Canto VIIIb (the Wrathful)

 Intro to Canto

Dante is about to enter the Fifth Circle (the wrathful).  Dante and Virgil must first cross the river Styx.  As they are crossing, they are greeted by a “slimy shape” whom Dante responds to with anger. 

 

Lines 43 – 45

And then he put his arms around my neck and KISSED MY FACE and said, “Indignant soul, blessed is she in whose womb you were conceived …”

 

OBSERVATION

Dante’s enemy reaches up and kisses the face of Dante.  Jesus was betrayed by his “enemy” Judas with a kiss.  In our lives, one may wonder how many times our “enemy’ have “kissed” our face.

 

QUESTION TO PONDER

How should we respond to the kiss of betrayal?

 

SCRIPTURE TO PONDER

Do not make friends with hot-tempered, do not associate with those who are easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.  Proverbs 22:  24 & 25

 

THOUGHT TO PONDER

As Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time, there are those who are wrathful.  The wrathful are made up of the clergy, who see Jesus as a threat.  When we feel threatened, the temptation is to respond in anger.  Sometimes that anger is veiled as a kiss.

 

PLEASE PRAY FOR:

1. a friend who is looking for a new job.  She is a young adult, who has been working for just over the last three years in CULVER CITY as a receptionist and for six months before that as an administrative assistant.  Graduated from UC Irvine (BA History).  She is proficient in both Macintosh and PC operating systems (Office, etc.)  She has extensive experience with data entry, filing, online research, etc.  She is currently looking for an administatrive/executivelegal assistant position somewhere in the Valley.

the donkey to behave itself during the Palm Sunday Processional in the sanctuary.

Canto VIIIa

Intro to Canto

Virgil and Dante are about to enter the Fifth Circle (wrath/anger).  As they are about to cross the river Styx, a boatman comes up to them who is wrathful and irritated (even though he must grant them passage way across the river Styx).

Line 16 - 21

“skimming along the water in our direction, with a solitary steersman, who was shouting, “Aha, I’ve got you now, you wretched soul!””

 OBSERVATION

It is Phlegyas who is wrathful and angry.

 APPLICATION

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week.  This is the Sunday we enter the church triumphal but as we exit, there is a shadow of things to come.  In the midst of that shadow is one, Caiaphas; who must have thought to himself, “Ah, I’ve got you now, you wretched soul!”

 THOUGHT TO PONDER

On Palm Sunday, there are many who shout “Hosanna!”  But in days to come they will move their “Hosanna!”to the wrathful “Crucify Him!”

Daily Devotion for Dante's Inferno - Canto VIId (Circle 4)

Lines 25 - 27

“More shades were here than anywhere above, and from both sides, to the sound of their own screams straining their chests, they ROLLED ENORMOUS WEIGHTS.”

OBSERVATION

Once again, Dante is borrowing from mythology for his imagery regarding circle 4.  In this circle, the “shades” were once people and are now held in this circle because of greed.  The “hell” (the punishment fits the crime) they have created for themselves is an endless cycle of one task, like Sisyphus, pushing a boulder up to the top of the mountain for it to roll back and repeating the task endlessly.

 

SCRIPTURE:  Ecclesiastes

  2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"  says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

 3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

 6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north;  round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from,  there they return again.

 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

THOUGHT TO PONDER

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.  Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

 

QUESTION TO PONDER

Why would Albert Camus think Sisyphus happy?  Was not his fate to push a stone up the hill to only repeat the process again and again?  In Greek mythology the thought of futile and hopeless labor was the most dreadful punishment.

daily Devotion for Dante's Inferno - Canto VIIc (Circle 4)

Line 13 – 15

As sails swollen by wind, when the ship’s mast breaks, collapse, deflated, tangled in a heap, just so the savage beast (Plutus) fell to the ground.

 

OBSERVATION

Plutus, when fear of the other is taken away, collapses like a sail without the wind; reminding us that wealth only catches us when we allow it.  And, when it does, it can blow us out of control by it’s own direction.  But if the wind is taken out of he sail; or when wealth is taken out of our sails, then wealth, like wind is an airy emptiness; especially when it comes to what is real and important.  Thus, when we give money it’s true value, it no longer can push us around like a sail on a boat caught by the winds.

