At the very end of the last canto, there was a cliff hanger…
we two
Continued our way, until the circuit came
To where the path descends – and there we saw
Plutus, the great Enemy, and confronted him.
Plutus is the Greek god of wealth, a personification of riches. Plutus was born in Crete, the son of the goddess of fruitfulness, Demeter, and the Cretan Iasion. In Aristophanes’ Plutus he is blind and cannot tell good from evil until his sight is restored. He was sometimes confused with Pluto (Hades), god of the underworld. – Britannica.com
It seems Plutus doles out riches and fortune without any regard for the receiver. It is happenstance, with no logic or reason. Since he is blind, no appeal works. Nothing anyone does or doesn’t do affects the outcome.
“Pape Satan, pape Satan, aleppe”
Plutus began in a gutteral, clucking voice.
The courteous sage who knew all reassured me:
“Don’t let fear harm you; whatever power he has
Cannot prevent us climbing down this rock.”
Then, turning back toward that swollen face,
He answered – “Silence, accursed wolf! Attack
Your own insides with your devouring rage:
Bound for the pit, this is no causeless trek.
It is willed above, where Michael (Angel Michael) wreaked revenge
On pride’s rebellion.” Just as sails swollen with wind
As soon as the mast is snapped collapse and plunge,
That savage beast fell shrinking to the ground.
Plutus’ words are untranslatable, though most believe it has to do with Satan. Is it a warning and who is he warning? Is it a threat? Is it a declaration? The phrase is famous for the uncertainty of its meaning, and there have been many attempts to interpret it. The only clues in the text are:
- Virgil understands the meaning
- The line is just the beginning of something else
- It is an expression of anger
- It is a threat to Dante
Virgil and Dante are now in the fourth circle of Hell, the third punishment for sins of incontinence: Greed. Like the gluttons, these sinners lack self control. Like the lusters, these sinners’ desires are out of control. They are the Wasters and the Hoarders, the Misers and the Spendthrifts, the Avaricious and the Prodigal, the Greedy and the Squanderers. They are the opposite extremes of wealth management.
Here I saw more souls
Than elsewhere, spreading far to the left and right
Each pushes a weight against his chest, and howls
At his opponent each time that they clash:
“WHY DO YOU SQUANDER?” and “WHY DO YOU HOARD?” Each wheels
To roll his weight back round again: they rush
Toward the circle’s opposite point, collide
Painfully once more, and curse each other afresh;
And after that refrain each one must head
Through his half-circle again, to his next joust.
Although they both have made money and material things their god, they “worship” their god very differently. There are those who hoard their riches. They are so selfish that they refuse to be generous to others and to those in need. They want to keep it all to themselves. On the other hand, there are those who squander all their riches on themselves. The weight they push is the world’s riches which they spend all their time and energy shoving and manipulating. It is a neutral object but they have such excessive, greedy desire for it. They won’t leave it. Yet they uselessly push it around; unending, ceaseless trouble for what?
The Prodigal Son story in the Bible. Let’s look at that.
Luke 15:11-32 (NLT) 11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’
28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”
There are 3 characters in this story: father and both sons. The prodigal son is the one that demanded his inheritance early and then wasted it on hedonism. He didn’t care about his father and brother. He only cared about himself. He didn’t want any responsibilities so he left his aging father at a time when a son is most needed to help with the work to keep the family going. He wasted his money, time, energy and talent. When he ran out of money, he had a wake up call! He couldn’t get a decent job and he was literally starving when he “came to his senses”. He repented. The word repent means a change of mind which leads to a change of direction. He realized what he’d done. He came face-to-face with his selfishness and his pride. He saw things from his father’s point of view. It would have been an overwhelming moment of shame and regret that led to a desire to be forgiven. This is what is repentance is. When you can no longer deny your sin; you realize how very sinful and shameful you are; there is no hope for you except to humble yourself at the feet of the Savior and throw yourself on His mercy. And, thank God, He is merciful and provided a way for you to be forgiven, cleansed and accepted back into the family of God as His child (not as a servant)! Like the father in this story, He sees us coming from afar and “filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him”. The moment we repent, He is there to forgive and bring us into relationship with Him! Oh the mercy and love of God!
