Mother Mary May I?

In the 31st canto of the Divine Comedy Dante is abandoned by his guide and muse Beatrice as she leaves him to sit amongst the blest in the centre of a giant rose.  St. Bernard comes to his aid at the behest of Beatrice to lead him to the end of his pilgrimage.

At this point Dante's journey is almost complete. Only one thing remains. A glimpse of the beatific vision. There's only one problem. He needs the permission of the Blessed Virgin Mary to see this vision.

Mary, Queen of Heaven

The Virgin sits as a queen in the midst of the rose.  She is "sovran" and all the angels fly about her singing and smiling.

Canto 31 

"Child of grace!"

Thus he began: "thou shalt not knowledge gain

Of this glad being, if thine eyes are held

Still in this depth below.  But search around

The circles, to the furthest, till thou spy

Seated in state, the queen, that of this realm

Is sovran."  Straight mine eyes I rais'd; and bright,

As, at the birth of morn, the eastern clime

Above th' horizon, where the sun declines;

To mine eyes, that upward, as from vale

To mountain sped, at th' extreme bound, a part

Excell'd in lustre all the front oppos'd.

And as the glow burns ruddiest o'er the wave,

That waits the sloping beam, which Phaeton

Ill knew to guide, and on each part the light

Diminish'd fades, intensest in the midst;

So burn'd the peaceful oriflame, and slack'd

On every side the living flame decay'd.

And in that midst their sportive pennons wav'd

Thousands of angels; in resplendence each

Distinct, and quaint adornment. At their glee

And carol, smil'd the Lovely One of heav'n,

That joy was in the eyes of all the blest.

In Dante's vision of Paradise the angels sing "Hail Mary, Full of Grace." In a state of pure rapturous joy the very angels of God worship the Virgin Mary. St. Bernard tells Dante that  it is only through her, who most resembles Christ, that we can see Christ.

 Canto 32

"Now raise thy view

Unto the visage most resembling Christ:

For, in her splendour only, shalt thou win

The pow'r to look on him."  Forthwith I saw

Such floods of gladness on her visage shower'd,

From holy spirits, winging that profound;

That, whatsoever I had yet beheld,

Had not so much suspended me with wonder,

Or shown me such similitude of God.

And he, who had to her descended, once,

On earth, now hail'd in heav'n; and on pois'd wing.

"Ave, Maria, Gratia Plena," sang:

To whose sweet anthem all the blissful court,

From all parts answ'ring, rang: that holier joy

Brooded the deep serene.

Grace then must first be gain'd;

Her grace, whose might can help thee.  Thou in prayer

Seek her: and, with affection, whilst I sue,

Attend, and yield me all thy heart."

 So Dante supplicates Mary asking her to grant that he may be able to gaze upon Christ.

Canto 33 

And I, who ne'er

Coveted sight, more fondly, for myself,

Than now for him, my prayers to thee prefer,

(And pray they be not scant) that thou wouldst drive

Each cloud of his mortality away;

That on the sovran pleasure he may gaze.

This also I entreat of thee, O queen!

Who canst do what thou wilt! that in him thou

Wouldst after all he hath beheld, preserve

Affection sound, and human passions quell.

Lo!  Where, with Beatrice, many a saint

Stretch their clasp'd hands, in furtherance of my suit!"

She hears his prayers and grants his request.

The eyes, that heav'n with love and awe regards,

Fix'd on the suitor, witness'd, how benign

She looks on pious pray'rs: then fasten'd they

On th' everlasting light, wherein no eye

Of creature, as may well be thought, so far

Can travel inward.  I, meanwhile, who drew

Near to the limit, where all wishes end,

The ardour of my wish (for so behooved),

Ended within me. Beck'ning smil'd the sage,

That I should look aloft: but, ere he bade,

Already of myself aloft I look'd;

For visual strength, refining more and more,

Bare me into the ray authentical

Of sovran light.  Thenceforward, what I saw,

Was not for words to speak, nor memory's self

To stand against such outrage on her skill.

Thus the greatest poem of the Middle Ages ends with Dante seeing the triune God in all his fullness.

But what are we to make of all this?  

That Dante needs the permission of Mary to see Christ is the end result of her cultus.  Mary is seen as being full of grace and a dispenser of grace. On earth the church prays to her and in paradise the church will continue to pray to her and she will continue be the intermediary between Christ and the church. In Paradise even the angels of God will sing to her and worship her as blessed. 

What wretched nonsense and blasphemy!

To have to supplicate a creature to see the Creator?  To ask Mary for grace when it is Christ who is the fullness of grace and who dispenses grace unto us?  To ask a member of the same body as us to be able to see our head which is Christ? How did the blessed Christ give way to the blessed Virgin?

Romans 9:5: Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

The scriptures give to the righteous a sure and solid promise that they shall see God.

Job 19:26: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 

Matthew 5:8: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 

There are no intermediaries mentioned here.  Christ himself promises the the blessed shall see God.

The Divine Comedy is fiction and allegory and a poetic vision but it is theologically grounded.  Dante was no mere layman.  He was a learned man well acquainted with theology and it does come through in this work.  His theology informs his fiction.  

It is too bad that his theology, in which Mary as Queen of Heaven, sits as a dispenser of grace whom we must supplicate in order to see Christ, is wholly fiction.