 

SCRIPTURE

19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:  19 – 21

 

THOUGHT TO PONDER

Wealth only has power over us when we allow it to be our lord.

 

QUESTION TO PONDER

Where does the wind of wealth drive you?

 

Daily Devotion for Dante's Inferno - Canto VIIb (Circle 4)

Lines 4 – 6

(Virgil said to Dante) “Do not let fear defeat you, for whatever be his power, he cannot stop our journey down this rock.”

 

OBSERVATION

Virgil is reminding Dante not to be fear driven.  The power of Plutus is one that we give to Plutus.  Plutus only has power when we give Plutus power. 

 

Unfortunately there is a temptation to be driven by fear.  Those with little, fear the lack of money; while those with much fear the losing of money.  Both can be driven by fear.

 

SCRIPTURE

There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear.

I John 4:18

 

QUESTION TO PONDER

Do you need more love to drive out fear?

 

Daily Devotion for Dante's Inferno - Canto VIIa (Circle 4)

DAILY DEVOTION # 1

Lines 1 – 3

"Pape Satan, pape Satan, alepe!" the voice of Plutus clucked these words at us…

 

OBSERVATION

Plutus is a mythological god of wealth.  Here in the inferno he oversees the folks who did not practice proper stewardship of their wealth.  Once again, moderation (of wealth) is the virtue, greed is the antithesis of moderation.  These folks allowed reason to be subjected to desire (desire is in the driver’s seat and reason is in the backseat) as they either hoarded or spent.

 

SCRIPTURE:  Luke 12:  13 – 21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

 

Jesus replied, “‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?' Then he said to them, "Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of GREED; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."

 

And he told them this parable:  "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.’

 

Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.  And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’

 

But God said to him, 'You FOOL!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

 

This is how it will be with those who store up things for themselves, but are not rich toward God."

 

OBSERVATION

This is a story of a person who thinks the purpose of life is wealth. instead of wealth being a good thing as a tool of life.  This person is driven by GREED.  Life is more than the accumulation of wealth.  Life is to be lived in relationship with God and others (driven by love).  To pursue possessions instead of relationships is to miss out on the beauty of life.

 

QUESTION:  Who is “Plutus” in your life?

Is there someone who is applying pressure on your life regarding your expenditures?  Are they wise?

 

THOUGHT TO PONDER

We are all driven by something.  Some are driven by lust (circle 2).  Others driven by food (circle 3).  Still others are driven by greed (circle 4).

 

QUESTION TO PONDER

What drives you?

Daily Devotion for Dante's Inferno (Canto VIc)

Lines 37-39
"Each sinner there was STRETCHED OUT ON THE GROUND except for one who quickly sat up straight, the moment that he saw us pass him by."

OBSERVATION:
The sinners of gluttony are all STRECTECHED OUT ON THE GROUND. Other translation say "mired in mud"

REMEMBER:
Each UNREPENTANT sinner prepares their place in the Inferno through their actions in this life. The punishment is similar to the crime. For the glutton, it's like those of us who partake in the most gluttonous of all the feasts, THANKSGIVING. Those of us who prepare for this day, and tackle it like it is a sport, pay the consequences soon after the meal is consumed as we lay about, strewn from couch to floor, wallowing in our pain, thinking to ourselves "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." At least, so I've heard.

QUESTION TO PONDER
Does food control us; or do we control food?

SCRIPTURE TO PONDER
"Food does not bring us closer to God..." I Corinthians 8:8a

THOUGHT TO PONDER
For if it did, I would be a spiritual giant.

Daily Devotion for Dante's Inferno (Canto VIb)

anto V (line 25 - 30)
"My master stooped and, spreading wide fingers, he grapped up heaping fistfuls of the mud and flung it down into those greedy gullets.

As a howling cur, hungering to get fed, quiets down with the first mouthful of his food, BUSY WITH EATING, WRESTLING WITH THAT ALONE."

OBSERVATION:
The beast Cereberus went from guard dog to compliant dog by merely filling the greedy gullets.

Another Translation (describing the transformation)
"ALL ITS EFFORT DIRECTED AT CONSUMPTION.

OBSERVATION: Cereberus is FOOD DRIVEN.

