Tag Archives: Kiss of Peace

“Kiss Me With the Kisses of Your Mouth”

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An illumination of Christ kissing the bride in the Song of Songs.

In the Song of Songs, the bride begs the groom, “Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth.” (Song of Songs 1:3) In the plain text of the Old Testament, this is the beginning of an erotic love song; I remember as an undergraduate, a roommate was writing a paper about the “four loves” as they appear in the Bible and was frustrated that there seemed to be no text that illustrated Eros. He was shocked and delighted that he could finish his paper once I introduced him to the Song.

But the Song is so much more than simply an erotic encounter between a bride and groom. It has been read as an encounter between God and the Church as well as a personal encounter between Christ and the believer. (In theology, an “individual” is always cut off from others, grasping and striving only for himself, isolated and alone. Lost. Damned by their own choice. But a “person” and everything about them that is “personal” is in communion with others, is reaching out to encounter the Other. A person is growing and is in the process of being saved; an individual is frozen, static, dead.)

Many have preached on how this “kiss” might be understood in the context of an encounter between Christ and the believer. Bernard of Clairvaux says that God’s “living, active word (Hebrews 4:12) is to me a kiss… an unreserved infusion of joys, a revealing of mysteries, a marvelous and indistinguishable mingling of the divine light with the enlightened mind, which, truly joined to God, is one spirit with him” (1 Cor. 6:17). He goes on to say that “the mouth that kisses signifies the Word who assumes human nature; the nature assumed received the kiss; the kiss however, that takes its being from both the giver and receiver, is a person that is formed by both…. A fertile kiss is not a mere pressing of mouth upon mouth; it is the uniting of God with man.”

This communion of divine and human is the goal of theosis, salvation understood as deification, coming to be by grace everything is Christ is naturally (2 Peter 1). The kiss is the beginning and the goal of this uniting of God and human, the Uncreated and the creature. In the kiss we move from being a collection of individuals, each in their own isolated desert, and become persons who are united with the divine Lover and each other, becoming what we were created to be: a communion of persons who find salvation in our experience of the Other.

David and Goliath and the Kiss of Peace

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Illumination of David and Goliath in Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus. The manuscript was made in the Netherlands in AD 1332.

“I love you, O Lord my strength, O Lord my stronghold, my crag, and my haven. My God, my rock, in whom I put my trust.” (Psalm 18:1-2)

When David was a teen, before he was made king of Israel, he volunteered to fight the giant Goliath in single combat (read the Old Testament story in 1 Samuel 17). Goliath was approximately 10 feet tall, had 6 fingers on each hand, and was rumored to be descended from the giants (these details are reported in 1 Chronicles 20:6). Goliath also had bronze armor and a 19 pound iron spear, which was unusual at that time. He was a formidable opponent. But, as the well known story reports, David selected 5 stones from a riverbed and was able to kill Goliath with a stone from his slingshot. He then cut off Goliath’s head to prove his victory and sang Psalm 18 in celebration (see also the report in 2 Samuel 22).

At the Kiss of Peace during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Church, the priest quietly recites the first verses of this psalm. The exchange of the Kiss, reconciling the participants and celebrating their mutual forgiveness before singing the consecration prayers and receiving Holy Communion, is like the stone David let fly from his slingshot: it slays the enemy of the People of God. The division and animosity of anger and holding grudges are among the most powerful weapons of Evil and Death; the fury and refusal to accept fellowship with others is a foretaste of Death and mutual forgiveness anticipates the Resurrection in which we experience the re-establishment of harmony between God and humanity, between God and the entire creation, between each of us with each other and the creation as well. The early preachers and teachers of the Church understood the power of the Antichrist to be precisely this division, animosity, and chaos.

Goliath is a personification of all that opposes God and His creation. The stone from David’s slingshot anticipates the Cross, the weapon by which the Enemy is slain. The Kiss of Peace reveals the power of the Cross in the live of the community assembled to celebrate the Eucharist. We are able to embrace one another, call even those who hate us “Brother!” and forgive all by the power and joy of the Resurrection. The Kiss of Peace, the stone in our slingshot in our battle with the Enemy, is more than a simple gesture or chance to greet our friends. It is one of our most effective weapons against Death and the Devil (“the divider” and “the adversary”).

During this time when we may not be able to exchange the Kiss of Peace during the liturgical celebration, it is especially important that we continue to forgive and metaphorically embrace those we may harbor animosity against. Now, more than ever, we must celebrate the Resurrection in every manner available to us.

Swords in Church and the Kiss of Peace

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Sword rest in St. Magnus the Martyr Church, London. (photo by S. Morris)

Sword rests, or sword stands as they are sometimes called, were originally installed in the churches of London to hold the Lord Mayor’s sword-of-state when he visited a different church every Sunday–a practice which ceased in 1883.

This practice of setting aside the sword was rooted in a medieval practice of men setting their swords in a prominent place in church so that no fighting would erupt during Mass. The swords were all kept up front so that no one could secretly get theirs to start a fight or secretly steal someone else’s as they slipped out the door. Churches were considered sanctuary spaces where fighting was forbidden. If blood was spilled in a church it had to be torn down and rebuilt. Or it had to be at least re-consecrated with a complicated–and expensive–process of prayer and ritual. Truces between enemies were automatic if they were in a church together.

The Kiss of Peace, exchanged between members of the Church just before receiving Holy Communion, was thought to be the most important act in preparation for Communion. St. Augustine, for example, speaks of it in one of his Easter Sermons:

“Then, after the consecration of the Holy Sacrifice of God, because He wished us also to be His sacrifice, a fact which was made clear when the Holy Sacrifice was first instituted, and because that Sacrifice is a sign of what we are, behold, when the Sacrifice is finished, we say the Lord’s Prayer which you have received and recited. After this, the ‘Peace be with you’ is said, and the Christians embrace one another with the holy kiss. This is a sign of peace; as the lips indicate, let peace be made in your conscience, that is, when your lips draw near to those of your brother, do not let your heart withdraw from his. Hence, these [the Kiss itself as well as Holy Communion] are great and powerful sacraments.”

Hence, the sword rest is an objective witness to the Kiss of Peace and its importance in the life of the community.