Canto XXXII
CANTO XXXII
Assuming the office of teacher, St. Bernard begins to detail the structure of the Celestial Rose for Dante, starting with a vertical row of Hebrew women that runs from the Blessed Virgin Mary at the top, through Eve, Rachel, Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, and Ruth in the center, down to unnamed others at the bottom. To their left sit those who believed in Christ as the Messiah-to-come, to the right those who accepted the Savior-come-as-man, among whom some vacant seats still remain. Opposite the row of holy women, and completing the dividing wall between the Old and New Testament saints, lie the seats of St. John the Baptist, St. Francis, St. Benedict, St. Augustine, and others. The bottom half of each semicircle is filled with the souls of infants, who enjoy their place among the saved not through their own merits but through the faith of their parents. God’s providence has ordered them hierarchically as well, according to the degree of His predestining grace, which the example of Jacob and Esau shows most clearly. From Adam to Abraham the faith of their parents sufficed for their salvation. From Abraham to Christ the males had to undergo circumcision. But from the coming of the Redeemer to the present, infants must receive baptism in order to win salvation or else abide in Limbo. St. Bernard then directs the Pilgrim to turn his gaze upon the Blessed Virgin in order to prepare himself to look on Christ in His glory. As the Poet peers upwards, he sees the Christhke face of Mary, more wondrous than anything he has beheld before. An angel, spreading his wings before her, sings the greeting of the Annunciation, and the entire court of Heaven responds with ever brightening faces, so that Dante asks the identity of this being who glows with love for the Queen of Heaven. Basking in the light of Mary, like the morning star before the sun, St. Bernard identifies him as Gabriel and then turns the Pilgrim’s sight to Adam, who bequeathed the legacy of original sin to mankind, and to St. Peter, on whom Christ bestowed the keys of the kingdom, sitting on Mary’s left and right. Beside St. Peter he then points out St. John, who witnessed the first persecutions of the Church, and, next to Adam, Moses, who fed the obstinate Hebrews manna in the desert. Across from Peter and to the right of John the Baptist, he signals St. Anne, the mother of Mary, on whom she rests her devoted eyes. Across from Adam and to the Baptist’s left, he then designates St. Lucy, who first interceded with Beatrice on Dante’s behalf. Finally St. Bernard invites the Pilgrim to join him in a prayer to the Blessed Virgin to enable him to look upon the splendor of the Primal Love.
1 Rapt in his pleasure, that contemplative[730]
Assumed the teacher’s office freely when
He started with these holy words I give:
4 “The wound that Mary salved and closed again[731]
Was made by one so lovely at her feet[732]
Who pierced it and who opened it. And then,[733]
7 Within the order these third seats complete
Sits Rachel under her, and you can see[734]
Your Beatrice beside her; and in suite
10 Are Sarah too, Rebecca, Judith, she[735]
Who was great grand-dam to the bard of grief
For sin, who uttered, ‘Miserere mei.’[736]
13 You see them all from rank to rank, in brief,
Through these descending levels as I go
Down through the rose by name from leaf to leaf.
16 And after them, down from the seventh row
As up to it, the Hebrew women bide,
Dividing all the flower’s tresses, so,[737]
19 According to the look that they applied
In faith to Christ, these women form a wall,
And that is where the sacred stairs divide.
22 Upon this side, on which the bloom with all[738]
Its many petals is mature, you scan
Those who by faith in Christ-to-come sit tall.
25 On that side, where the semi-circle plan[739]
Is broken up by vacant seats, you greet
Those who looked back to Christ who came as man.
28 As on this side the glorious high seat
Of Heaven’s Maid and chairs saints sit upon
Below make the dividing wall replete,
31 So, opposite, does that of great St. John,[740]
Who bore the desert, martyrdom, and Hell
(Though ever holy) till two years were gone.
34 And this dividing line below him fell
To Francis, Benedict, Augustine there,[741]
And others round on round to here as well.
37 Now see the depths of God’s great foresight where
Faith in the one and other aspect shown
Will fill this garden, each with equal share.
40 And know that downwards from the row that’s grown
To cleave in half the two divisions no
One sits through any merits of his own
43 But through another’s—with conditions, though—[742]
For all these spirits were absolved from wrong[743]
Before possessing true free choice below.