But there is the other son, the one who didn’t waste his father’s money and stuck around to handle all the responsibility and care of his father. Instead of being glad to see his brother and joining in the festivities of a Welcome Home party, he sulked. His attitude is revealed when he says, “All these years I’ve slaved for you”. He evidently hadn’t stuck around and done all the work because he loved his father but because of fear (as a slave fears his hard master) or hope (that he would get something out of it). This was the parsimonious son. He had been very careful, frugal, with his father’s resources. He couldn’t stand to see his father waste money on a big hullabaloo for his waster of a brother. That was more money down the drain and less for him. This is not an attitude of a loving son who adores his father but rather of a servant. A loving brother would have been glad his brother had seen the light and come safely back home. A loving son would have been glad to see his father rejoicing. Instead of grieving his lost son, the father is rejoicing and a loving son would be thankful for that. This son was carefully keeping a scorecard in his head. “I did this and this and this. My brother didn’t do this and did that. I deserve this and he doesn’t deserve squat. My father isn’t being fair to me because…” It’s all in his head, a constant running scorecard to make sure he gets treated right. That’s selfish, self-centered, self-involved. He is taking care of his father and running the “family business” but in his head, it’s still all about him.
Jesus was telling this story to show how the Jews, especially the Pharisees, were like the parsimonious brother concerning the gospel of salvation through their Messiah, Jesus Christ (not that the Pharisees, or the nation of Jews as a whole, accepted Jesus as their Messiah). The thought of Jesus saving Gentiles (non-Jews) made them angry and sulk instead of thankful and joyful. The Gentiles were not worthy to be saved but the Jews, especially those really orthodox, over-the-top, scrupulous Jews like the Pharisees, had spent all their lives trying to follow all those laws in order to get to Heaven and now these Gentiles were just going to waltz in on their coattails?!? How dare God reward them!?! They would rather hoard salvation and God only give it to those who have worked hard for it. This attitude is one of a servant (they serve in fear of the master) or one of pride (they will get something for their service). It is not the attitude of a son in loving relationship with his father.
There are also a lot of Christians out there that have been Christians a long time and “served the Lord” and tried to do godly work. Then they see someone who lives a sinful life, wasting the opportunities God has given them – the money God has blessed them with, God-given health, God-given talents, opportunity after opportunity… then they repent. Maybe even a deathbed repentance. And God accepts them?!?! This type of Christian has a hard time thinking this sinner can be forgiven and accepted by the Father after a lifetime of sin and waste. “What about me?”, he asks. “I’ve done all this work for You and lived a righteous life. I could have sinned like that and repented on my deathbed too. But, nooooo, I did all the right things but you let this waster just walk right in?” This Christian is keeping a running scorecard in his head, checking off all the boxes as he goes. But keeping that running scorecard in your head is self-centered, self-focused and you end up believing you deserve something for it. The funny thing is, God is the one keeping the records and He certainly knows what you have done for him, but the minute you lose your attitude and it becomes all about you and your “good works” and what you deserve, you’ve made a mistake. God is a rewarder to His faithful children but our attitude has as much to do with it as our actions. Note to self: lose the attitude!
First of all, we are not God and it is not for us to know what God knows. God alone knows the person and knows if it is true repentance. God alone has the wisdom to know what is best for each person. God alone is the rewarder of each person and we don’t know yet what the rewards will be because it’s in Heaven. How dare we have the arrogance to decide who is worthy receive salvation! I didn’t deserve salvation when I was saved but thank God, He saved me anyway! None of us are worthy!
Second, how very selfish can we be if we would withhold the greatest gift the world has ever known in order to hoard it for ourselves. “I’m worthy to be saved, but this person is not.” What kind of sinful person would be that selfish? I wouldn’t wish Hell on my worst enemy. This is precisely why Jesus says we should pray for our enemies.
Third, God is not limited. He has an endless supply of love, mercy, grace, forgiveness. His riches are never ending! Whatever grace is given to one sinner, does not deplete the store of grace that affects me. I have lost nothing. God’s generosity and pouring out of love on one person, does not mean another Christian has less.
In human terms, let’s look at an example. If there is a lawsuit and the award is $1,000,000 then who does the money go to. If it’s one individual, the money goes to that individual and they receive $1,000,000. But if it’s a class action suit where there are many who join in the lawsuit, the money is divided between them all. So if you had 1,000,000 complainants, they would each receive $1. So the more the complainants, the less money each will receive if they are awarded the money.