The journey through the Inferno is to see what drives people. Last week, Francesca and Palo were LUST driven. This week Ciacco is food driven.

QUESTION
What drives you? What are "all your efforts directed at"? Is it lust? Is it food? Or is it something else?

SCRIPTURE TO PONDER
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God." Matthew 6:33

Daily Devotion: Canto VI

CANTO VI (Circle 3)
Lines 13 - 15
"Cerberus, a ruthless and fantastic beast, with all three throats howls out his doglike sonds above the drowning sinners of this place."

OBSERVATION:
Cerberus is a doglike beast with three heads. Think "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" wit the three head doglike beast.

Lines 22 - 24
"When the slimy Cerberus cught sight of us, he opeened his moths and showed his fangs; his body with one mass of twitching muscles."

OBSERVATION:
Like in Harry Potter, this beast is guarding something.

Lines 25 - 36
"My master stooped and, spreading wide his fingers, he grabbed up heaping fistfuls of the mud and flung it down into those GREEDY GULLETS.

As a howling cur, hungering to get fed, quiets down with the first mouthful of his food, busy with eating, wrestiling with that alone,

so it was with all three filthy heads of the demon Cerberus, used to barking thunder on these dead souls, who wished that they were deaf.

OBSERVATION:
Cerberus' primary purpose is protection (guarding the circle)
He is easily "distracted" by "food."

Each of us has a primary purpose on the "straight and naRrow path" of life. We journey well when we focus on our primary purpose, we journey poorly when we are persuaded to pursue a lesser path other than our primary purpose. For some, that which pulls us off the path is food. 

QUESTION:
Do you know anyone that is easily distracted by food (other than Stan)?

SCRIPTURE TO PONDER
Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. PROVERBS 23:20

DAILY DEVOTION #3 (Canto V, cont.)

"One day we were reading for our delight Of Launcelot, how Love did him enthral.  Alone we were and without any fear.  Full many a time our eyes together drew that reading, and drove the color from our faces; but one point only was it that o'ercame us.  When we read of the much-longed-for smile being by such a noble lover kissed, this one who ne'er  from me shall be divided, Kissed me upon the moth all  palpitating.  Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it.  that day no farther did we read therein."  And all the while one spirit uttered this, the other one did weep so, that, for pity, I swooned away as if i had been dying, and fell, even as a dead body falls."

(Canto V, lines 113 - 129)

"I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart."  Matthew 5:28

Difficult to think about Matthew 5:28, without remembering President Jimmy Carter and his infamous interview with Playboy magazine reading this verse.  However, unlike President Jimmy Carter, the people in Circle 2 are unrepentant and are unwilling to admit to their responsibility for their behavior.  In fact, they blame others for their behavior.

In Canto V, the two most "celebrated" couple in Circle 2 is 

Francesca and Paolo.  This couple means very little to us today.  In the 13th and 14th century they were known because of their love affair.  Paolo and Francesca read some steamy and seductive literature about Lancelot and the wife of King Arthur's affair.  They read about this affair, together, on a bed; and then fell into each others arms and embraced.  They were discovered by Fracesca's husband, Paolo's brother; who immediately killed them both.

the point is, neither of them are repentant and neither of them say it was their fault.  Like the wind blowing the birds up and down and into each other (previous devotion, lines 37 - 45) Paolo and Francesca had no control, reason was subjected to desire, and out of control they embraced because they were reading about Lancelot and the wife of King arthur embracing as they emulated the kiss.

Do you know anyone who says, "it's not my falt!"?  Remember Flip Wilson?  "The devil made me do it!"

SCRIPTURE:  I Corinthians 6:18

Flee from sexual immorality.  Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

THOUGHT TO PONDER

In some ways lust is like gluttony.  Can't get enough.  Want more even though reason says, "What are you thinking?!?!?"  and like other sinners, "it's not my fault."  I don't have control.

As a hunter hunts for his next trophy to mount on the wall, so do the lustful...

