Skip to main content

Black and Beautiful

 

 

I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon

         --The Song of Songs, 1:5 (trans. from the Greek LXX)

 

The early Church Fathers believed that the Song of Songs in the Old Testament was a love poem composed by King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (today’s Ethiopia), who was a beautiful woman with black skin. In their allegorical vision, this couple symbolized Jesus and the Church.  

 

As Fr. Cyprian Davis writes,  “Solomon is a type of Christ, and just as the queen of Sheba came to Solomon to consult him because he was wise, so the Church comes to Christ who is Wisdom himself.  As a result, since the queen of Sheba is black, so must the church be black and beautiful.  Her very blackness is a symbol of her universality; all nations are present in her.” 

 

In America, having black skin carries a heavy burden.  Black men routinely see others cross the street to avoid sharing a sidewalk with them.  Police “stop and frisk” teenagers and detain drivers for “driving while Black.”  In countless subtle ways, Black Americans are told they are less beautiful, less worthy, less human.   Yet Scripture tells us that the beloved of Christ is black and beautiful.   That we who call ourselves Christian are incorporated into a black body that is the image of universality, completeness, and the unity of all peoples in time and eternity.  

 

Questions

What might it mean for us to picture the beloved of Christ as a black woman?  What might it mean for me to imagine myself incorporated into a black, beautiful feminine body?  In a Church where our icons of saints, angels and Jesus himself  are so often white (even when the people they represent were black or brown), can I begin to reconceive of blackness and identify it with holiness? 

 

Prayer

O God who dwells in mystery and darkness, we pray with longing for the day when we are brought into one in You and in the body of your Beloved.  Help us to see your image in the faces of Your Black children, shining with beauty, holiness, and dignity.  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Seeing Christ in Creation

Green Mass (Care for Creation) Wis 13:1-9 ; Psalm 104; Matthew 6:24-34 Seeing Christ in Creation Nine years ago, I led a group of Bellarmine University students on a study abroad trip to Peru. One night, we took a bus ride that wound through the Andes Mountains. The driver made an unscheduled stop in the middle of nowhere and let us all off to into a field. There was no moon that night. The inky darkness was broken only by the light of the stars. We gazed upon them and were unexpectedly disoriented. Instead of the familiar constellations that had accompanied us our whole lives in the northern hemisphere, there was an alien, antipodal sky with a strange configuration of unknown stars. Floating on the horizon just above the mountain peaks appeared the constellation known as the Crux, or the Southern Cross, composed of four of the brightest stars in the sky that form a distinct cross-shape.     Long before being introduced to Christianity, Peruvians held the cross as sacred...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Christmas is About

Bellarmine University Our Lady of the Woods December 24, 2025 Christmas Eve Vigil Mass Readings “I just don't understand Christmas.... I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.” So says Charlie Brown in the 1965 cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas. My nine-year-old son, EJ, has been obsessed with Peanuts lately, and I have seen this short little special multiple times during Advent. Charlie’s friend Linus responds to his complaint, saying, "Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.” I think this show has lasting appeal because we can all relate, at various moments, to Charlie Brown’s morose feelings about Christmas. Though we are supposed to feel merry and bright, sometimes the garishness of the season and the relentlessness of it all can make us feel that our hearts are two sizes too sma...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Four Trees of Christmas

Merry Christmas, Bellarmine. Since we are here in Our Lady of the Woods Chapel the university, I thought it would be appropriate to preach about trees tonight. The Christmas tree has become a central symbol of the holiday.   Bellarmine has a beautiful, evergreen up on the quad that’s at least 50 feet tall.   Every Advent, it is strung up with lights and the university hosts a lighting event every year in late November.   Kate and I have taken our kids there the last few years.   We have some wonderful pictures of our kids’ faces lit up by both the lights and with joy at looking at the tree.   Last year, our oldest, EJ, got to help Dr. Donovan flip the magic switch that illuminated the tree.   It’s well known that German pagans worshipped oak trees before they became Christians and this might have something to do with the tradition.   However, they rapidly transformed the Christmas tree into a symbol of Christ, who is ever green. Who is a source o...
Post a Comment
Read more