The Pilgrim in Dante’s Inferno discovers a great landslide in the Seventh Circle of hell. His guide, the noble pagan Virgil, explains that the last time he had come this way there was no landslide but then remembers that “was just before the coming of the One who took from Hell’s first circle the great spoil, that this abyss of stench, from top to bottom began to shake, so I thought the universe felt love.”
I like the thought of love sending a shudder through the universe—causing landslides even in hell. Much of this world has become “an abyss of stench” buried deep in darkness, seemingly beyond the reach of God’s love. We need a hell shattering love to shake the world today. Let my heart be the epicenter.
