Paradiso -- Canto XXIV
Saint Peter, Examination of Faith
"O fellowship called to the lavish supper
Of the blest Lamb who feeds you with such food
That you are always filled with what you want,
"Since by the grace of God this man receives
5 A foretaste of what falls from your full table
Before death sets a limit to his lifetime,
"Open your mind to his tremendous craving
And sprinkle him with dew: you drink forever
Out of the fountain from which his thinking flows."
10 So Beatrice; and those elated spirits
Formed themselves in spheres around fixed poles,
Flashing out like comets while they whirled.
And as wheels turn within the works of clocks,
So that the largest seems, to the observer,
15 To stand still while the smallest seems to fly,
Just so those singing rings, to different measures
Dancing in swift circles and in slow,
Enabled me to judge their wealth of joy.
From the one I observed to be the richest
20 I saw burst out a flame so joyful that
None ever shone with sharper brilliancy.
And three times it revolved around Beatrice
With so divine a song, there is no way
For my imagination to record it:
25 So my pen leaps ahead and shall write nothing,
Since our imagining, as well as speech,
Is much too bright to color in such shades.
"O my holy sister who so devoutly
Do pray to us, by your own burning love
30 You loosen me from out that lovely sphere!"
When it had stopped, that fire of blessedness
Breathed out these words directly to my lady,
Exactly as I have repeated them.
And she: "O eternal light of the great man
35 To whom Our Lord entrusted the same keys
Of wondrous gladness that he brought below,
"Examine this man on the main and minor
Points of the faith, just as it pleases you:
That faith which let you walk upon the sea.
40 "If he loves well and hopes well and believes,
It is not hidden from you, since you set
Your sights on where all things are seen reflected.
"But as this kingdom gained its citizens
By the true faith, it is good for its glory
45 That he should have the chance to tell of it."
Much as the graduate readies his defense
And keeps still till his mentor puts the question,
To offer proof and not to settle it:
So I made myself ready with every reason
50 While she was speaking, that I be prepared
For such a questioner and such profession.
"Tell me, good Christian, give your declaration:
What is faith?" With that I raised my forehead
Up to the light from which these words breathed out.
55 I turned to Beatrice then, and she straightway
Showed me a sign that I should pour the water
Out of the inward spring that welled up in me.
"May the grace which grants me," I began,
"To make confession to the chief commander
60 Result in my thoughts being rightly stated!"
And I went on, "Just as the truthful pen
Of your dear brother wrote about it, father,
Who, with you, once put Rome on the right road:
"Faith is the substance of things that are hoped for
65 And the evidence of things that are not seen,
And this appears to me to be its essence."
Then I heard, "Your perception is correct,
If you clearly follow why he placed it first
With substance and then with evidence."
70 And I in my response: "The profound things
That here permit me to catch sight of them
Are so concealed away from eyes down there
"That they exist there only in belief,
On which the height of hope is firmly founded;
75 And therefore it is called a basic substance.
"And we must start our reasoning with belief,
Without our seeing any more than that;
And therefore it is known as evidence."
Then I heard, "If all that is held below
80 As doctrine were so understood by others,
There would be no place left for clever sophists."
Those words were breathed out from the burning love
That then continued, "You have studied soundly,
For now, the weight and content of this coinage,
85 "But tell me: have you such coin in your purse?"
To that I: "Yes, I do: so round, so shining,
That I do not have doubts about its minting."
Then from the deep light that was blazing there
These words rang out to me: "This precious jewel
90 And this foundation stone of every virtue,
"Whence did it come to you?" And I: "The streaming
Rain of the Holy Spirit that pours down
On pages of the ancient and new Book
"Makes such a sharp conclusive syllogism,
95 It proved to me that, by comparison,
All other demonstrations seem abstruse."
Then I heard, "These ancient and new propositions
Which draw you in this way to your conclusion,
Why do you take them as divinely written?"
100 And I: "The proof that shows the truth to me
Is in the works that followed: nature never
For such wonders heated iron nor beat anvil."
In answer to me: "Tell me, who assures you
There are such works? The Truth that must be proved
105 — And nothing else — asserts that they were so."
"If without miracles the whole world turned
To Christianity," I said, "that miracle
A hundred times is greater than the rest:
"For poor and fasting you went in the field
110 To sow the good seed of the plant that once
Had been a vine and now’s become a bramble."
This ended, through the spheres the saintly court
On high resounded "Te Deum," praising God
With melodies such as they sing up there.
115 And that lord-baron, who examining me
From branch to branch had drawn me on until
Already we approached the topmost leaves,
Again began, "The Grace, which with your mind
Keeps up a dialogue of love, till now
120 Has opened so your lips to right responses
"That I approve what has poured out of them;
But now you must proclaim what you believe,
And whence these truths came to you for belief."
"O holy father, spirit who now sees
125 What you believed so strongly, you outran
Up to the tomb feet younger than your own,"
I then began, "you want me here to show
The form of my unhesitating faith,
And you have also asked to know its cause.
130 "And I reply: I believe in one God,
Sole and eternal, who, himself unmoving,
Moves all the heavens by love and desire.
"And for this faith I have not only proofs
From physics and from metaphysic theory,
135 But also from the truth that rains down to me
"Through Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms,
Through the Evangelists and through all of you
Who wrote inspired by the Spirit’s fire.
140 "And I believe in three eternal Persons:
These I believe one essence, one and three,
So that at once both are and is agree.
"So many times the teaching of the Gospels
Stamps upon my mind the mystery
Of the divinity I now describe.
145 "This is the beginning, this the spark
That then spreads out into a living flame
And shines within me like a star in heaven."
Just as a master, hearing a report
That pleases him and gladdened by the news,
150 Embraces his servant as soon as he falls silent,
So, singing joyous blessings down on me,
The apostolic light, at whose command
I had confessed, three times wound around me
When I grew still, my speech had pleased him so!
