Sunshine, sunshine
Sunshine, sunshine

Oh, oh
You know your name so punch it in
Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak
Shush now
Oh, oh
Then don’t move or say a thing

The opening moments of Unknown Caller by U2 brings to mind the closing moments of THX38 by George Lucas. In the closing moments of the film, the Robert Duvall characters is running through the outlaying section of the enclosed society where he has been born and bred.

He outruns robotic police and climbs of long stairway to emerge at the dawning of a new day. The first new day he has ever witnessed. This scene brings to mind Plato’s Cave as a person emerges from the Cave to behold real light for the first time.

Unknown Caller opens with a sunrise.

In the opening moments of the song the soft hum of an alarm clock drones against a a canvas of birds chirping, a simple yet layered melody, and eventually and a chorus singing, “Sunshine.”

A new day is dawning.

The vocals interplay between the lone voice of Bono singing verses about an awakening with the voices of a chorus (of angels?) calling through the interface of a computer to shout out, rise up, escape yourself (and escape the crashed program), reboot the computer, to shout for joy, and to enter your password and name. Again and again the chorus tells him (us) to hear me, cease to speak and don’t move and don’t say a thing.

In this “hymn for the future,” I hear rhythms of the ancient psalmist crying out through modern technology. Awake. Wait. Be quiet. Listen.

The still small voice of the “unknown caller” is speaking. I can’t help but think of the anonymous mystical work, “The Cloud of Unknowing.” Where the Spirit of God calls the pilgrim beyond the edge of knowing into the way of unknowing, the apophatic path of pure love, pure light, pure life.

In a world that is bombarded day in and day out with endless bits of data, the “Unknown Caller” could very well be calling us beyond the comfort of our shallow pools of endless knowledge an into the deep wells of unknowing.

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