A dear friend texted me today, wishing me a happy Feast of St. John of the Cross. This is the same dear friend who once gave me a book of the poetry of St. John of the Cross for St. Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately for my personal prospects, he played for the not-advantageous-to-me-team. *sigh* Always the way of it, innit? lol. But he’s a good guy, a dear friend, even if our opinions on things have greatly diverged over the years.

St. John of the Cross (a Doctor of the Church) was a Spanish Carmelite priest who lived in the 16th Century. Together with his close friend St. Theresa of Avila, they reformed the Carmelites and founded the Discalced Camelites (who were more hardcore on that “poverty” thing, thus the discalced part). John is most well known for his writings– poetry and studies of the growth of souls.

Much of his poetry was inspired by the Song of Songs– especially his Spiritual Canticle, most of which was written while he was imprisoned. Like many mystics previous and since, John found much inspiration in the idea of souls being wedded to God. For John and those others, the best hymns are love songs, and vice versa. If you becomes You, if he becomes He, if Jesus becomes either of the former, or vice versa. . . (Heck, Unchained Melody used to be one of my favorite hymns– all it needs is a comma in the refrain, and that’s more a mental change than anything else . . . ) Ann Barnhardt further mentions that ever great love song can easily be interpreted as a prayer to God, or a message from God.

So, with that in mind, today’s selection: I know that Bono holds to this same theory of hymns and love songs being twins. If you know your U2, you notice a change of lyrics from the earliest albums– most talk of “Jesus” turns to “You”– with exceptions later like “Mysterious Ways”, “Grace” and “Yahweh”. Considering today’s ickle thought, this song might possibly have a different flavor than you’ve always assumed.