And, in our human minds, we tend to think of God as limited and what He expends on one person takes away from another. But God is not limited. In fact, it seems the more He gives, the more He has.
Fourth, and final, God has called us into a relationship based on love. He tells us to call Him “Father”. We are His children. He loved us so much that He provided a way of salvation so we could be adopted into His family!!! The relationship of Father to child is one based on love and complete trust in that love. God will provide because He loves us. God will protect because He loves us. God will bless because He loves us. God will teach because He loves us. God will train because He loves us.
We are NOT servants we are CHILDREN of the Most High God! Because He first loved us, we love Him. And out of LOVE we serve Him. Not out of fear and not out of selfish desire for reward. This is hard to understand in today’s world but a true love relationship is one of give and take on both sides. He loves me, I love Him. He does for me because He loves me and I do for Him because I love Him. It’s a wonderful circle of reciprocating and vibrant LOVE. The Bible does call us Bondservants of Jesus Christ. But it is a voluntary servanthood based solely on love. After all He’s done for me, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I want to obey Him. I don’t HAVE to obey Him (it’s to my detriment if I don’t because it breaks that wonderful circle of love – which He would forgive the moment I repent). I should obey Him just because I love Him and I want to do it. God didn’t want robots, He wanted relationship.
I don’t want to be a prodigal son who squanders and wastes all God blesses me with. I also don’t want to be a parsimonious son that hoards and greedily grasps all that God blesses me with.
Hebrews 13:5 (BSB) Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
1 Timothy 6:9 Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.
Psalm 119:36 Turn my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetous gain.
Proverbs 23:4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
Matthew 6:19-20 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
The things of this world make for a sad “god”. An idol that is useless in every way.
Exodus 20:3-4a You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol
Psalm 115:4-9 4 Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of man’s hands.
5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
They have eyes, but they cannot see;
6 They have ears, but they cannot hear;
They have noses, but they cannot smell;
7 They have hands, but they cannot feel;
They have feet, but they cannot walk;
They cannot make a sound with their throat.
8 Those who make them will become like them,
Everyone who trusts in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the LORD;
He is their help and their shield.
Isaiah 2:7-8 Their land is full of silver and gold, with no limit to their treasures; their land is full of horses, with no limit to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.
Not only is moderation, godly wisdom and balance shown as desirable with wealth management but being violently at odds over the same immoderation is shown as hypocritical. They accusingly howl at each other as they push their weights violently together. They have the same weight, the same predicament, the same goal but they hate each other, each thinking they are right and the other is wrong. They are both wrong!
Hoarding
A hoard is a store of things that you have saved and that are valuable or important to you or you do not want other people to have. Accumulating things such as money, food, garbage, clothing… you save or store them, often in secret, because they are valuable or important to you. You accumulate a supply, stored up and hidden, kept in reserve. It is a compulsive need to find and keep objects, animals or trash regardless of their value.
A hoarding disorder can become a mental illness. There are various levels of hoarding from somewhat mild to extreme. The most extreme level of hoarding will have the person’s residence so full of stuff and garbage that they are barely living there, if they live there at all. I knew a woman who had a 3,700 sq ft home but she lived in the corner of a camper because her home was too full of her hoard to be able to live in. She began to fill her car and her camper, her garage and other outbuildings with her hoard. The extreme hoarder shares the home with rats, mice, snakes, cock roaches, maggots, and spiders. The air is so full of dust, rot and filth that they may have trouble breathing. It can cause allergies and asthma. They are unsafe in their home because they cannot easily enter and exit. First Responders would not be able to get to an emergency. Their piles of stuff can fall on them. They crawl through the house from room to room because there is no room to walk. They live in filth and barely have room to turn around. It affects their health, their functionability, their day-to-day lives, their relationships, their safety and the safety of others. They may be living at a poverty level due to their spending to add to their collection or they spend all their time adding to their “collection”. Their accumulation takes over the family, their home, their money, their time, their energy and their lives.
