Dr. Junius Johnson

Are you afraid that you're going to be disappointed when you get there?

Because that's the one thing I know for sure about heaven is that you won't be disappointed, right?

And so if your heaven is full of, you want to be able to fly, let's take Jonathan's boat.

Jonathan wants to be taught how to sail by the Lord of the ocean himself, right?

That's a very humble desire.

If that's not on the cards, right?

We can confidently say that whatever that desire is that's at the root of that desire, the reason why he wants to do that, there is something that will satisfy that better than what he's thinking.

And that's the reason why he's not being given what he wants because he's not dreaming big enough yet.

And so I love asking ourselves as readers to think about what do I bring to Paradiso as hopes and expectations and things of that sort.

And then I think it's important also to recognize that everything that happens before we come to the Celestial Rose at the end of this canticle is a pageant.

It's a show.

Heaven isn't really like that.

And those souls aren't really hanging out down there in those various spheres.

They're coming down and putting on a little act for Dante.

They're condescending to him so that they can be part of the divine works of teaching him about the divine grace.

And I think that's really important to keep in mind that that's not really where they belong.

But also it helps to make sense of some really weird parts of the text.

For example, the whole discourse about the moon spots.

which just feels like it's self-indulgent.

I've got this take on this scientific question that I'm going to just drop in there.