Inferno Canto I:112-136 Virgil will be his guide through Hell

112
Therefore I think and judge it for thy best

113
Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide,

114
And lead thee hence through the eternal place,

115
Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations,

116
Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate,

117
Who cry out each one for the second death;

118
And thou shalt see those who contented are

119
Within the fire, because they hope to come,

120
Whene'er it may be, to the blessed people;

121
To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,

122
A soul shall be for that than I more worthy;

123
With her at my departure I will leave thee;

124
Because that Emperor, who reigns above,

125
In that I was rebellious to his law,

126
Wills that through me none come into his city.

127
governs evervwhere and there he reigns:

128
There is his city and his lofty throne;

129
O happy he whom thereto he elects!

130
And I to him: Poet, I thee entreat,

131
By that same God whom thou didst never know,

132
So that I may escape this woe and worse,

133
Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said,

134
That I may see the portal of Saint Peter,

135
And those thou makest so disconsolable.

136
Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.

Inferno Canto I:100-111 The salvation of Italy.

100
Many the animals with whom she weds,

101
And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound

102
Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain.

103
He shall not feed on either earth or pelf,

104
But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;

105
'Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be;

106
Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour,

107
On whose account the maid Camilla died,

108
Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds;

109
Through every city shall he hunt her down,

110
Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,

111
There from whence envy first did let her loose.

Inferno Canto I:61-99 Dante meets Virgil

61
While I was rushing downward to the lowland,

62
Before mine eyes did one present himself,

63
Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.

64
When I beheld him in the desert vast,

65
Have pity on me, unto him I cried,

66
Whiche'er thou art, or shade or real man!

67
He answered me: Not man; man once I was,

68
And both my parents were of Lombardy,

69
And Mantuans by country both of them.

70
Sub Julio was I born, though it was late,

71
And lived at Rome under the good Augustus,

72
During the time of false and Iying gods.

73
A poet was I, and I sang that just

74
Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,

75
After that Ilion the superb was burned

76
But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance?

77
Why climb'st thou not the Mount Delectable

78
Which is the source and cause of every joy?

79
Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain

80
Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?

81
I made response to him with bashful forehead.

82
O, of the other poets honour and light,

83
Avail me the long study and great love

84
That have impelled me to explore thy volume!

85
Thou art my master, and my author thou,

86
Thou art alone the one from whom I took

87
The beautiful style that has done honour to me.

88
Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;

89
Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,

90
For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.'

91
Thee it behoves to take another road,

92
Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,

93
If from this savage place thou wouldst escape;

94
Because this beast, at which thou criest out,

95
Suffers not any one to pass her way,

96
But so doth harass him, that she destroys him;

97
And has a nature so malign and ruthless,

98
That never doth she glut her greedy will,

99
And after food is hungrier than before.

Inferno Canto I:1-60 The Dark Wood and the Hill

1
MIDWAY upon the journey of our life

2
I found myself within a forest dark,

3
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

4
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say

5
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,

6
Which in the very thought renews the fear.

7
So bitter is it, death is little more;

8
But of the good to treat, which there I found,

9
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

10
I cannot well repeat how there I entered,

11
So full was I of slumber at the moment

12
In which I had abandoned the true way.

13
But after I had reached a mountain's foot,

14
At that point where the valley terminated,

15
Which had with consternation pierced my heart,

16
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders

17
Vested already with that planet's rays

18
Which leadeth others right by every road.

19
Then was the fear a little quieted

20
That in my heart's lake had endured throughout

21
The night, which I had passed so piteously

22
And even as he, who, with distressful breath,

23
Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,

24
Turns to the water perilous and gazes;

25
So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,

26
Turn itself back to re-behold the pass

27
Which never yet a living person left.

28
After my weary body I had rested,

29
The way resumed I on the desert slope,

30
So that the firm foot ever was the lower.

31
And lo! almost where the ascent began,

32
A panther light and swift exceedingly,

33
Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er!