There is a big difference between laziness, sloth, and filth versus hoarding. A true hoarder may hoard trash and let their home get full and nasty. But someone who lives in filth due to laziness and sloth are one’s who just won’t take out the garbage or wash the dishes. It has nothing to do with collecting and accumulating, they just don’t want to clean their bathroom or walk the dirty dishes to the sink. That’s good-for-nothing laziness. If someone else comes in and cleans their room or home for them, they are happy to let them. A hoarder is one who is so attached to their stuff, even if it is garbage, that they can’t let it go and suffer extreme anger and anxiety if someone comes in to clean up the mess. Sometimes the distinction blurs. When I watch the hoarding TV shows, I see some people who don’t seem to have a hoarding disorder as much as a laziness. And I’m sure the same could be said, vice versa.
Why is hoarding a sin? It usually involves several sins.
First there is idolatry. A hoarder places the stuff of their choice in the spot reserved only for God. They worship their stuff instead of God.
Selfishness. They are so absorbed with their stuff, their needs and desires, there is no room for anyone else. Oftentimes their spouses, children, grandchildren, siblings and friends are not as important to them as their stuff. Forcing their spouse and children to live in filth is supremely selfish. Taking money away from their children and/or spouse in order to buy more stuff for the hoard is selfish. Making everyone else dance to your tune is selfish. Making others take care of them and solve your problem is selfish. If you made the mess, you should clean it up but to expect taxpayers to fund a cleanup, and other people to do the work, is supremely selfish. And to have temper tantrums, acting ugly to those who are there to help you, is selfish. Being stubborn and stalling everyone, wasting their time and energy, while you insist on controlling every piece of “stuff” is selfish. Exposing others to unhealthy environments to help you is selfish.
Control – They are afraid to give control to God. They grasp things so tightly and refuse to relinquish their stuff to God. They are afraid they will do without. They are afraid God will not take care of their needs, He won’t provide what they need. They can’t trust His love enough to believe He will protect, provide and care for them. They have to protect, provide and take care of themselves.
Sloth – Sloth is another one of the seven deadly sins. Sloth is reluctance to work or make an effort; laziness; inertia; idleness; avoidance of physical or spiritual work; careless and half-hearted effort. This is not just physical sloth, but spiritual sloth. When you are no longer productive and functional in your everyday life and in your spirit, you are slothful. Let’s look at physical sloth (if you are physically capable): when you sit in a chair and expect someone else to wait on you, then you are being slothful, lazy. When you won’t even return your dirty dishes to the sink and just leave them wherever you were sitting, you are being slothful, lazy. When you refuse to wash the dirty dishes or put them in the dishwasher and they keep accumulating until you have no more clean dishes and you are just eating from takeout boxes, you are being slothful, lazy. When you drop your clothes in the floor and don’t put them in the hamper or put them back in the closet/dresser, you are being slothful, lazy. When you expect someone else to come behind you and pick up your dirty dishes, clothes, shoes, toys, tools… you are slothful, lazy. If you refuse to take out the trash when it’s full and you just keep dumping it around the trashcan or just throwing trash in the floor, you are slothful, lazy. When you don’t do the laundry, vacuum, dust, clean the kitchen and bathrooms, you are slothful, lazy. There are chores you need to do to keep your portion of the world livable. It’s not fair for your spouse or parent to do it for you. It’s your mess, your responsibility. Unless you are unable to move, you are responsible for how your immediate part of the world looks and functions. Whether it’s your room, your apartment, your home, your car, your yard, your job space… this is your part of the world and for it to be functioning, livable, pleasant, it needs your work. God doesn’t ask me to be responsible for my neighbor’s home and yard, He expects me to take care of my own home and yard. God doesn’t ask me to keep Walmart clean (except if I’m responsible for making a mess in Walmart), He asks me to keep my room clean. “Cleanliness is next to godliness” is NOT a scripture. But laziness and sloth are addressed very directly in the scripture. Whatever God gives us, we are responsible for being a good steward of it. And, if you can’t keep your room clean, why would God trust you with a house? If you can’t keep your 1,200 sq ft home in good order, why would God trust you with a 3,000 sq ft house? If you can’t keep your home and yard in order, why would God bless you with a maid and landscaper? Sometimes He does (thank God, He is merciful and blesses us despite ourselves), but if you think about it, generally God will only give you what you can take care of. Now let’s look at spiritual sloth. This is when someone refuses to grow spiritually. We have every opportunity in America today to learn about God and to practise a relationship with God but many are too lazy to even try. They never pick up a Bible; they don’t go to church; they don’t listen to godly teaching or read a godly book; they don’t pray. If they do go to church, they just listen, they don’t really engage and participate. Church is just entertainment. We have so many opportunities to learn and grow spiritually but we are too lazy to run after God and seek Him. We are spiritual babies being spoonfed baby food by frustrated pastors. Today, in America (and who knows how long this will last since our population refuses to take advantage of the blessings) we have Bibles available in many translations and study formats. We can get one free or use the Internet resources which include Bibles, Bible dictionaries, commentaries, concordances and study resources FOR FREE!!! We have churches everywhere that are heated/air conditioned, with comfortable pews, sound systems, musical instruments and educated pastors. We have religious podcasts, TV shows, Youtube videos, how-to books, audible books, ebooks, praise and worship music of every style, all available to us so we can grow and mature in the spirit but how many take advantage of it? God has blessed America with decades of spiritual blessings for us to take advantage of and we. don’t. do. it. Why should He continue pouring it out for us if we turn our nose up to it and refuse to use it? We would rather watch junk TV, play useless video games or sit around “bored” rather than use the God-given opportunities to grow spiritually! This is spiritual sloth, laziness.
