Paradiso

Beatrice can intuit in God the question that Dante wants to ask: why God created the angels. She answers that it was not for his own benefit (as God is perfectly happy) but to make his splendor shine forth and “subsist” in time and space which he created. Beatrice further explains that God created form and matter at once, in an instant.

Along with these elements, God created the angels, who are “the summit of the universe” (29: 32-33) because they are “pure act” without the potentiality that conditions human beings. In contrast to human beings, angels are morally perfect—aside from Lucifer, the fallen angel, who became Satan and who led man into sin. Angels, like human beings, possess “understanding, memory, and will” (29: 72). Spiritually perfect, angels eternally rejoice in beholding the face of God, having no desire for anything else. Beatrice contrasts this intellectual perfection and contentment with mankind’s propensity for inventing wild and contradictory theories. Finally, she bids Dante to “turn your eyes to the true road again” (29: 128), which leads to “the Primal Light,” God, who is reflected in different ways throughout creation.

Dawn approaches, and as Dante gazes on Beatrice she is imbued with a transcendent beauty surpassing anything he has seen. Dante declares that he has reached the limit of verbal description for Beatrice’s beauty and must therefore concentrate on his narrative. Beatrice announces that they have reached the “Heaven of pure light” (30: 39), the Primum Mobile. Dante is aware of an overwhelming “living light,” then of having risen above his powers and reached the very highest point of heaven, the Empyrean.

Dante sees light flowing like a river between “two banks painted with the wondrous colors of spring” (30: 62-63) and emitting “living sparks” that settle on the bank’s flowers. Beatrice says she is pleased by Dante’s desire to understand what he sees. She says that he must drink from the river to satisfy his spiritual thirst and to prepare for his final vision of God. She explains that what he sees are “shadowy prefaces” to the final heavenly reality, adapted to Dante’s present limited vision.

Dante bends down and drinks the water. When he looks up, the scene has changed into one of “a greater celebration,” and he sees “both courts of Heaven” (30: 96). Dante, in his poetic narrative, asks heaven to grant him the power to “tell of what I saw” (30: 99).

He sees a light at the summit of the Primum Mobile, larger than the sun and illuminating the Creator for all creatures. Rising above the light are mirrored all the souls of heaven on “more than a thousand tiers” (30: 113), forming a gigantic “rose” or stadium. This “rose,” yellow in color, rises, expands, and exhales as it takes in more souls. Despite its vastness, there is no sense of near and far, because “where God, unmediated, rules natural law has no effect” (30: 122-123).

Beatrice says that the “white-robed” guests of the “wedding feast” are almost all arrived. She draws Dante’s attention to a throne with a crown set above it; it is intended for the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII. She predicts that Henry will “set things straight for Italy” (30: 138) and that the corrupt pope, Clement V, will soon go to Hell, displacing Pope Boniface VIII as the wickedest pontiff there.

Dante sees some heavenly souls in the form of a “luminous white rose” (31: 1) and others flying like “a swarm of bees” (31: 7) descending to the rose to convey “peace and love” and then returning to the highest heights. Dante compares his amazement at seeing heaven to the amazement of barbarians glimpsing the wonders of Rome.

Dante wants to ask Beatrice about the particulars of what he sees. Instead of Beatrice, he sees before him an old man. The old man tells Dante that Beatrice called on him “to lead your longing to its goal” (31: 65) and points her out on a throne below the highest tier and “encircled by a crown” (31: 72). Dante says he does not mind being far from Beatrice because her image is “undimmed.” He offers a prayer of thanks to Beatrice for accompanying him from Hell to Heaven and imploring her to keep his soul pure until he dies.

The old man identifies himself as St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), the monk and mystic. Dante stares at this revered historical figure in wonder, but Bernard tells him instead to direct his glance upward “to the highest circles” (31: 115), where the Virgin Mary is enthroned. Looking up, Dante sees a “far crest” of surpassing brightness, near which play “a thousand angels” and joyful saints. As Bernard looks affectionately upward to the vision of Mary, Dante feels his own devotion to her strengthened.

Bernard, acting as guide to Dante, points out many of the famous souls in the ranks of the heavenly rose: Eve, who now sits at Mary’s feet, and such other Old Testament women as Rachel, Sarah, Rebecca, and Judith. On one side of the rose are those who looked forward to Christ’s coming, and on another side are those who believed in Christ after he came. Both “ways of showing faith” (31: 38) are equally honored. Indeed, among the ranks are also children who were saved by the merits of others.

Bernard sees that Dante is “perplexed” at this. He explains that in heaven, differences in rank reflect not human merit but God’s grace. Bernard points out that Mary possesses “the face that most resembles Christ” (31: 85), and therefore looking at her face can alone prepare Dante to look at Christ. Dante sees that looking at Mary gives him the closest “likeness to God” he has ever seen, and that an angel hovers before her. The court of heaven sings, with each face becoming “more luminous with joy” (31: 99).

Dante responds with gratitude and asks Bernard the identity of the angel. Bernard replies that it is Gabriel, and continues to identify the blessed: Adam, Peter, John the Baptist, Moses, St. Anne, and St. Lucy. Bernard now says he must stop there and concentrate on the “Primal Love.” Praying to Mary will prepare Dante to meet God. Bernard begins the final prayer of the Paradiso.

Bernard offers, on Dante’s behalf, a long, majestic prayer to Mary. Calling on Mary as the most “exalted”—and at the same time most “humble”—of God’s creatures, he implores Mary to help Dante “rise higher toward his ultimate salvation” (33: 27) and see “the highest beauty.” He asks Mary to help Dante “preserve […] the purity of his affections” (33: 36) even after the vision. He points out Beatrice above joining him in prayer for Dante.

Mary turns her gaze to God above. Bernard smiles at Dante, prompting him to look above too—but he is already doing so, because his sight is “becoming pure” and desires to penetrate higher and higher into the final mystery of God.

Dante’s final verses mix supplications to God to help him remember his vision for the sake of his readers, with reflections on how he felt at the moment of his vision of God. Dante feels great humility at the prospect of being allowed to look upon God himself. Through God’s love he glimpses its “pages scattered throughout the universe” (33: 87), which show God’s effects in creation: “substances, accidents, and the interplay between them” (33: 88). He gazes at God with complete absorption and satisfaction. He feels all his desires fulfilled, and yet his rapture, joy, and understanding of the divine mystery expand moment by moment. Dante sees the Holy Trinity as “three circles” of three different colors, each reflecting each other like rainbows, with the third one (the Holy Spirit) seeming like fire being breathed forth by the others. These lights seem to be “painted with our likeness” (33: 131), which makes Dante well able to gaze at the vision.

However, Dante still cannot fathom how the three lights fit into the oneness of God. His mind is suddenly struck by “a bolt of lightning” (33: 141-142), granting his desire to understand the mystery. Dante fails at putting this final vision into words; what he can say is that his “will and desire” are now in harmony with the all-powerful love of God.