34
And never moved she from before my face,

35
Nay, rather did impede so much my way,

36
That many times I to return had turned.

37
The time was the beginning of the morning,

38
And up the sun was mounting with those stars

39
That with him were, what time the Love Divine

40
At first in motion set those beauteous things;

41
So were to me occasion of good hope,

42
The variegaled skin of that wild beast,

43
The hour of time, and the delicious season;

44
But not so much, that did not give me fear

45
A lion's aspect which appeared to me.

46
He seemed as if against me he were coming

47
With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,

48
So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;

49
And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings

50
Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,

51
And many folk has caused to live forlorn!

52
She brought upon me so much heaviness,

53
With the affright that from her aspect came,

54
That I the hope relinquished of the height.

55
And as he is who willingly acquires

56
And the time comes that causes him to lose,

57
Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent,

58
E'en such made me that beast withouten peace,

59
Which, coming on against me by degrees

60
Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent

Caritas in Veritate – Day 29 – July 29, 2014

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html

CONCLUSION

78. Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. In the face of the enormous problems surrounding the development of peoples, which almost make us yield to discouragement, we find solace in the sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ, who teaches us: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5) and then encourages us: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). As we contemplate the vast amount of work to be done, we are sustained by our faith that God is present alongside those who come together in his name to work for justice. Paul VI recalled in Populorum Progressio that man cannot bring about his own progress unaided, because by himself he cannot establish an authentic humanism. Only if we are aware of our calling, as individuals and as a community, to be part of God's family as his sons and daughters, will we be able to generate a new vision and muster new energy in the service of a truly integral humanism. The greatest service to development, then, is a Christian humanism[157] that enkindles charity and takes its lead from truth, accepting both as a lasting gift from God. Openness to God makes us open towards our brothers and sisters and towards an understanding of life as a joyful task to be accomplished in a spirit of solidarity. On the other hand, ideological rejection of God and an atheism of indifference, oblivious to the Creator and at risk of becoming equally oblivious to human values, constitute some of the chief obstacles to development today. A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism. Only a humanism open to the Absolute can guide us in the promotion and building of forms of social and civic life — structures, institutions, culture and ethos — without exposing us to the risk of becoming ensnared by the fashions of the moment. Awareness of God's undying love sustains us in our laborious and stimulating work for justice and the development of peoples, amid successes and failures, in the ceaseless pursuit of a just ordering of human affairs. God's love calls us to move beyond the limited and the ephemeral, it gives us the courage to continue seeking and working for the benefit of all, even if this cannot be achieved immediately and if what we are able to achieve, alongside political authorities and those working in the field of economics, is always less than we might wish[158]. God gives us the strength to fight and to suffer for love of the common good, because he is our All, our greatest hope.

79. Development needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in prayer, Christians moved by the knowledge that truth-filled love, caritas in veritate, from which authentic development proceeds, is not produced by us, but given to us. For this reason, even in the most difficult and complex times, besides recognizing what is happening, we must above all else turn to God's love. Development requires attention to the spiritual life, a serious consideration of the experiences of trust in God, spiritual fellowship in Christ, reliance upon God's providence and mercy, love and forgiveness, self-denial, acceptance of others, justice and peace. All this is essential if “hearts of stone” are to be transformed into “hearts of flesh” (Ezek 36:26), rendering life on earth “divine” and thus more worthy of humanity. All this is of man, because man is the subject of his own existence; and at the same time it is of God, because God is at the beginning and end of all that is good, all that leads to salvation: “the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's” (1 Cor 3:22-23). Christians long for the entire human family to call upon God as “Our Father!” In union with the only-begotten Son, may all people learn to pray to the Father and to ask him, in the words that Jesus himself taught us, for the grace to glorify him by living according to his will, to receive the daily bread that we need, to be understanding and generous towards our debtors, not to be tempted beyond our limits, and to be delivered from evil (cf. Mt 6:9-13).

At the conclusion of the Pauline Year, I gladly express this hope in the Apostle's own words, taken from the Letter to the Romans: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honour” (Rom 12:9-10). May the Virgin Mary — proclaimed Mater Ecclesiae by Paul VI and honoured by Christians as Speculum Iustitiae and Regina Pacis — protect us and obtain for us, through her heavenly intercession, the strength, hope and joy necessary to continue to dedicate ourselves with generosity to the task of bringing about the “development of the whole man and of all men”[159].

