Meditations on the Song of Songs-“I am black but beautiful”
Meditations on the Song of Songs
The spiritual read this book and their love for God grows deeper… but the carnal need a guide when reading it, lest they misunderstand it and descend from its lofty meaning to worldly interpretations.
We continue our spiritual meditations on the Song of Songs, and let our subject today be the saying of the virgin of the Song:
“I am black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon…” (Song 1:5)
“I am black but beautiful”
(Song 1:5)
It is a phrase spoken by the Church of the Gentiles to the daughters of Jerusalem — that is, to the Church of the Jews who despised the Gentiles and their Church.
They saw this Church as black, ugly, and deformed, because it was deprived of the lineage of the patriarchs and the teaching of the prophets — a Church without traditions, without history, not descended from Abraham, the father of the patriarchs.
Therefore, the Church of the Gentiles says to them: Even if I am black, I am beautiful — in Christ Jesus and through belonging to Him.
If I am black and have not Abraham as my father, I am beautiful because I have a Father in heaven, and my mother is Baptism, in which I was born of the Holy Spirit.
If I am black and did not learn in the school of the Law and the Prophets, I am beautiful, for I have been trained in the school of Grace. I did not grasp the letter, but I have understood the Spirit. I did not learn the Ten Commandments, but I have known the Sermon on the Mount and the teachings of the Gospels.
I am black in the sight of men, but beautiful in the eyes of the Lord.
Black under your harsh judgment, but beautiful in the tenderness and love of the Lord. God spread His beauty upon me and made me equal with you — without any merit on my part.
What shall I say to the Lord who gave me the same denarius as those who came from the first hour, though I came at the eleventh?
How shall I repay the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord…
I am black in my deeds, but beautiful, having been washed in His pure blood, for I have become whiter than snow.
Black by my earthly, material nature, and beautiful because the Holy Spirit has dwelt in my temple, enlightening, sanctifying, and consecrating it.
Black like the tents of Kedar (the descendant of Ishmael), covered outwardly with black goats’ hair; yet beautiful like the curtains of Solomon, the veils of the Temple woven with blue, purple, and scarlet — from within.
I am black like the tax collector in the eyes of the Pharisee, like the sinful woman who washed the Lord’s feet with her tears in the sight of Simon, like the Samaritan woman in the eyes of the disciples, and like the man born blind whom the Jews reviled, saying, “You are His disciple,” “You were born entirely in sins.”
Yet I am beautiful in the sight of the Lord, who justified all of these.
I am black, acknowledging my state, not denying my origin nor my appearance. But I am beautiful in the life of hope the Lord has given us.
I have hope in God, who accepted the prodigal son — who does not desire the death of the sinner but rather that he should return and live.
Who “has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103)
I am black in confessing my sins, and beautiful in the forgiveness and absolution I receive.
Like the sin offering that is burned outside the camp because it bears sins — yet it is “most holy to the Lord” (Leviticus 6:24).
Like the burnt offering that is consumed entirely by fire until it becomes ashes — yet it is “a sweet aroma to the Lord” (Leviticus 1:9).
I am black like a coal in the censer — beautiful when it is kindled by fire.
It glows brighter as the flame burns within it, and its blackness disappears. It ceases to be seen as coal and becomes a glowing ember.
And whoever looks at it no longer says, “This is coal,” but rather, “This is fire — pure fire.”
I am black like clouds of smoke rising from burning incense —
black in color, yet beautiful in fragrance, in symbolism, and in its ascent upward — like prayer.
I am black now, but I shall not remain black forever.
Black in this physical body, but I shall become beautiful in the luminous, spiritual body I shall receive when the corruptible puts on incorruption.
I shall be beautiful when I eat from the Tree of Life and taste of the hidden manna.
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Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine, Year 6, Issue 21, May 23, 1975.
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