DANTE'S SUBLIME COMEDY: PARADISE: Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29: Of the Angels

The long horizon of the gloaming sky

            linked the declining sun in the far west

            with the far east and the ascending moon.            3

It held them balanced till the moon climbed up,

            the sun dropped down to their next hemisphere.

            In that soft interval my Lady smiled                      6

quietly, happily, at the fixed Point

            whose rays had lately almost hurt my sight.

            “I will not ask,” said she, “I’ll say instead             9

the words you want to hear, reading them from

            this Point at which time-space, where-when unite

            in the eternal, infinite I AM                                  12

whose love made everything, archangels

first. Only God’s Spirit can say how they

flashed into being, movers of the spheres            15

of which, with later potencies, they were  

a very grand and necessary part

Jerome believed long ages passed between         18

their coming and the first week of the world

forgetting that in Genesis we read

            God’s Spirit did not rest or sleep but moved        21

upon the waters of the deep before          

creating light. Angels could not be left

without the ecstasy of serving Him,                     24

so now your wish to know where, when and why           

they were created should be satisfied.

Know also hardly twenty seconds passed            27

before rebels among them, mad with pride,

declared they would not serve, and so were flung

down to the lowest element, the earth,                 30

convulsing, warping it into the pit, 

jailing the foul monstrosities you saw

            when Virgil led you through. The rest remain     33

  

delighting in their art, for it maintains      

the universal harmony they love,

            God’s Grace expanding their intelligence            36                  

to fit the vastness of their mighty task.

Don’t doubt the merit of receiving Grace

            in strengthening a sure and steadfast will.            39

If you have fully understood these words,

            ponder the spirits gathered in this place.

            Too many Doctors of Divinity                             42

preach about angels’ mind and memory,

            confusing hearers with obscurity.

            To banish pointless ambiguity                              45

I will say more. The angels live in sight

of God from whom nothing is hid. Between

Himself and they no interruption stood.               48

So they need no impressions of the past.

Preachers who speak of what they do not know

dream while awake. If they believe their words   51

yet still they are to blame. Some preachers spout

            doctrines to show how very wise they are,

and this provokes less anger here than their         54

neglect of what Christ said and did. Just think

of how much blood was shed by humble folk

whose simple speech was first to spread the news. 57

That Christ had risen from the dead. Today

            one preacher says that when He died the moon

            eclipsed the sun, a second foolishly                     60

explains the miracle another way.

            Shepard’s who feed their sheep with words like these

            are bloating them with wind. Disciples learned   63

                       

from Christ a gospel kindling from their lips

            Faith, Hope and Love, which was their shield and spear.

            Sermons are now so stuffed with taunts and jokes 66

that if they raise a laugh the preacher’s cowl

            inflates and all pleased, but Satan builds

            his nests in hoods like these. If folk could see     69

 the falsehood of the pardons they receive

            they’d fling them down like counterfeited coin.  

             I have digressed enough, so turn my eyes          72

back to your interest in Heaven’s hosts.

            The number of the angels can’t be told

in human speech. The visionary book                 75

of Daniel mentions thousands of them,

            and also tens of thousands, but nothing

more definite because the primal light,                78

illuminating all, reflects each one

in ways as multiple as splendours poured

            upon them. Because affection flows most            81

to what viewers conceive, Love’s sweetness glows

            differently in each, some more, some less,

making a myriad reflections of

the pure unchanging rose of whitest light.”                      85