Scene 2
“If that was the Baptistery, then I will see what
I had missed from Florence? Where I came from, was a land of beauty and
culture.” Dante then turned to a sarcastic tone. “What infernal place is this?
I had my path to the forest, dark and unloving where I had lost three friends,
and move onto stepping over headless corpses, and …”
“Dante, hold your sanity. This is not
Florence. This is Hell. The Sixth Circle of Hell. The City of Dis.” Virgil
comforted the other. Dante could not make out of his emotions then and knelt on
the ground.
“Florence was beautiful; its flowers and
people, the wine and food, the music and festivals. Where are the palazzo, the
galleries, the Piazza ---- what have I here?” Dante looked to the sight that
laid before him.
There were the sights of the cemetery lots
but smaller parcels hovering in the air with the sight of the souls trying to dig
back into it while winged creatures pulled at them to get them off the parcels
there. The top of the parcels was aflame and there the souls tried to put the
fire out while some had relented to it as it was their retribution. Those that
fell were into the mire like pits, struggling to get our while others pushed
them back.
It was chaos.
Dante's words summed it up.
“It’s
no oasis in the desert. It’s the pits of Hell here which douse them with
punishments. What manner of treatment could Hell inflict them here that was not
seen before?”
“Foul
to eternity, my poet pilgrim.” Virgil addressed Dante. “We are not to judge but
to observe, as we journey past. None of us understand the wrath of God on the
sinners, for if we ever do, we would not have sinned.”
“Sins?
I doubt it was sin that cannot be pardoned.” Dante snapped out. “God, are you
not merciless to your worshippers?”
“God
may be but many here are not his worshippers. They are Pagans followers; a man
with not the faith of God but of idols or perceived visions of it. That is most
foul in the eyes of God.”
“Who
are they?” Dante asked for clarification as to if he was hard of hearing. “What kind of sinners are these who reside in the open tombs?”
“Arch-heretics
and their disciples are buried here,” Virgil replied. “The tombs hold many more
sinners than you suspect, and each kind of heretic is entombed with the other
heretics who believed incorrectly about God. The tombs burn more brightly for
the greater heresies.” (Extracted from https://davidbruceblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/dantes-inferno-canto-9-retelling/)
“Heretics?” Peter 2:1-22 spoke of it. They are the false prophets also arose among the people, just as there
will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive
heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves
swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them,
the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed, they will exploit you
with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their
destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned,
but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be
kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved
Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon
the world of the ungodly.” (Extract https://www.openbible.info/topics/heresy)
“Well thought off those words and what you see
here may be the follow-on of God’s wrath. He may be merciless, but he can also
be without it.” Virgil then looked at the top. “See rain falls on them now.”
Yet
it was not raining but hail storms that came down with the chunks of ice that
lay pain on the fallen souls. The soul clamor to hide where was shelter it may
be filled or there was only the mire.
“1
John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” Dante recited the words he was familiar was then.
“Yes, and yet in Corinthian 5:10; For we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is
due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (Extracted from https://www.openbible.info/topics/punishment_of_sins )
Dante and Virgil walked to one of the parcels of
land where a dozen tombs were seen. It hovered just at their eye level. His
thoughts went out to the concept of the Circle. He understands then why the guards here are the fallen angels and the
Furies and Medusa, Dante thought. Medusa and the Furies are appropriate guards
of this Circle because they are pagan figures, and of course, pagans do not
think correctly about God. The fallen angels are also appropriate guards of
this Circle that is devoted to punishing heretics because they did not think
correctly about God, as they chose to fight against Him rather than fight
against Lucifer. Heresy is thinking incorrectly about God; the fallen angels,
the Furies, and Medusa thought incorrectly about God. Still, tombs don’t need
guards, so the guards here need hardly keep a close eye on the sinners in the
tombs. (Extract from https://davidbruceblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/dantes-inferno-canto-9-retelling/)
Dante looked to Virgil for his solace.
“Poet you were one, Dante. And so were you a Preacher but before
all of this, you were a seeker of the truth in your faith. You may have seen
part of it now, and you find that words could not describe the things you see.
I can’t too even though I am of science; well with dabbling in theology but
even what, I had seen here and before, clung onto my mind. Is this our
afterlife events? And yet in the living world, all of us held some sins. Are we
to be cleansed of it if we adhered to God’s words? If so, we may all be ----”
“Uncreative in our mind? Perhaps you are right, Virgil, a man of
science where logic prevails. What we had viewed may to many illogical but the
scene before us is not to our sight but in our mind. As many will say, to hell
with it. We will just add that as another lesson to our thoughts. Let all live
on for when in the Afterlife, we will step through here to Heaven…. If it ever
there was one.”
“I have not been there. I came as far as here and return to
Limbo.” Virgil shuddered at the thought that Hell may be endless.
“Be brave, Man of Science. With you at my side, I am sure we will
get to the end of it.” Dante gave the words of courage to Virgil. “After all,
we are in Hell and still smiling.”
“Shall we move then?” Dante looked at Virgil. “Are you still with
me?”
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