From the Book of the Song of Songs
(“Behold, you are fair… your eyes are doves”)

Tonight I speak to you about a phrase from the Book of the Song of Songs, in which the Lord says to the Church:
“Behold, you are fair, My love; behold, you are fair; your eyes are doves” (Song 1:15).

A testimony from God:
The first thing we notice here is that God bears witness to the human soul. And His testimony is true, unlike the testimonies of people which may be false.

Some may praise you out of flattery, hypocrisy, courtesy, falsehood, appeasement, encouragement, for a purpose, or out of love.
And the praise may not be sincere. But God’s testimony is true.

The Lord Christ said, “I do not receive glory from men,” and He accepted only the testimony of the Father. Therefore, how beautiful is the Scripture’s saying about John the Baptist that “he shall be great before the Lord.” What matters is that a person be great in the sight of God, not in the sight of people.

All we hope for is that God may say to the soul of each one of us on the last day, “Behold, you are fair, My love. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

Many will say to Him, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And He will say to them, “Depart from Me, you cursed, I do not know you.” Their testimony about themselves was neither sufficient nor beneficial.

What matters, then, is the testimony of the Lord who said to each angel of the seven churches, “I know your works.”

Look at the Lord’s testimony to the angel of the Church of Ephesus: “I know your works, your labor, your patience… and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.”

The Pharisee blamed the woman who washed Christ’s feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. But the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are fair, My love.” The Lord said the same phrase to the Canaanite woman who said that even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.

After the soul completes the days of its sojourning on earth, after it completes the days of its struggle, the Lord says to it, “Behold, you are fair, My love.” And by this phrase it is reassured concerning its eternal destiny.

The measure of beauty according to the Lord is different from its measure among people…

The bride whom the Lord said was beautiful was dark, and yet “black but beautiful.”

Like a person exhausted by fasting and asceticism, who appears thin and weak, his mother weeps over his weakness, yet God says to his soul, “Behold, you are fair, My love.”

The saints whose bodies were disfigured by the sufferings of martyrdom—whose limbs were cut off or whose eyes were gouged out—people see them as disfigured, while God says to the soul of each one of them, “Behold, you are fair, My love.”

A person confesses his sins and says words that may make himself appear ugly and repulsive to people. But God looks at this contrite, weeping, humbled soul and says to it, “Behold, you are fair, My love.”

The soul that is struck on one cheek and turns the other, or is compelled to go one mile and goes two, people may see it as humiliated and poor. But God says to it, “Behold, you are fair, My love.”

Notice that the Lord repeated the phrase to affirm His testimony of the soul’s beauty.
He said, “Behold, you are fair, My love; behold, you are fair,” although one word from God is sufficient. But He finds delight in speaking of the beauty of His children.

Job was covered with sores from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. His odor had become offensive to his wife, and his servants fled from him. Yet God looked at this patient soul and said to it, “Behold, you are fair, My love.”

People’s standards of beauty do not concern us. What matters are God’s standards…

God looks at the beauty of the humble soul; He raises the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap, to seat him with the princes of his people. He looks upon the lowliness of His handmaiden.

As He looked upon the foolish saint, who pretended negligence in worship and laziness before the nuns. When they all slept, she would rise at midnight and pray with wondrous fervor.

The nuns called her foolish, but God said to her, “Behold, you are fair, My love.” The same was true of Saint Marina.

In the sight of people she was considered a sinful monk expelled from the monastery, while she was in fact a maiden and beautiful before God who knew her true reality.

The same situation applied to Joseph the righteous when he was regarded as a criminal in prison:

In the eyes of people he was guilty, and in the eyes of Potiphar he was guilty, but God, who knew the truth of his righteous soul, was saying to it, “Behold, you are fair, My love.” Therefore, what matters is to know God’s judgment about us, not people’s judgment…

“Your eyes are doves”:

The dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit, and the two eyes symbolize vision.

