welcome to multiple strands

a place to converse, virtually, on a variety of topics, bringing together multiple strands to encourage, question, challenge, ponder, and edify. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. (Eccl. 4.12)

Friday, February 6, 2015

justice in Dante

And so the vision granted to your world
  can no more fathom Justice Everlasting
  than eyes can see down to the ocean floor;

while you can see the bottom near the shore,
  you cannot out at sea; but nonetheless
  it is still there, concealed by depths too deep.
...
for you would say: 'Consider that man born
  along the Indus where you will not find
  a soul who speaks or reads or writes of Christ,

and all of his desires, all his acts
  are good, as far as human reason sees;
  not ever having sinned in deed or word,

he dies unbaptized, dies without the faith.
  What is this justice that condemns the soul?
  What is his guilt if he does not believe?'
...
O earthbound creatures!  O thick-headed men!
  The Primal Will, which of Itself is good,
  never moves from Itself, the Good Supreme.

Only that which accords with it is just.
  It is not drawn to an finite good,
  but sending forth its rays creates that good.
...
Circling, it sang, then spoke: "Even as my notes
  are to high for your mind to comprehend,
  so is Eternal Judgment for mankind.
...
it raised its voice again:  "And to this realm
  none ever rose who had not faith in Christ,
  before or after he was crucified.

- Dante, The Divine Comendy:  Paradiso.  Canto XIX, 58-105

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