I found a very interesting passage today from John of the Cross:
"The heavens are mine, the earth is mine, and the nations are mine! mine are the just, and the sinners are mine; mine are the angels and the Mother of God; all things are mine, God himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and all for me. What dost thou then ask for, what dost thou seek for, O my soul? All is thine - all is for thee. Do not take less nor rest with the crumbs which fall from the table of the father. Go forth and exult in thy glory, hide thyself in it, and rejoice, and thou shalt obtain all the desires of thy heart." (The Living Flame of Love)
I had never encountered a passage like this from John of the Cross. I had only encountered the ascetical version of him: the John of the Cross who always uses negative language in exploring the divine, who writes with self-deprecation, with perfect humility.
Here, I can only compare this passage to the Song of Myself by Walt Whitman. It has the same powerful, positive language: the same all-encompassingness, embracing both just and unjust, and reveling in the new, transmuted self.