Caritas in Veritate – Day 29 – July 29, 2014

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html

CONCLUSION

78. Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. In the face of the enormous problems surrounding the development of peoples, which almost make us yield to discouragement, we find solace in the sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ, who teaches us: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5) and then encourages us: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). As we contemplate the vast amount of work to be done, we are sustained by our faith that God is present alongside those who come together in his name to work for justice. Paul VI recalled in Populorum Progressio that man cannot bring about his own progress unaided, because by himself he cannot establish an authentic humanism. Only if we are aware of our calling, as individuals and as a community, to be part of God's family as his sons and daughters, will we be able to generate a new vision and muster new energy in the service of a truly integral humanism. The greatest service to development, then, is a Christian humanism[157] that enkindles charity and takes its lead from truth, accepting both as a lasting gift from God. Openness to God makes us open towards our brothers and sisters and towards an understanding of life as a joyful task to be accomplished in a spirit of solidarity. On the other hand, ideological rejection of God and an atheism of indifference, oblivious to the Creator and at risk of becoming equally oblivious to human values, constitute some of the chief obstacles to development today. A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism. Only a humanism open to the Absolute can guide us in the promotion and building of forms of social and civic life — structures, institutions, culture and ethos — without exposing us to the risk of becoming ensnared by the fashions of the moment. Awareness of God's undying love sustains us in our laborious and stimulating work for justice and the development of peoples, amid successes and failures, in the ceaseless pursuit of a just ordering of human affairs. God's love calls us to move beyond the limited and the ephemeral, it gives us the courage to continue seeking and working for the benefit of all, even if this cannot be achieved immediately and if what we are able to achieve, alongside political authorities and those working in the field of economics, is always less than we might wish[158]. God gives us the strength to fight and to suffer for love of the common good, because he is our All, our greatest hope.

79. Development needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in prayer, Christians moved by the knowledge that truth-filled love, caritas in veritate, from which authentic development proceeds, is not produced by us, but given to us. For this reason, even in the most difficult and complex times, besides recognizing what is happening, we must above all else turn to God's love. Development requires attention to the spiritual life, a serious consideration of the experiences of trust in God, spiritual fellowship in Christ, reliance upon God's providence and mercy, love and forgiveness, self-denial, acceptance of others, justice and peace. All this is essential if “hearts of stone” are to be transformed into “hearts of flesh” (Ezek 36:26), rendering life on earth “divine” and thus more worthy of humanity. All this is of man, because man is the subject of his own existence; and at the same time it is of God, because God is at the beginning and end of all that is good, all that leads to salvation: “the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's” (1 Cor 3:22-23). Christians long for the entire human family to call upon God as “Our Father!” In union with the only-begotten Son, may all people learn to pray to the Father and to ask him, in the words that Jesus himself taught us, for the grace to glorify him by living according to his will, to receive the daily bread that we need, to be understanding and generous towards our debtors, not to be tempted beyond our limits, and to be delivered from evil (cf. Mt 6:9-13).

At the conclusion of the Pauline Year, I gladly express this hope in the Apostle's own words, taken from the Letter to the Romans: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honour” (Rom 12:9-10). May the Virgin Mary — proclaimed Mater Ecclesiae by Paul VI and honoured by Christians as Speculum Iustitiae and Regina Pacis — protect us and obtain for us, through her heavenly intercession, the strength, hope and joy necessary to continue to dedicate ourselves with generosity to the task of bringing about the “development of the whole man and of all men”[159].

