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 m...
These posts are the collected homilies of Deacon Ned Berghausen, permanent deacon of the Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, assigned to St. Agnes Catholic Church. The title "Foot Washer" refers to the Last Supper (John 13:1-20) in which Jesus washed the feet of the apostles and challenged them, "“Do you realize what I have done for you? If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow."