Paradiso

Dante and Beatrice ascend the ladder. As they do so, he draws a comparison: Beatrice is like a mother bird looking vigilantly toward the sun so that she may feed her young (Dante). The sky grows “more and more resplendent” (23: 18) as Beatrice bids Dante to look at the souls just gathered into heaven by Christ’s triumph. Dante experiences an almost unbearable brightness of light and an expansion of his mind at what he is seeing and discovering. Beatrice points to the presence of Christ breaking in—“the Wisdom and the Power that repaired the roads connecting Heaven and the earth” (23: 37). She says that Christ’s beneficent power is a “force against which there is no defense” (23: 36).

Beatrice announces that Dante is now ready to see her smile. She does so, and to Dante it is like an ineffably sweet song. However, Beatrice tells Dante to look beyond her beauty and to notice the “lovely garden” blossoming in the “rays of Christ,” including roses and lilies. Dante continues to see the brightness of the sun’s rays breaking through clouds and illuminating a “many-splendored throng.”

The “brightest of the flames” (23: 90) belongs to the Virgin Mary, who is encircled by a torch like a crown and accompanied by sweet music of praise from the other souls.