Paradiso, Canto 20 with Josh Gibbs
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Joshua Gibbs of the Veritas School and the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University introduces us to Canto 20 of Dante's Paradiso.
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"You can't conceive, my child, nor can I or anyone, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God." - Graham Greene from "Brighton Rock."
I love that quote!
Canto 20: In the previous canto, the eagle spoke with a singular voice about rulers who lacked true justice. Now, he is heard, momentarily, speaking with multiple voices, before he returns to a unified voice, sounding like cascading water, and urges Dante to look into the eagle’s eye and then, at his eyebrow. Within its pupil, Dante beholds King David, whose psalms foretold the Messianic age. The eyebrow reveals five additional, righteous rulers: Trajan, a pagan Emperor who, legend maintained, became a crypto-Christian; Hezekiah, a Judaic King who, following the Babylonian exile, repaired the Temple and is in Matthew’s list of the ancestors of Jesus; Constantine, who legalized Christianity and, supposedly, gave authority for the Western Empire to the Papacy; William, who ruled the joint kingdom of “Naples and Sicily” a century before Dante; and Ripheus, a companion of Aeneas, who had been granted an image of Christ. The eagle chastises Dante as being one who knows the words for things but lacks a true understanding of what life really is until it is explained by someone else. The eagle explains to Dante how a soul, unbaptized with water, can receive another kind of "baptism," be forgiven, and be seen as a just ruler worthy of the sixth sphere of Jupiter. The eagle also addresses Predestination, which is known to God but cannot be understood by human beings. Only the Primal Cause knows the outcome of all contingent causes and, therefore, can have an understanding of Predestination. Meanwhile, the Elect in Paradise take delight being in concert with the will of God and pulsate with his resonance.
Wow! Great insight. Thanks!!
T Gold is right that Mr. Gibbs, in his fine presentation, incorrectly slips in the idea of universal salvation. It is unconnected with what Dante says about Ripheus--and unsupported by anything Gibbs refers back to in the Divine Comedy. Dante's story of Ripheus' self-baptism is supported by the 1215 definition of the Fourth Lateran Council that baptism can be validly administered by anyone. Dante holds to the idea that God provided the means of salvation in the Sacrament AND that God respects the free will of the human being to use it or not. This is more than mercy. God who is Love asks for love, something He does not force upon creatures with free will. Dante, unlike most of us moderns, believed in hell. He had no need to save everyone. What is touching about the story of Ripheus is its demonstration that a man of good will, born at the wrong time to receive the Sacrament of salvation, can nonetheless love God and use God's own means to go to heaven. Since Dante's time, it is said that self-baptism is not salvific, because the Sacrament needs to be received from a minister, even if the minister be a pagan himself. But if that is the case, and God provided Ripheus the knowledge necessary to love Him, I say He would provide a minister of baptism, even if it had to be an angel.
Wow. Your exposition is wonderful. Thank you.
As my Pastor says, "There will be people we see in Heaven that we would never expect to see there, and there will be people from your church who won't be there."
But the professor is incorrect in presenting a predestined universal salvation.
And there will be people there surprised to see you! 😋
That is a great quote.
The professor is not presenting a predestined universal salvation. He simply talked about “hope” that all will be saved. As we know, many are not.
@@tomlabooks3263 Thank you for your videos on the Divine Comedy. I only started listening to your presentations at the end of the Purgatorio. I plan to reread the three parts, using you as my guide. I’ll read all the cantos with the same number at the same time. My long-lost Italian feels like you have given it CPR.
Again, thank you. (Sincerely)
@@grangnelli Hahah that’s funny! I really hope you find them useful!
I have a hunch that Bishop Robert Barron would love this reflection that we may dare hope that all will be saved. I'm afraid I don't subscribe to it. If God allowed a third of angels to be cast out of heaven, it is likely there are humans in hell.
the incomprehensible depths of the Lord’s mercy!
Thank you, Mr. Gibbs, for your presentation of Canto XX. This Canto is highlighted in Esolen's introduction to Paradiso, which allowed me to grasp more about what was going on than some others.
The seeming wild ways of God's Grace is a useful way to look at the idea Dante is playing with here. "What things are these?" he exclaims when seeing the pagans in the midst of the exalted Just. The Eagle is an icon of Justice, and Justice may be quite surprising. The Lord knows.
Dante successfully avoids universalism in the totality of his poem, and he has earned the "street cred" to dabble into predestination within the bounds of Sacred Tradition. Ripheus is an open question about the possibilities of the Grace of God and the efficacy of prayer. There is much to muse upon here.
Unfortunately, Mr. Gibbs, your last comment does not avoid universalism. Our hope is not that all will be saved because our hope is based upon the words of the Word Incarnate, who tells of the separation between the sheep and the goats; the good fish and the bad fish. Prayer does have hope! But the hope lies in particulars. One cannot expect the "unfeigned, unsentimental hope that all will be saved." ALL and WILL are not in the Tradition.
Thank you!
Line 33: “Mortals, be slow to judge!”
@@onecommandment Line 133. Indeed, Dante does not fall into universalism here. Grace is surprising to our limited sense of the grand story of salvation. The number is not known, but it is clear it is not all of humanity. Pray for sinners because it is a real hope that they (and we) may be numbered among the redeemed. Prayer is hopeful because it faces a real threat.
Thank you for summing up the Inferno and Paradisio to bring ut to this moment. Very helpful.
Superb! Hope is everlasting when placed in Almighty God.
Hope for all. Thank you Mr Gibbs.
Wonderful, thank you!
What great concluding remarks! Yes, people who stop with the Inferno really miss out on the most beautiful part of the Divine Comedy.
Very good presentation.
A beautiful canto and a wonderful presentation that deepened my appreciation and understanding. Thank you.