In the photo above, you can obviously see the clutter that makes this room unlive-able. You can’t walk through it. You can’t sit down and you certainly can’t enjoy the room. It’s nothing but a storage room, a big trash-can. This person had made the home God gave them into a big trashcan. They spent time and money accumulating junk. It will have to be thrown away or given away eventually. Meanwhile the inhabitants of the home are living in filth and inconvenience, their live-able space narrowing down to a single spot in the house. It’s become such a burden to them. They sacrifice so much to accommodate inanimate objects. It’s just like Dante’s Hoarders pushing and shoving huge inanimate weights around, useless.
Squandering
Squander – waste (something, especially money or time) in a reckless and foolish manner; to spend extravagantly or foolishly; dissipate; to use something valuable that you have a limited amount of in a bad or foolish way; fail to take advantage of.
Why is squandering a sin? Selfishness, pride, arrogance, lack of concern for others in need, not being a good steward of God’s blessings.
When we think of waste and squandering, we think of the food we bought and left in the refrigerator. It goes bad and has to be thrown away. If you spent $10 on fruit that rotted in the refrigerator and has to be thrown out, you “wasted” $10. You may also think of wasting money on frivolous things. Although I enjoy watching fireworks, I can’t stand to spend money on buying fireworks and watching that money go up in just a few seconds of bright light and noise. It’s just my little thing. I cannot stand the thought of wasting my money by gambling on lotteries or casinos. I just don’t go there. I’m thrifty enough to pick up change on the ground so I’m not willing to waste $5 to buy a lottery ticket or raffle (unless the raffle is for charity). Another one of my little things. It’s wasteful to me. Everyone has their little things that seem wasteful to them but not to someone else. Some see a lottery ticket as investment, LOL. I drive a larger vehicle for comfort but others might see it as waste because it takes more gas than a little tennis-shoe car. Maybe you feel real good driving a tennis-shoe car but you buy lottery tickets, LOL!
But there are more things to think about when you look at squandering and waste. If we continuously squander and waste the money, time, energy, health, youth, talents that God has given us, we are in trouble. We need to recognize and control the waste and squandering of what God has blessed us with. You must be in balance. If you find you are spending all your resources on selfish pursuits or frivolity, it’s time to think seriously about what you want to do. Let’s say that you spend every weekend going to football games. By the time you add up how much you paid for the tickets, the parking, the gas/airline tickets, the food, the camper/hotel, the souvenirs and team stuff (hats, shirts, nicknacks and paddywhacks), you might be surprised at how much money you spend. Is it a waste? Are you out of balance? Could that money be spent in better ways elsewhere? Are you missing church every Sunday because you have to watch sports or go to games? Are you not able to give to your church or charities of your choice because you’ve spent so much money on yourself and your entertainment? This is just one example and not meant to be judgmental but to prompt you to think about your own life and see if there is a problem or something out of balance in your own life. Maybe you purchase a Rolex watch when a Timex does just as well? Maybe you purchase such expensive jewelry that you have to keep it safe in a safety deposit box at the bank. You can’t wear it for threat of it being stolen. You can’t enjoy it. Wouldn’t it be better to have less and be able to enjoy and wear it rather than just let it sit in a safety deposit box? Maybe you spend all your money on buying stocks with the hope that it will increase in value only to find out the stocks plummeted and you lost everything. What a waste! It’s one thing to try a little bit of expendable money, but don’t risk everything! Now, let’s talk about spiritual squandering and wasting. Are you wasting opportunities to grow and mature in God? Are you spending the tithe money on yourself for frivolous things? Are you squandering the spiritual blessings God has made available to you? Are you wasting time that could be better spent developing a relationship with God and your family?
