“To borrow a phrase from Paul McCartney, is the Paradiso only ‘another silly love song’? Is Dante no more than a 14th-century romantic, employing a trope someone such as Irving Berlin would make even more famous in the 20th century, that being in love is like being in heaven?
“Or has this deeply Catholic poet identified a key element in the meaning of Easter, that love alone grants access to heaven, just as only those who loved Christ could see his resurrected glory?” — Terrance Klein, “Easter Is an Invitation to Fall in Love”, America Magazine, April 5, 2023