In the third and final examination, conducted by St. John, the Pilgrim is asked “what is it that your Soul is set upon.”
The answer is firstly; the Good.
“The Good, that full contentment of this Court,
is Alpha and Omega of all texts
Love reads to me in soft or louder tones.”
The question is then – why is he aiming at this. The reply:
“Good received as good enkindles love,
and makes that love more bright the more that we
can comprehend the good which it contains.
So, toward that Essence where such goodness rests
that any goodness found outside of It
is only a reflection of its ray,
the mind of man, in love, is bound to move
more than toward any other, once it sees
the truth on which this loving proof is based.”
In some ways foreshadowing the reciprocal effect the Divine Light will have on him in the Empyrean, with the concept that the Love of Good increases the understanding of the Good, which then increases the Love of it. And moving towards the Essence of this Good, was in many ways seen as the purpose of the Earthly life in the Medieval Cosmology!
Dante is connecting the Good with the Divine, thus expanding on the answer that his Love is for the Divine, through the Good, and Truth.
Last part of the questioning is then how this love manifests itself for the Pilgrim, or: “Explain the many teeth with which your love can bite.”
The final answer:
“The being of the world and my own being,
the death He died so that my soul might live,
the hope of all the faithful, and mine too,
joined with the living truth mentioned before,
from that deep sea of false love rescued me
and set me on the right shore of true Love.
I love each leaf with which enleaved is all
the garden of the Eternal Gardener
in measure of the light he sheds on each.”
In some ways saying that his Love of the Divine is expressed through the Love of everything in the Creation, “each leaf”, to the degree that the Divine Light and Glory is reflected in them. Thus Dante is also repeating the opening Canto of how the Divine is penetrating and reflected in the whole Universe.
And with that, the Pilgrim has passed all three tests, and the blessed souls chant “Holy! Holy! Holy!” – a reference to Isaiah and the tripling of adjectives as the superlative in ancient Hebrew; the Holiest of the Holy.
And then, the Pilgrim has his vision and eyesight restored once again, and better than ever before.