46 You’ll sense it in the faces of this throng
And in their infant voices if you will
But look on them and listen to their song.
49 But now you doubt and, doubting, you fall still;
So I shall loose this tightly knotted skein
In which your subtle thoughts have bound your skill.
52 Within the ample breadth of this domain,
No point can find its place by chance—in fact,
No more than hunger, thirst, or sorrow’s pain.
55 For all you see is ordered by the act
Of God’s eternal law so that the fit
Of ring and finger here will be exact.
58 Those hastened to true life do thus not sit
Among themselves with greater or with less
Of excellence without a cause for it.
61 The King, through whom you see this realm quiesce
In such great love and in such great delight
That no one’s will would dare to seek excess,
64 Creating every mind in His glad sight,
Gives grace diversely, as He wills, to bloom—
And let this fact provide sufficient light.
67 You note this clearly in those twins of whom
The Holy Writ expressly says the flare
Of anger stirred within their mother’s womb.[744]
70 And therefore that most lofty Light is fair
In letting them with such a crown be graced
According to the color of their hair.
73 With nothing on their works of merit based,
These differ in but keenness of their view
And thus in differing degrees are placed.
76 In early times, the faith their parents knew,
With their own innocence, sufficed alone
For their possession of salvation too.
79 When to completion those first times had grown,
The males had to be circumcised to gain
Their strength, should wings of innocence have flown.
82 But since the time of grace has come to reign,
If they’re not baptized perfectly in Christ,
In Limbo must such innocents remain.
85 Now to the face that most resembles Christ[745]
Turn your regard, for but her light so bright
Can ready you to look yourself on Christ.”
88 And I beheld such rains of gladness light
Upon her, borne in holy minds that soared,[746]
Created for their flying through that height,
91 That nothing I had formerly explored
Has ever held me in such wonder nor
Has shown me such a likeness to the Lord.
94 The love that first descended there before[747]
To sing to her “Hail Mary, full of grace”
Spread out its wings before her; furthermore,
97 That blessèd court replied in every place
To its celestial song, and everywhere
Each soul became yet brighter in its face.
100 “O you, who for my sake have deigned to fare
Below and leave your sweet place, holy sire,
Where by eternal lot you have your chair,
103 Who is that angel who with glad desire
Beholds our Queen’s two eyes—he who is won
By such a lively love he seems afire?”
106 I thus besought the teaching of that one[748]
Who drew from Mary’s beauty so that he
Did as the morning star does with the sun.[749]
109 “Both confidence and grace,” he said to me,
“As much as soul or angel can display,
Are all in him, and so we’d have it be.
112 For it is he who bore the palm that day
To Mary when the Son of God on high
Had willed to bear the burden of our clay.
115 But come along now with your sight as I
Speak on, and notice the patricians here
Of this most just and pious reign. First spy
118 Those two who sit upon the highest tier[750]
Like two roots of this rose, those who are all
The gladder when their Empress is more near.
121 Behold beside her in the left-hand stall
Our father, through whose tasting, overbold,
The human race must taste such bitter gall.
124 See Holy Church’s father there of old
Upon the right, to whom Christ gave the keys[751]
Of such a lovely bloom as this to hold.
127 The next, before his death, felt hard times squeeze
Once spear and nail had won a comely Bride,[752]
And by the one just shown he sits at ease. [753]
130 There, by the side of Adam, rests that guide
Who once with manna fed his own, a lot
Ungrateful, fickle, and of stubborn pride.[754]
133 Across from Peter, notice Anna’s spot;[755]
She’s so content to see her child that in
Hosanna-songs her eyes don’t move a jot.
136 Across from that great father of our kin
Sits Lucy—she who made your Lady rouse[756]
Herself when you were ruin-bent on sin.
139 But since there flees the time that makes you drowse,[757]
We’ll stop right here just as good tailors do
Who cut the garment as the cloth allows,
142 And turn our eyes to that First Love, so you,
By gazing up towards Him, may pierce the glare
Of His refulgence as you’re able to.
145 But lest you take a backward fall from there,
While flapping wings and thinking to proceed,
You must obtain a further grace by prayer—
148 A grace from one who will relieve your need;[758]
Now follow me with your affection’s bent
So that your heart won’t leave the words you heed.”
151 And he began a holy prayer that went: