Bernard's Sermons on the Canticles, Sermon 2

Sermon 2: Various Meanings of the Kiss

Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.

Think of how earnestly the patriarchs longed for Christ to come, how this eagerness was metaphorically expressed as a maiden longing for the kiss of her husband. Are you not filled with shame over the dryness of your own heart?

To receive the living active word, or to receive to the earth the Word, this is to receive the kiss of his mouth. The request is not that he would kiss with his mouth, but with the kiss of his mouth. The mouth that kisses is the Word who assumes nature, and the nature he assumes (man's) receives the kiss. The kiss itself, being the union between the giver and receiver, is the person that is formed by this assumption, namely the Messiah or Christ. For God to kiss man, for human nature to receive the kiss, this is a supreme condescension on the part of God, that he should so join himself to human nature. This was the kiss that the pre-Christian divines so longed for.

The longing that is expressed indicates the great length of time for which the Patriarchs of the past waited for this kiss. The kiss they asked for and longed for was greatly delayed, though promised. While men tarried and waited for peace (for the kiss is the kiss of peace), their faith rose and fell, sometimes well-expressed, and at other times almost entirely failing. Yet still the kiss was promised, and still the kiss was coming.

The prophets could describe his coming and the life that he would bring, the kiss of peace to a divided and war-torn people, yet only in his coming could he bring the things itself, the kiss, eternal life. This was the request, If he will not revoke his given word, let him empty himself, let him humble himself, let him bend to me and kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. And so he did.

This is the summary. The holy kiss was of necessity bestowed on the world for two reasons: Without it, the faith of the weak would not be strengthened, nor the desires of the fervent fulfilled. And this kiss itself was the mediator, Christ Jesus, him who was God and man.