A squanderer has the same weight: resources. But they are so self-involved that they spend their resources on themselves. It’s all about them! They are pushing the same weight around, useless. As I said earlier, hoarders and wasters have the same god, self, but they worship their god in different ways and they cannot understand each other.
Let’s say there is a father who has been frugal, thrifty, penny pinching, miserly all his life. He has lived like a pauper while he was hoarding his money. Meanwhile his son has had to live without some of the things he needed because his father was always so concerned about money. He decides he doesn’t ever want to be like his father. Dad dies, without ever getting to enjoy his money. He ends up leaving it to his son and his son is intent on enjoying the money. Dad hoarded it and now son has inherited it. So son goes crazy spending his inheritance. He gives lavish parties, buys drugs, wastes it on women he’ll never see again, buys silly things, moves into a big house he can’t afford. Within a year or so, the money is seriously depleted or gone. He wasted it and now he has the rest of his life to worry about. IT’S THE SAME MONEY, but both father and son were the opposite extremes and both were wrong. In Dante’s 4th circle of Hell, both father and son would be pushing that inanimate rock of weight and crashing into each other and yelling at each other, “WHY DID YOU HOARD?” and “WHY DID YOU SQUANDER?”
Dante and Virgil leave the circle of the Hoarders and Wasters and cross to the other bank and find a fountain of strange, dark water, which flows in a stream down through a crack in the rock. Following this stream to the foot of the rocks, they come to the Styx Marsh. They are in the fifth circle of Hell. In mythology it was a river called the River Styx which means River of Hate and Charon ferries the dead across. Dante has changed it to fit his purpose. It separates upper Hell from lower Hell and serves as the circle for the Angry and Wrathful.
To the circle’s farther edge, above the place
Where a foaming spring spills over into a fosse.
The water was purple-black; we followed its current
Down a strange passage. This dismal watercourse
Descends the grayish slopes until its torrent
Discharges into the marsh whose name is Styx.
Gazing intently, I saw there were people warrened
Within that bog, all naked and muddy – with looks
Of fury, striking each other: with a hand
But also with their heads, chests, feet, and backs.
Teeth tearing piecemeal. My kindly master explained:
“These are the souls whom anger overcame,
My son; know also, that under the water are found
Others, whose sighing makes these bubbles come
That pock the surface everywhere you look.
Lodged in the slime they say: ‘Once we were grim
And sullen in the sweet air above, that took
A further gladness from the play of sun;
Inside us, we bore acedia’s dismal smoke.
We have this black mire now to be sullen in.’
This canticle they gargle from the craw,
Unable to speak whole words.”
Fosse – a long narrow trench used in fortifications like a moat.
Acedia – spiritual or mental sloth
Here we see the actively angry, the violent and vindictive people who are stuck in the mud and constantly fighting and striking each other.
Then we see the sullen angry who are stuck in the mud below the surface, choking on the River of Hate’s mud. They can barely speak for all the anger.
This is the contrapasso of analogy where those who were angry, sullen, vindictive in life now live in hatred in the River of Hate, fighting and choking in their anger. They realize that they were “grim and sullen in the sweet air above, that took a further gladness from the play of sun”. They wasted their time on earth, their life, by always being angry. It ruined their life and now ruins their eternal death.
Psalm 37:7-9 (NLT) 7 Be still in the presence of the LORD,
and wait patiently for him to act.
Don’t worry about evil people who prosper
or fret about their wicked schemes.
8 Stop being angry!
Turn from your rage!
Do not lose your temper—
it only leads to harm.
9 For the wicked will be destroyed,
but those who trust in the LORD will possess the land.
Ephesians 4:31-32 (NLT) 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
Matthew 5:21-24 (NLT, Jesus speaking) 21 “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ 22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell. 23 So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, 24 leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.”
Excerpts of Inferno are from a new translation by Robert Pinsky.
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