Caritas in Veritate – Day 28 – July 28, 2014

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html

75. Paul VI had already recognized and drawn attention to the global dimension of the social question[155]. Following his lead, we need to affirm today that the social question has become a radically anthropological question, in the sense that it concerns not just how life is conceived but also how it is manipulated, as bio-technology places it increasingly under man's control. In vitro fertilization, embryo research, the possibility of manufacturing clones and human hybrids: all this is now emerging and being promoted in today's highly disillusioned culture, which believes it has mastered every mystery, because the origin of life is now within our grasp. Here we see the clearest expression of technology's supremacy. In this type of culture, the conscience is simply invited to take note of technological possibilities. Yet we must not underestimate the disturbing scenarios that threaten our future, or the powerful new instruments that the “culture of death” has at its disposal. To the tragic and widespread scourge of abortion we may well have to add in the future — indeed it is already surreptiously present — the systematic eugenic programming of births. At the other end of the spectrum, a pro-euthanasia mindset is making inroads as an equally damaging assertion of control over life that under certain circumstances is deemed no longer worth living. Underlying these scenarios are cultural viewpoints that deny human dignity. These practices in turn foster a materialistic and mechanistic understanding of human life. Who could measure the negative effects of this kind of mentality for development? How can we be surprised by the indifference shown towards situations of human degradation, when such indifference extends even to our attitude towards what is and is not human? What is astonishing is the arbitrary and selective determination of what to put forward today as worthy of respect. Insignificant matters are considered shocking, yet unprecedented injustices seem to be widely tolerated. While the poor of the world continue knocking on the doors of the rich, the world of affluence runs the risk of no longer hearing those knocks, on account of a conscience that can no longer distinguish what is human. God reveals man to himself; reason and faith work hand in hand to demonstrate to us what is good, provided we want to see it; the natural law, in which creative Reason shines forth, reveals our greatness, but also our wretchedness insofar as we fail to recognize the call to moral truth.

76. One aspect of the contemporary technological mindset is the tendency to consider the problems and emotions of the interior life from a purely psychological point of view, even to the point of neurological reductionism. In this way man's interiority is emptied of its meaning and gradually our awareness of the human soul's ontological depths, as probed by the saints, is lost. The question of development is closely bound up with our understanding of the human soul, insofar as we often reduce the self to the psyche and confuse the soul's health with emotional well-being. These over-simplifications stem from a profound failure to understand the spiritual life, and they obscure the fact that the development of individuals and peoples depends partly on the resolution of problems of a spiritual nature. Development must include not just material growth but also spiritual growth, since the human person is a “unity of body and soul”[156], born of God's creative love and destined for eternal life. The human being develops when he grows in the spirit, when his soul comes to know itself and the truths that God has implanted deep within, when he enters into dialogue with himself and his Creator. When he is far away from God, man is unsettled and ill at ease. Social and psychological alienation and the many neuroses that afflict affluent societies are attributable in part to spiritual factors. A prosperous society, highly developed in material terms but weighing heavily on the soul, is not of itself conducive to authentic development. The new forms of slavery to drugs and the lack of hope into which so many people fall can be explained not only in sociological and psychological terms but also in essentially spiritual terms. The emptiness in which the soul feels abandoned, despite the availability of countless therapies for body and psyche, leads to suffering. There cannot be holistic development and universal common good unless people's spiritual and moral welfare is taken into account, considered in their totality as body and soul.

77. The supremacy of technology tends to prevent people from recognizing anything that cannot be explained in terms of matter alone. Yet everyone experiences the many immaterial and spiritual dimensions of life. Knowing is not simply a material act, since the object that is known always conceals something beyond the empirical datum. All our knowledge, even the most simple, is always a minor miracle, since it can never be fully explained by the material instruments that we apply to it. In every truth there is something more than we would have expected, in the love that we receive there is always an element that surprises us. We should never cease to marvel at these things. In all knowledge and in every act of love the human soul experiences something “over and above”, which seems very much like a gift that we receive, or a height to which we are raised. The development of individuals and peoples is likewise located on a height, if we consider the spiritual dimension that must be present if such development is to be authentic. It requires new eyes and a new heart, capable of rising above a materialistic vision of human events, capable of glimpsing in development the “beyond” that technology cannot give. By following this path, it is possible to pursue the integral human development that takes its direction from the driving force of charity in truth.