"As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon."--Sol. Song i. 5
Perhaps both members of the comparison--viz., "As the tents of Kedar, as
the curtains of Solomon"--refer only to the first words, "I am black."
It may be, however, that the simile is extended to both clauses, and
each is compared with each. The former sense is the more simple, the
latter the more obscure. Let us try both, beginning with the latter,
which seems the more difficult. There is no difficulty, however, in the
first comparison, "I am black as the tents of Kedar," but only in the
last. For Kedar, which is interpreted to mean "darkness" or "gloom," may
be compared with blackness justly enough; but the curtains of Solomon
are not so easily likened to beauty. Moreover, who does not see that
"tents" fit harmoniously with the comparison? For what is the meaning of
"tents" except our bodies, in which we sojourn for a time? Nor have we
an abiding city, but we seek one to come. In our bodies, as under tents,
we carry on warfare. Truly, we are violent to take the kingdom. Indeed,
the life of man here on earth is a warfare; and as long as we do battle
in this body, we are absent from the Lord,--i.e., from the light. For
the Lord is light; and so far as any one is not in Him, so far he is in
darkness, i.e., in Kedar. Let each one then acknowledge the sorrowful
exclamation as his own:--"Woe is me that my sojourn is prolonged! I have
dwelt with those who dwell in Kedar. My soul hath long sojourned in a
strange land." Therefore this habitation of the body is not the mansion
of the citizen, nor the house of the native, but either the soldier's
tent or the traveler's inn. This body, I say, is a tent, and a tent of
Kedar, because, by its interference, it prevents the soul from beholding
the infinite light, nor does it allow her to see the light at all,
except through a glass darkly, and not face to face.
Do you not see whence blackness comes to the Church--whence a certain
rust cleaves to even the fairest souls? Doubtless it comes from the
tents of Kedar, from the practice of laborious warfare, from the long
continuance of a painful sojourn, from the straits of our grievous
exile, from our feeble, cumbersome bodies; for the corruptible body
presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the
mind that museth upon many things. Therefore the souls' desire to be
loosed, that being freed from the body they may fly into the embraces of
Christ. Wherefore one of the miserable ones said, groaning, "O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!" For a
soul of this kind knoweth that, while in the tents of Kedar, she cannot
be entirely free from spot or wrinkle, nor from stains of blackness, and
wishes to go forth and to put them off. And here we have the reason why
the spouse calls herself black as the tents of Kedar. But now, how is
she beautiful as the curtains of Solomon? Behind these curtains I feel
that an indescribable holiness and sublimity are veiled, which I dare
not presume to touch, save at the command of Him who shrouded and sealed
the mystery. For I have read, He that is a searcher of Majesty shall be
overwhelmed with the glory. I pass on therefore. It will devolve on you,
meanwhile, to obtain grace by your prayers, that we may the more
readily, because more confidently, recur to a subject which needs
attentive minds; and it may be that the pious knocker at the door will
discover what the bold explorer seeks in vain.