Paradiso

Beatrice enunciates a hymn to the souls of heaven, imploring them to give Dante happiness and satisfaction for his spiritual craving. The souls dance like “blazing comets,” and one soul comes forth as a response to Beatrice’s plea. It is St. Peter the Apostle. Peter quizzes Dante on religion, asking him to define and discuss the nature of faith. Dante describes faith, following scripture, as “the substance of things hoped for” (24: 64) and declares his belief in the role that miracles and revelation play in giving evidence of things in which one believes: the existence of God and the Trinity, the salvation of the soul through Christ. Pleased with Dante’s answers, the soul-light of Peter encircles him three times.

Dante begins with a personal statement: If this poem succeeds in overcoming the cruelty of the Florentines, who have exiled Dante from the city, he will return there as a celebrated poet, taking the “laurel crown” at the font where he was baptized and became a Christian. Because of Dante’s faith, St. Peter now encircles his brow.

Another apostle steps forward: St. James. James tells Dante that God wanted him to come here so that he could share some of the secrets of life in heaven with people on earth. He focuses on the virtue of hope, asking Dante to tell him where his own hope comes from. Beatrice begins to answer for Dante: There is no one in Christendom more hope-filled than Dante, and this is why he was chosen to have this special vision of heaven before his death.

She then hands the discussion over to Dante, who defines hope as “the certain expectation of future glory” (25: 67-68) which comes both from divine grace and human merit. Dante identifies David (with his psalms) and James as those who first instilled the “song” of grace into his heart. The core of James’s soul breathes forth a flare expressing his satisfaction at Dante’s answer, and he asks Dante further to tell “what promise Hope holds out to you” (25: 87).

Dante answers that the substance of what he hopes for is implied in scripture and is the resurrection of the soul and body. Immediately the Latin phrase sperent in te (“They shall hope in you”) is heard from above. A light shines, and the dance continues; Beatrice explains that the “brighter splendor” is James’s brother, the apostle John, who was Jesus’s best friend and whom he charged to take care of Mary after his death on the cross.

Dante is almost blinded by the brightness in trying to glimpse St. John. St. John tells him not to strain his eyes because his (John’s) body is still on earth and will be reunited with his soul at the end of time. At once the joyous dance comes to an end, and Dante is troubled because he cannot see Beatrice.

Dante continues to be unable to see because of his straining to look at John’s brightness. John, his voice coming to Dante like a breath, explains that his blindness is temporary and that his sight will return after he answers some further theological questions. John asks Dante to “tell what goal your soul has set” (26: 7). Dante answers that it is the good that makes the heavenly court happy. John asks who made him aim at this goal. Dante answers that it was a combination of “philosophic reasoning” and heavenly authority, which kindled in his heart the love of the good. What is more, John’s own “great message” in his scriptural writings teaches him the truth of God.

John asks further if other things cause him to love God. Dante answers that “all those things […] which can make hearts turn to God converge with one another” (26: 55-57)—the existence of creation, his own existence, the saving death of Christ, and the hope of heavenly glory. These things have drawn Dante away from “twisted love” toward true, spiritual love. As soon as Dante finishes speaking, the heavens resound with the song of “Holy, holy, holy!” Dante, aided by Beatrice, regains his vision and is aware of a “fourth light” shining. Beatrice explains that it is the soul of Adam, the first man.

Dante, “awestruck,” asks Adam to satisfy what he longs to know. Adam responds that his sin consisted not in eating fruit but in crossing a “boundary line.” Afterward, for the rest of his life he longed to reach heaven. Adam implies that in punishment for his sin he was consigned to limbo after death, but was raised to the highest heaven by Christ after his own death. The language Adam spoke on earth eventually became extinct because “nothing ever produced by reason […] can last forever” (26: 127-129)—even the name by which God is called has been subject to “mortal custom.”

The souls of heaven sing praise to the Trinity. Dante feels “drunk on the sweetness of their song” and feels as if he sees “the universe smile” (27: 3). Peter, Luke, John, and Adam flame before Dante like “four torches,” Peter glowing “more brilliantly than before” (27: 12) and his color changing. The heavenly choir falls silent, and Peter explains that all the souls will change color as he speaks.

Peter begins to denounce the corrupt popes who are now occupying his place on earth—“ravenous wolves in shepherds’ clothing” (27: 55). However, God will remedy this situation, and Peter tells Dante to bring this message back to earth.

Looking upward, Dante sees souls ascending to the highest heaven like snowflakes falling upward. Beatrice tells Dante to look downward to see how far they have traveled. When Dante looks again at Beatrice, her “divine beauty” transports him into the ninth and penultimate realm of heaven—the Crystalline Sphere.

Beatrice explains that this is the starting point of the entire universe, acting as its “boundary line”: It is the source of time and motion. Using various metaphors, Beatrice concludes the canto by speaking at length about human greed and how it spoils affairs on earth. However, she prophesies that the rays of heaven will eventually cause “good fruit” to blossom after a “long-awaited tempest.”