Beatrice on Redemption
"Hosanna to the holy Lord of Hosts,
Relighting by your brightness from above
The blissful burning fires of these kingdoms!"
So, now revolving to this melody,
5 That substance who had spoken I saw sing
While over him the twofold light redoubled.
And he and others moved in their one dance,
And, like the swiftest sparks arising upward,
With sudden distance veiled themselves from me.
10 I stood in doubt, and said, "Tell her, tell her!"
Within myself I said, "Tell her, my lady
Who slakes my thirst with her sweet drops of dew!"
But that awe which is mistress of me wholly,
By the mere sound of her name’s Be and ice,
15 Bowed me down like someone drowsing off.
Just for a short while Beatrice left me so,
And she began, beaming a smile on me
To make a man staked in the fire happy,
"If I, who cannot err, have judged correctly,
20 Your thoughts have been set pondering on how
A just vengeance could be avenged with justice,
"But I will quickly free your mind from doubt;
And listen carefully, because my words
Make you a present of important teachings.
25 "Since he would bear for his own good no curb
Upon his willpower, that man who was unborn,
Damning himself, damned all his progeny.
"As a result the human race below
Lay sick for many centuries in grave error
30 Until it pleased the Word of God to come
"Down where he joined in person with himself,
By the sheer act of his eternal love,
The nature that had wandered from its Maker.
"Now turn your gaze to what I now disclose:
35 This nature which was thus joined to its Maker
Was, when it was created, pure and good,
"But through itself it had been driven out
Of paradise, because it turned aside
From the way of the truth and from its life.
40 "The penalty inflicted by the cross —
If measured by the nature so assumed —
Never struck at anyone more justly.
"Likewise, there never was a greater wrong,
If we look to the person suffering it,
45 In whom that other nature was bound up.
"From this one act, then, different things resulted,
For one same death pleased both God and the Jews,
And with it the earth shook and heaven opened.
"It should no longer now seem hard to you
50 On hearing it declared that a just vengeance
Was afterward avenged by court of justice.
"But now I see your mind is tangled up
With thought on thought into a knot from which
It awaits release with deep-felt longing.
55 "You say, ‘I make out clearly what I hear,
But why God willed this as the only way
Of our redemption is still hidden from me.’
"This edict, brother, has been buried from
The eyes of everyone whose understanding
60 Is not matured within the flames of love.
"Nevertheless, since there are many who
Aim at this mark and few who sight it rightly,
I shall explain why that way was most fitting.
"Divine Goodness, which spurns from itself
65 All envy, burning in itself, so sparkles
That it reveals all the eternal beauties.
"Whatever is distilled immediately
From it is everlasting, since, once sealed,
Its imprint never can be wiped away.
70 "Whatever is poured down immediately
From it is wholly free, since Goodness is
Not subject to the power of changing things.
"The sacred Flame which shoots its rays through all
Is most alive in what is most like Goodness
75 And most pleased by what most resembles it.
"Human beings have the advantage of
All these endowments, but if they fail in one
They must fall down from their nobility.
"Sin alone can rob them of their birthright
80 And render them unlike the highest Good
So that they beam less brightly in its light.
"They never can recoup their innocence
Unless they fill up what faults emptied out
By paying for bad pleasures with just pains.
85 "Your nature when it had sinned totally
In its first seed was reft of that innocence
Just as it was deprived of paradise.
"Nor could it win them back, if you consider
The matter carefully, by any other way
90 Except by passing one of these two fords:
"Either that God, by graciousness alone,
Granted forgiveness, or that by himself
Man should make satisfaction for his folly.
"Now fix your eyes intently on the abyss
95 Of the eternal Wisdom — fasten them
As tightly as you can to what I say.
"Bound by his limits, man could never make
Enough amends, because he was not able
By afterwards obeying, to humbly bend
100 "As low as he'd mount high by disobeying:
This is the reason why man was shut off
From being able to make amends himself.
"It was needed, then, for God in his own ways
Of mercy and of justice to give man back
105 Full life — I mean by one way or by both.
"But since a deed is more prized by the doer
The more it manifests to others’ eyes
The goodness of the heart from which it springs,
"The divine Goodness which imprints its seal
110 Upon the world was pleased to move ahead
By its own ways to raise you up once more.
"Between the final night and the first day
There has not been nor will there be so mighty
And magnificent an act by either way.
115 "For God, by giving himself to make man able
To raise himself again, was more generous
Than if he only had remitted sin;
"And all the other means would have been short
Of justice, if the Son of God had not
120 Humbled himself to be a human being.
"Now, to fulfill exactly all your longings,
I turn back to explain a certain passage
To enable you to see it as I do.
"You say, ‘I see the water, I see the fire,
125 The air, the earth, and all their combinations
Fall to corruption and last but a brief while:
" ‘And yet these things were creatures: for this cause,
If what you said of them were really true,
They ought to be secure from such corruption.’
130 "The angels, brother, and the pure clear country
Where you are now, may be said to be created
Just as they are, in their entire being.
"But the elements which you have named to me
And all the things that are compounded from them
135 Receive their forms from some created power.
"Created was the matter that they have;
Created was the power informing them
Within these stars which whirl about their way.
"The rays and motion of the holy lights
140 Draw out from its compounded potency
The soul of every animal and plant.
"But the sovereign Largesse breathes your life
Directly, and makes it so in love with him
That always afterward it longs for him.
145 "And from this reasoning you can further prove
Your resurrection, if you would reflect
On how the human body was made then
"When the first parents were both formed by him."
