“‘O folk assured of seeing the light supreme’, turning to them I thus began, ‘the sum of all your prayers and their abiding theme’”
. . . . .
Virgil explains to Dante that human beings stubbornly keep their gaze fixed on earthly things instead of heavenly joy, and that’s why God strikes people down. Dante highlights not only perennial human sins, but also what he sees as corruptions endemic to his Italian society—especially self-seeking envy.