Daily Devotion for Dante's Inferno (Canto Vb)

Canto V, lines 37 - 45

Next stop...Circle 2 (Lust)

"I learned that to this place of punishment all those who sin in lust have been condemned, those who make REASON SLAVE TO APPETITE; and as the wings of starlings in the winter bear them alor g in wide-spread, crowded flocks, so does the wind propel the evil spirits: now here, then there, and up and down, it drives them with never an hope to comfort them-hope not of rest but even of suffering less." (lines 37 - 45)

Dante is referring to birds that are known in Italy to be carried by the winds (up and down, wherever the wind blows them) that bump into each other. The interesting observation of the Inferno is that the sinner, in a sense, creates their own hell through their own actions. In other words, the sin of lust, where reason is subjected to desire ("reason slave to appetite"). Thus the punishment reflects the sin as reason is put in the back seat and desire is driving the car out of control. Lust is an individual out of control allowing desire to the point of lack of control.

Considering Augustine's concept of sin, lust is love in inapproriate ways on one end. perhaps on the other end of the spectrum is love in an inapproriate way would be the concept found in Simon's & Garfunkel's song, "I am a Rock" the line of not needing anybody, being an Island or rock.

God has blessed us with love. Love is a blessing in God's way.

SCRIPTURE TO PONDER
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows god. Whoever does not love does not know god, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us; He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him." I JOHN 4: 7 - 9 

PRAY FOR:
a particular person in our congregation who is looking for work. He is skilled in computers. He at one time had his own business.

Daily Devotion for Dante's Inferno (Canto Va)

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with im, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people from one another as a shepherd separates, the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on hnis right and the goats onhis left.....Then he will say to those on his left 'Depart from me, you who are cursed , into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels...Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." When Jesus returns to judge (the third advent of Christ), he will judge, according to this parable, bhy our response to the weak. Those not worthy, he sends to "eternal punishment." In Dante's Inferno, the requirement to enter into "eternal punishment" is not one's response to the weak, but one's failure to be repent. However, those entering "eternal punishment" will have in a sense a second judgement. This time, it's Minos who judges. Canto V (line 4 - 6) "There stands Minos grotesquely, and he snarls, examining the guilty at the entrance; he judges and dispatches, tail in coils." Whereas Jesus is the judge at the final judgement, Minos is the judge for those who enter "eternal punishment." Minos is the judge of where one shall reside in hell. Think of him like the "sorting hat" in Harry Potter; where the hat determines which house the new student shall reside. Minos judges on which circle in hell the "new student" shall reside by wrapping his tail around his body. Each time his tail wraps around his body indicates the circle where one shall reside depending on the sin. Today, one of our categories of virtue may be compassion. If compassion is one of your pillars of virtue, then perhaps you find it difficult to conceive of the concept of judgement. Bible verses like (Matthew 7:1) "Do not judge or you then shall be judge" may resonate with you. You may find this part of Dante's Inferno uncomfortable. So, as we begin our journey into the Inferno, let us wrestle with the concept of judgement. Do we find it uncomfortable, if so, why? And how likely are we to judge others in our daily living? PRAY for: all those in our congregation who are unemployed we are beginning an informal job bank if you know of a person who is looking or a position that is open, email me back

At this time, there is a particular person who is trained in computers seeking employment.

Daily Devotion for Dante's Inferno (Canto 2)

Canto III

 

I am the way into the doleful city,

I am the way into eternal grief,

I am the way to a forsaken race.

 

Justice it was that moved my great creator;

Divine omnipotence created me,

And highest wisdom joined with primal love.

 

Before me nothing but eternal things

Were made, and I shall last eternally.

Abandon all hope, all you who enter.

 

The above words are inscribed above a gate entering hell.

 

Notice that the first three lines are “I am the way.”

 

This Sunday one of our scriptures is:

 

John 14:6

“I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

 

This exclusive statement of John can be implied in Canto III; but is explicit in Canto IV.

 

Nevertheless, the focus is that this is the beginning of the journey through hell.  The infamous words, “Abandon all hope, all you who enter.” Have been echoed for the last 700 years in many different ways.  Who knows, perhaps the echo is heard again as we enter an era of high unemployment and uncertainty.  Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 280 points, setting a fresh bear-market closing low, as the financial sector collapsed again.

One of the questions we are faced with is, where do we go for hope? 

Last Sunday, we asked, whom do you go to when you are lost?  Who is your guide / mentor / coach / teacher / Virgil?

 

PRAYER

Pray for our president, cabinet, congress and officials who can guide us back to a prosper time.