerful, for all human decisions and lives are based on them, and so too, is the state of the world.

As a result, the world is not utopian. It is not unlivable either. Some, in fact, live quite comfortably and happily while complaining intermittently, even bitterly. Therefore, to no one’s surprise, everyone seems to be able to imagine a better place, and a worse one. The fact that people have such visions suggests that life on earth may not be all there is with nothing preceding it and nothing afterward, and that an existence could very well take place beyond our planetary sphere and our earthly lives. These imaginary places are not just places but also states of mind. At one extreme is heaven, a place of peace and complete fulfillment, at the other, hell, a place of torment and unquenchable desires. I think God’s truth would be clear at either destination. That does not help since I would already be dead and it could be too late.

Earlier I was thinking that it would be great if I can know God’s truth but it would not be a tragedy if I did not. The paragraph I just finished changed my mind. Now I am dying to know God’s truth. I just hope that I do not have to die first to find out.

Life cannot be that ironic, can it?


[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 433. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Making A Difference – Part 3 – Finding God

In a Dantean world, a good person who stands idly by has committed the atoneable sin of Acedia, which is a purgatory away from the ideal. The gap between simply being good and being ideally good is bridgeable by good works. According to John Ciardi, “[w]ere one to give all of his energy and attention to the pursuit of God’s truth, good works would follow automatically.” [1]

John Ciardi did not provide a list of those good works nor did he elaborate on God’s truth, but I have to know what good works are before I can decide if I am capable of accomplishing them so as to make a difference. Since knowledge of good works can be clearly known by pursuing God’s truth, hence the first step is to find God.

Man has spent centuries on this topic, still he is not done, even as societies across the planet are trending away from a contemplative toward a consumerist life, from accepting a divine plan to designing one’s own and from embracing the eternally holy and spiritual to idolizing transient fame. In this environment, God is invisible in everyday life and the good that is everywhere is a thankless entitlement and taken for granted. Therefore, if the good, like the air, is not considered a part of God’s creation, then God cannot be found.

Living with the absence of God is easy, but I have never been content with an easy life. That would be boring. I cannot stay intrigued for long by the limits of human possibilities when an unlimited number of other worldly possibilities can be realized.

It is on my terms, in the simplistic world that my mind lives, that I make this log, not so much to add to the countless words on the topic of God, but to find my own way toward a limitless space of physical impossibilities and an endless journey of exploration.

Getting there is a challenge. With imagination, or miracles, it is possible. Over the course of my life, I have been on a few trips, sans drugs of any kind, some asked for, most given. It does not matter whether such experiences were truly real or imagined, they were real to me. Thus, with absolute certainty, I know God exists. It is that simple.

Beyond what I had seen or felt there must be more. My imagination is not powerful enough to take me there. Until God adds new tours to my itinerary, I am left to recall those I had been on before. As unbelievable as those experiences were, they were just tours, not a road map of truths. I have to find that out on my own.

It is by writing here that I hope to be illuminated by grace, that I may find God’s truth.

[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 433. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Making A Difference – Part 2 - Being Good

Is being a good person, without more, good enough? No, at least not according to Dante Alighieri. Simply being good and rationalizing that things eventually change regardless of the good work, if any, that is done is not enough to get into Paradise without a period of atonement in Purgatory. Through Virgil, Dante said:

" ' That love of good which in the life before
lay idle in the soul is paid for now.
Here Sloth strains at the once-neglected oar.' " [1]

In the notes to these three short lines, John Ciardi explained that sloth “must not be understood as physical laziness or slovenliness but as torpor of the soul which, loving the good, does not pursue it actively enough,” and that central to Sloth is Acedia. “Acedia, however,” he said, “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 to the pursuit of God’s truth, good works would follow automatically. Acedia may consist in being too torpid to arrive at a vision of the good, or in achieving that vision but neglecting to pursue it.” [2]

Like everything in life, there is a choice. Having almost surrendered to my fears of failure and success and frozen in my status quo, I can only go so far in being good but not doing good works. If that means a lengthy purgatory but no eternal hell, still it would not be easy, I would need to die to truly regret it.

However, should I desire to shorten my stay in Purgatory, I must know what good means in order to pay enough attention to it and know what good deeds are in order to do them.

[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Canto XVII, p.430, lines 85-87. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

[2] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 433-34. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Making A Difference - Part 1 - What Difference Does It Make?

There are so many things I can think of doing that can make a difference in the lives of those who have big dreams but little opportunity, but I am a loner trapped in my fear of failure as well as of success. Such fears do not subside with wisdom or over time. Rather, they immobilize the will. Action cannot arise without an active will. Hence, status quo has reigned over me.

An acceptable status quo can be quite comfortable. As much as I would like to act on my impulses, a certain voice within has taken them away. Perhaps what I need is a “partner-in-crime” to free me from the shackles of comfort and embark on an adventure that is both uncharted and unpredictable.

The question then becomes whether I would enjoy being a dice-throwing mover and shaker? I think I might. Otherwise I would not be entertaining the possibility. [1]

What about having the best of both worlds, being comfortable in my status quo and engaging in action that could make a difference? I suppose that can be accomplished by existing vicariously in a fantasy world unrewarded by the depths of human interaction and the realities of passion. In essence, I would have to be an intellectual. There is a catch, however. An intelligent intellectual’s life is sterile and an unintelligent intellectual’s life is futile, neither of which sounds promising.

Not all is doomed. Intellectual dishonesty provides a silver lining. Using time as its friend, it concludes that things change with or without my doing. Even if my will could dictate an action that would alter people’s lives today, the people still living tomorrow would begin their morning unraveling and reforming what had occurred yesterday. So, what difference does it make?

In the end, perhaps it is not so much what we do but who we are that ought to be of concern.


[1] I re-read this paragraph on May 29, 2013, and I am in shock.  I was toying with the disgusting thought of being a mover and shaker?  How could that be unless the work was done in the service of God..  I would rather spend time in prayer and reading and re-reading the Divine Comedy by Dante, Confessions by Saint Augustine and works written on Francis of Assisi.  That is not Acedia, is it?

Direction & Concentration

"For when a man lets his attention range
toward every wisp, he loses direction,
sapping his mind's force with continual change."

Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Canto V, p.321. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003

Dante's placement of this canto, in The Purgatorio, where souls are being cleansed of their individual vice, simply dazzles. Clear out of Hell and advancing toward Paradise through Purgatory, Virgil admonishes Dante that this is not the time or the place to lose direction (going upward) or concentration (not going anywhere). The preceding canto underscores this point:

"Above the cliff's last rise we reached in time
an open slope. 'Do we go right or left?'
I asked my Master, 'or do we still climb?'

"And he: 'Take not one step to either side,
but follow yet, and make way up the mountain
till we meet someone who may serve as guide.'"

Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Canto IV, p. 312-13. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003