Zeda NutterHumanities 202

Dr. KozinskiApril 24, 2015

Dante Unravels the Paradox of the Coexistence of God's Justice and Mercy

Thomas Paine said, I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties

consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

Justice and mercy have often been cited as virtues found in great civilizations: the Ancient Greek

culture was centered on the concept of justice, and the universal Christian culture relies heavily

on God's mercy. The justice of God is explored at great length in Cantos XIX and XX of the

Paradiso while God's mercy is evident in Canto V of Dante's Purgatorio as Dante explores the

realm of the late repentant souls. Justice and mercy are seemingly opposite in many ways. Justice

is giving a person what is due to him whether in the form of a reward or of punishment, and

mercy is granting that someone who should receive punishment is spared. It may seem counter-

intuitive that God can be both just and merciful at the same time, but I believe that this is

precisely what Dante is striving to extrapolate upon in these sections of the Divine Comedy.

The unraveling of this paradoxical coexistence of justice and mercy can best be

understood after we explore Dante's view of both justice and mercy. The planet Jupiter is the

level of Heaven in which God's justice is shown. He sees the lights that are souls flocking around

and singing the praises of God, and then they start to make letters to spell out words. Eventually

he sees that they have spelled Diligite iustitiam qui iudicatis terram.1 Love justice, you who

judge the earth. After forming these words, the spirits then come together to create an eagle, the

1

1 Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, trans. Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander (New York: Random House, Inc., 2007), XVIII. 91-93

symbol of justice. Unified in their complete glorification of God through justice, these souls help

to reveal to Dante what the justice of God is. On earth, God's justice is unable to be seen as

clearly due to man's fallen nature. This is not to say that God is any less just, only that man's

view of God's justice is veiled and sometimes rather confusing.

This is manifested when the Eagle states the question that is prevailing in Dante's mind.

His question is why is a pagan who does good for all of his life and is sinless in the eyes of

man yet dies outside of the faith cast into either limbo or hell? Here Dante receives a rather

scathing answer:

Now, who are you to sit upon the bench,Judging from a thousand miles awayWith eyesight shorter than a span?

To be sure, for one who wanted to debate this,Had the Scripture not been set above you,There might be ample room for question. 2

This initial question which is given in response to Dante's question is similar to the reply from

God in answer to Job's inquiry: there are many things that man does not understand and you

think you deserve answers? Who are you that you can question the willing and moving of God?

Man often is prideful and thinks of himself as the highest thing in the world. And many times he

just needs that reassertion from God of His divine rule to grow exponentially in faith and trust in

God. Thus God's first answer in explaining His justice is that man cannot fully understand God.

While this may seem almost like a cop out answer, it is one that applies to God's infinite

mercy as well. God's mercy is what allows man to be saved because there is no way that man

could merit heaven by himself. It took God reaching down to man for man to be able to reach up

2

2 Dante, Paradiso, XIX. 79-84

to God. Dante first sees those souls which embody God's mercy in a particular way when he is

ascending through Purgatory and meets with those who died violently but repented at the last

moment. During the final moments of their lives, God granted them mercy. Most of these people

led lives that were not pleasing to God. These were men who lived only to do what they

themselves wished. They only desired each day to achieve a pleasure greater than the day before.

For some that was through glory on the battlefield; the battlefield where they gained a far higher

pleasure: the pleasure of knowing God's mercy.

This is only one example of the many souls snatched from the fires of hell. When the

group of souls that repented only as they were dying see Dante and Virgil walking among them,

they flock around them throwing their life stories at the living man in the hopes of receiving

prayers when he returns to his homeland. But not only do they ask for favors, they give a favor to

Dante: they allow him a deeper insight into the mercy of God.

Sinners to the final hourWe were all at the point of violent death

When a light from Heaven brought us understanding.3 The mercy of God embodied itself in the form of a light that illumined the intellects of these

depraved men and granted them the knowledge of good and evil that they might believe and be

saved. One of these souls in particular discusses what happened to his soul at the moment of his

death. Buonconte was grievously wounded in the neck and so he fled. Eventually his strength

gave out and he died, but not before he converted:

There I lost sight and speechI ended on the name of Mary there I fell,

and only my flesh remained.4

3

3 Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, trans. Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander (New York: Random House, Inc., 2004), V. 52-54

4 Dante, Purgatorio, V. 100-102

This may not be the most revealing tercet concerning the mercy of God, but it is followed by

another which tells the story of his soul's journey to Purgatory. After dying with the name of

Mary on his lips, Buonconte's soul, which had been destined for the Inferno before his prayer

was saved by the intercession of Mary on his behalf for the mercy of God to be shown unto him.

I will tell you the truth you tell it to the living.God's angel took me, and he from hell cried out:

'O you from Heaven, why do you rob me?

You carry off with you this man's eternal part. For a little tear he's taken from me,

but with the remains I'll deal in my own way.'

Buonconte's very whisper, this smallest of heartfelt tears moved God's mercy such that

Buonconte was saved from the clutches of the devil. One by one the others tell their stories. One

by one Dante listens to the violent end which greeted each of them. One by one he is struck by

the mercy that saved wretches such as they.

But these wretches are not alone in their depravity. There is another who, in a way, fell

even farther because of his lofty position. He fell to the depths of self-love and could do no more

than to plead with all of his being for the mercy of God to rain down upon him. God was indeed

merciful and raised him higher than before; so high, in fact, that he now resides as the Eye of the

Eagle of Justice. David, this man to whom great mercy was shown is now the ideal example of

justice. After David sins with Bathsheba, all he can do is pour his heart out in repentance to his

Creator crying, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according to the

multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.5 This pouring forth of David's soul

casts himself on God's mercy, but after more admittance of iniquities and prayers of repentance,

the Psalmist then goes on to state, Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy

4

5 Psalm 51:1

sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.6

Somehow, this total emptying of oneself upon the loving mercy of God is a sign of God's justice.

Both Buonconte and David cried out to God for His merciful love to be showered upon

them when they were farthest from Him. Both Buonconte's Maria and David's Miserere

were not only prayers for mercy but also for justice. It is due to God's infinite justice which is

unfathomable by the minds of men that God have mercy upon sinners so great as these. God's

mercy is portrayed through God's justice and His justice finds no better advocate than His mercy.

For if no one were punished for wrong-doing and everyone was shown divine mercy, then there

would be no infinite justice. But if everyone was given only what they deserved and no more or

less, then God's mercy would be non-existent.

Another instance of God's mercy coinciding with His complete justice is in the case of

Ripheus, a pagan who is somehow in Paradise. It is precisely because we have pagans such as

Ripheus in Paradise that we can know that there is a relation between the mercy and justice of

both and that God gives us both over abundantly. Ripheus, the most just of all pagans, is in the

eyebrow of the Eagle of Justice. The brightest of the just souls is David, the Eye of the Eagle, but

he is surrounded by other notable examples of great justice, one of them being Ripheus, a pagan.

That a pagan is in heaven is a sign that man cannot fathom the mind of God.

Dante is a master of language and subtlety, but there are things that pertain to God that

are inexpressible and beyond human reason. One of these things is the fact that justice and mercy

are inexorably tied together in the Divine Plan. But as is often the case, we must have faith in

God and trust in His perfect plan. This plan ties justice and mercy into one perfect knot untie-

able by mankind but known by the Creator of this knot.

5

6 Psalm 51:4