Paradiso

“[T]he light of God so penetrates the universe / according to the fitness of its parts to take it in / that there is nothing [that] can withstand its beam.”

This quote depicts God as a light illuminating all the truths of creation, a light that is irresistible in its force. Dante observes that God’s light is even able to penetrate the throng of souls in the roster of the highest heaven, indicating that nothing can obscure God’s truth. Light is an important symbol throughout Paradiso, reflecting the light of spiritual truth and salvation, as well as God’s power (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“[S]o her gaze, pouring through my eyes / on my imagination, made itself my own, and I / against our practice, set my eyes upon the sun.”

In this passage, Dante first alludes to Beatrice’s eyes, which look upward at the end of many of the cantos, directing her gaze—and hence Dante’s as well—to God. Since her beatitude places her beyond earthly concerns, Beatrice is able to look directly at the sun (i.e., God), which people on earth cannot safely do. This in turn allows Dante to do so, which he could not do on earth. This hints that Dante will be given higher spiritual powers and insight during the course of the poem.

“The newness of the sound and the bright light / lit in me such keen desire to know their cause / as I had never with such sharpness felt before.”

This passage recalls Dante’s foundation in Thomist thought. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the visible world awakens in the human soul the desire to know the truth—i.e., to know the causes behind the things we see around us, which ultimately leads in a chain of causes to God. At the start of his journey, Dante feels this desire to know God as First Cause more strongly than he ever did on Earth. Following his intellectual intuition, Dante will eventually reach God, reflecting the Thomistic idea that we can attain a knowledge of God through reason.

“All things created have an order / in themselves, and this begets the form / that lets the universe resemble God.”

These lines are spoken by Beatrice, who explains to Dante how he, though earthly, is able to easily float upward in Heaven. This quote references the classical and medieval view that the universe reflects a divine order and that all created things resemble their creator. Creation begins as a “form” or idea in the mind of God, and all things that exist reflect God’s nature. This is why all human beings are destined to know and find God, each in a way proper to his or her nature and inclinations.

“My Lady, with absolute devotion / I offer thanks to Him / who has removed me from the world of death.”

Addressing Beatrice, Dante expresses gratitude to God for saving him from his sins, described at the beginning of the Inferno, and allowing him to journey to Heaven and thus achieve salvation. Dante refers to Beatrice as “My Lady,” a title recalling knightly customs, as well as perhaps aligning Beatrice with the Virgin Mary, the ideal woman in Christian thought.

“That sun which first made warm my breast with love / had now disclosed, by proof and refutation / the sweet and lovely features of the truth.”

Alluding to Beatrice’s “theology lesson” in the previous canto, this opening tercet recalls the Thomistic belief that reason can attain to divine truth as well as other truths of creation. The “sun” in this case is symbolic of God’s illuminating grace, allowing man to come to an understanding of his creation in all its aspects.

“[I]n His will is our peace.”

This famous line is spoken by Piccarda, explaining that all the souls in her sphere of Heaven, although the lowest in rank, are perfectly happy with their place—a sentiment that relates to the theme The Connection Between the Earthly and the Eternal. This calm acceptance is owing to the fact that God’s will is inherently just, and one of the effects of attaining heavenly beatitude is that one’s will becomes completely in tune with God’s.

“I now see clearly that our intellect / cannot be satisfied until that truth enlighten it / beyond whose boundary no further truth extends.”

This is another passage enshrining the importance of the quest for truth along Thomistic lines. Thomas Aquinas’s thought accorded reason considerable power in searching for truth in its farthest reaches. He also tended to conceive of the life of faith in terms of intellectual understanding of God as First Cause of all things. This quote, like many in the poem, reflects Dante’s absorption of Thomistic ideas.

“Differing voices make sweet music.”

Spoken by Justinian, this passage shows Dante’s conviction that diversity makes for a well-functioning society, both on Earth and in Heaven. The fact that the heavenly souls exist in ranks adds to the variety of Heaven, preventing a dull uniformity. The souls, all reflecting God’s glory and grace in different ways, contribute to Heaven’s richness and harmony. Justinian’s mention of “sweet music” also ties into the symbolic importance of music in heaven more generally (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“The holy ardor that irradiates all things / shines brightest in what most resembles it.”

Beatrice is explaining to Dante why God chose Incarnation as the path to redemption. Since Jesus was man as well as God, he was able to perfectly perform an intermediary role between God and man. In imitating Jesus, mankind becomes more like God and thus attains to his true intended nature.

“For God was more bountiful when He gave Himself / enabling man to rise again, than if / in His sole clemency, he had simply pardoned.”

Beatrice articulates for Dante a classic Christian theory of the redemption. God chose to redeem mankind through the Incarnation instead of “pardon[ing],” so as to respect man’s freedom and dignity. In this way, man attains spiritual growth that would not have been possible otherwise. The life and death of Christ gives mankind a model to follow, allowing it to rise to the level of God.

“Give thanks, give thanks / to the Sun who lights the angels and who / by His grace, has raised you to this visible sun.”

Beatrice bids Dante to praise God for allowing him to rise above his earthly understanding and glimpse divine realities in Heaven. With this, Dante is aware that they have reached the sun, the fourth sphere of Heaven. However, the “Sun” also represents God himself, whose light illuminates everything Dante sees and understands around him. God is the source of all created things, like the sun, which are visible reflections of him.

