DANTE'S SUBLIME COMEDY: PARADISE: Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Saint Peter

“O fellow diners on The Blesséd Lamb,

            both Food and Host – Host who makes sure each guest

            is satisfied, will never hunger more!                             3

           

God’s Grace permits this man to drink with us

            before his death returns him to our feast.

            He thirsts for highest truth. Please let him drink!”        6

Thus pled my loving Beatrice. These souls

then moved like comets turning round fixed poles

            or wheels within a clock, the innermost                       9

so slow they did not seem to turn at all,

            while outer ones so whirled they seemed to fly.

            I gazed amazed at wheeling meteors,                         12

fast, horizontal, vertical and slow,

            a dancing revolutionary choir

with one whose vivid flame outshone the rest.           15

           

Nearing, it spun three times round Beatrice

singing a song too sweet for memory,

            nor will I try to make my pen describe                       18

a vision that no artist could depict.

            The fiery soul stopped circling her and said,

            “O holy sister who can pray so well,                          21

your loving nature draws me to your side.”

            Said she, “O guardian of Heaven’s keys,

            admit my lover to the height he craves.                      24

I believe you will find him fit for it.”

            Good students do not speak till masters ask.

            Gathering my wits I waited to reply.                          27

“Good Christian, what is faith?” said He.

            I looked to Beatrice, whose glance told me

the time had come to pour my learning out.                30

“May the grace letting me confess my faith

            to the twelve apostles’ chief make my words

            worthy of my thought,” Said I. “It was you                33

  

who, helped by the pen of Paul, ordered Rome

            along the path to Paradise. Faith is

            reality of what we hope to see,                                   36

with reason for the things we’ve not yet seen.     

            These are faith’s substance, so it seems to me.”

“Yes, both are essences of faith,” said he.                  39

“Why put reason after reality?

            Desire before convincing argument?”

Said I, “Up here great truths are clear to us,               42

truths that to mortal eyes appear obscure.

            We cannot always see that God is good.

            Faith in Him cannot always reason out                       45

proof in all cases that He does things well.

            Argument later must establish this.”

He said, “If arguers below knew that                         48

no wordsmiths could confuse the faithful with

            such useless reasoning.” Peter added,

            “Have you sincerely taken that to heart?                   51

It is not parroted?” “These thoughts are mine,”

            I said, “new minted coins of gold, not worn,

            not clipped.” He asked, “How did you come to meet 54

Beatrice, this gem who inspires your faith?”

            Said I, “The Holy Ghost, speaking in Old

            and New Testaments made me recognize                   57

           

Beatrice at first sight.” “How do you know,”

            said he, “the miracles to which these books

            testify are true?” Said I, “One miracle                         60

they worked convinces me: The Kirk of Christ.

            That it is built by super-human hands

            is shown by how it still stands, propagates                  63

           

the Word of Christ despite perverted priests.

            That miracle proves God is real and good,

            His scriptures true for they took root among               66

           

the persecuted poor. You were of these,

            and crucified like Jesus, yet that vine spread,

            converted Rome’s Empire, a miracle                          69

 besides which all but one in scriptures are

less than a hundredth part, but surely prove

Christ’s resurrection true.” I said no more,                 72

whereupon that whole great sphere resounded

            through its circles by singing the mighty                          

            anthem Glory to God in the Highest.                         75

After that my noble examiner

            began again: “What you have said is right,

            so now declare exactly your beliefs                           78

and where you get them from.” “Father,” I said,

            “I believe what you believe when you ran

            to overtake younger feet at Christ’s tomb,                 81

and knew that he had risen from the dead.

            I believe in one eternal God who,

            unmoved, moves all by His loving desire.                 84

My proofs are in philosophy, moral

and natural, and in the deeds and words

of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms                87

and you, after the Pentecostal fire

            gave you the gift of tongues. And I believe

            in the Three Eternal Persons who are                        90

One Being, threefold, reconciling both

He is and They are, a Divinity

stamped in me often by the gospel text,                     93

I believe this spark in me is growing

to a star that will shine in Paradise.”

Increasing brightness signified his glee.                     96

Excellent teachers will at times embrace

students who show they learned their lesson well.

            The apostolic light spun thrice round me

to show again that what I said was right.                              100