That is, you have a spiritual vision; you see through the Holy Spirit. The dove in general has a wondrous place in Holy Scripture, as we shall see:

Because of the beautiful qualities of the dove, the Virgin was called the beautiful dove.

The priest offers incense on the right side of the altar, where the icon of the Virgin stands, saying, “Peace be to you, O beautiful dove.” What is her beauty?

The dove is one of the pure birds that entered the ark, and it was the one that announced to those in the ark that the waters had receded from the earth and that greenery had returned.

It carried in its mouth an olive branch, as a symbol of peace…

Thus the Virgin, by this symbol, represented the peace coming upon the earth, the end of the wrath of the flood, and the return of life to the world. In this way the Virgin was a herald of the salvation that the world enjoys…

“Your eyes are doves”—each eye is good tidings, proclaiming peace, proclaiming salvation, carrying an olive branch for everyone. It is the peaceable soul.

A sinful person, nearly crushed by despair, comes to one of the spiritual fathers and explains his despair. This father comforts him, opens for him a window of hope, and speaks to him about the love of God and His forgiveness. The sinner then looks at the compassionate father and says to him, “Your eyes are doves.”

The dove also symbolizes simplicity: “Be simple as doves…”

The simple eye—like the dove—represents innocence. Therefore the Lord Christ says, “If your eye is simple, your whole body will be full of light.”

When God created the human soul, He said to it, “Behold, you are fair, My love.”

It was pure, knowing neither evil nor deceit, not looking with lust, but looking at everything in innocence: “To the pure all things are pure…”

But now the eye has become corrupted and looks with other looks; it has lost its simplicity and innocence and its likeness to the dove. There are eyes full of cunning, desire, envy, jealousy, anger, or lust…

There is a person whose eye is like a hawk—frightening, with no meekness in it… “Your eyes are doves,” that is, they represent meekness, gentleness, kindness, and affection; they represent the beautiful, calm, simple, spiritual, and good soul… It is impossible that any of you has ever seen a frowning dove!

Doves also coo continually, symbolizing a life of constant praise, so much so that we used to liken the dwellings of monks who are always in prayer to dovecotes.

Therefore David rejoiced and said that “the dove has found a home for herself—Your altars, O Lord God of hosts…” Doves also dwell in caves and in the clefts of the rocks. Thus they symbolize the life of solitude and worship. For this reason the Prophet David said:

“Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest… I would wander far off and dwell in the wilderness.” Thus the dove symbolizes solitude and worship.

And God looks at every dove in its cave or hole and says to it, “Behold, you are fair, My love.” It is wondrous that the dove symbolizes the successful communal life just as it symbolizes the life of solitude.

The dove’s success in community life is symbolized by flocks of doves—

Flocks that fly in harmony, united, in one direction. God looks at the Church in its harmonious flocks, working together in love, unity, and one direction, and says to it, “Behold, you are fair, My love.” We say this lest anyone think that the dove symbolizes only hermits…

The Lord also said about the Church a beautiful phrase in the Psalms:
“Like the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.” The dove also symbolizes the burnt offering and the sacrifice:

The poor man would offer two young doves, one as a burnt offering to please the heart of God, and the other as a sin offering representing forgiveness. And the Lord would look at these two sacrifices and say to the soul, “Your eyes are doves.”

Therefore, when the Lord cleansed the temple, He did not overturn the cages of the doves as He overturned the tables of the money changers. Rather He said, “Take these things away from here”—not because of the doves, but because of the act of selling in the temple…

As a summary of what we have said: the dove symbolizes simplicity, peace, meekness, praise, sacrifice, solitude, unity, affection in communal life, and it also symbolizes the Holy Spirit who descended like a dove at the baptism.

Therefore, there are some people who never eat doves because of their symbols and qualities. For this reason, it was not strange in the appearance of the Virgin in the Church of Zeitoun that people saw doves flying at night, as a symbol of the beautiful dove.

And when God says to the human soul, “Your eyes are doves,” He means all these qualities together, and perhaps others as well.

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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Fifty-Two) – 30-12-1977 
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