“[H]e who would deny your thirst the wine / out of his bottle would not be free to do so / as water has no option but to flow into the sea.”

St. Thomas Aquinas compares Dante’s intellectual and spiritual curiosity to a “thirst” that demands to be quenched with truth, likened to wine that Thomas will give Dante. This reflects Aquinas’s own attitude toward the human ability to seek truth through the light of reason. Man’s thirst for knowledge is like the ascent of man to God, which is as natural to him as the law of gravity. It is notable that, although Aquinas’s writing was better known for its rational than its poetic qualities, Dante makes him speak in several poetic metaphors, including this one.

“Whoever here on earth laments that we must die / to find our life above knows not the fresh relief / found there in these eternal showers.”

Dante implies that death, which causes so much grief to human beings, is as nothing compared with the delights of Heaven, which he likens to a refreshing rain shower in a hot summer’s day. Dante compares our present, earthly perception of death with a supernatural perspective that sees everything in relation to the eternal goal.

“But he who takes his cross and follows Christ / shall yet forgive me what I leave untold / for shining in that dawn I did see Christ.”

This quote marks the appearance of Christ himself in Heaven. Typical of the way divine revelations are described in the poem, this is more of an apparition than a direct appearance of Jesus. Dante sees the symbol of the cross made of many flaming lights; yet he is aware through this sign of the presence of Christ. Naturally, this marks a high point in the narrative, as Dante is seeing the Son of God, the object of Christian worship. Later, in Canto 23, Dante will see a “shining substance” in which he again perceives Christ’s presence.

“[N]ot in my eyes alone is Paradise.”

In this passage, Beatrice reminds Dante not to become so absorbed in her beauty that he neglects the higher, divine things in Heaven. This shows Beatrice’s modesty in deflecting attention away from herself to God, and that she has a rightly-ordered affection, which she attempts to inspire also in Dante. Her implication is that Dante’s love for her must be placed in the context of their mutual love for God, suggesting that Dante is still learning how to replace earthly love with purely spiritual love.

“[T]he very imprint / of the eternal Beauty, by whose will / all things become that which they truly are.”

Dante identifies God with beauty (“the eternal Beauty”), a key concept in classical and Scholastic philosophy. The beauty that is visible in creation reflects the goodness and wisdom of God and is formed by his “will.” Specifically, Dante is reacting to the beauty of a constellation of lights or souls, showing that God’s beauty shows forth in the souls of virtuous human beings.

“Here is the Wisdom and the Power that repaired / the roads connecting Heaven and the earth / that had so long been yearned for and desired.”

Spoken by Beatrice to Dante, this passage marks the second appearance of Christ in Heaven, this time as a “shining substance” of blinding brilliance. Beatrice alludes to Christ’s identity as the redeemer of humanity, who repaired the relationship between God and man damaged through Original Sin. The quote emphasizes Beatrice’s identity in the poem as the embodiment of theology.

“Lift up your head and then take heart / for all that comes here from the mortal world / will here be ripened in our radiance.”

St. James speaks to Dante, assuring him that earthly gifts and capacities reach perfection in Heaven. In order to do so, they must be purified and ripened—hence, he will give Dante a theological “examination.” This marks the importance that the formation of the intellect in religious matters had for Dante, following the ideas of Thomism. It also reflects the idea that earthly things have an impact in Heaven (See: Themes)—a theme that permeates The Divine Comedy.

“Ravenous wolves in shepherds’ clothing / can be seen, from here above, in every pasture / O God our defender, why do you not act?”

This passage is part of St. Peter’s strong denunciation of the present-day papacy and, in particular, of Pope Boniface VIII, who reigned 1294-1303. The critique alludes to the ongoing crisis of the Avignon Papacy (See: Background), as well as church corruption more generally. Dante’s literary use of St. Peter himself to criticize the papacy is particularly devastating. Peter, who was himself considered the first bishop of Rome, laments the corruption and lack of sanctity in his successors. He goes so far as to question God about his not enacting justice on Earth—a remarkable choice on Dante the poet’s part, given that the setting is Heaven itself.

“From this, it may be seen, beatitude itself / is based upon the act of seeing / not on that of love, which follows after.”

This passage also reflects Thomistic thought. Explaining how the angels love God, Beatrice implies that in religious faith, intellectual apprehension or understanding (“the act of seeing”) comes first, and then love follows from this. St. Thomas Aquinas was known for the primacy that he gave to the intellect in the life of faith.

“The Primal Light that irradiates them all / is received by them in just as many ways / as there are splendors joined with it.”

Still referring to the angels, Beatrice reflects the frequent theme in the Paradiso that God’s goodness and grace are reflected in many different ways in creation. Connecting with the previous quote, souls apprehend God through the intellect first, and everyone’s intellect is different; thus, everyone has a different “capacity to absorb and return God’s love” (Notes, Page 727).

“[F]or my sight, becoming pure / rose higher and higher through the ray / of the exalted light that in itself is true.”

In the closing lines of the poem, Dante declares that as he gets nearer and nearer to God, his spiritual insight into God’s nature is increasing. God is characterized as light and truth itself. The quote reflects the pervasive theme of Humanity’s Ascent to God and of vision or intellectual understanding as key in one’s relationship with God.