Sermons on the Song of Songs

“Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His Mouth.”

To-day, my brethren, in fulfilment of the promise made in my last sermon, I purpose to speak more particularly of the supreme kiss, that is to say, of the kiss of the Mouth. And as this kiss is sweeter than the other two, viz., those of the Feet and of the Hand, more rarely enjoyed, and more difficult to comprehend, the present discourse demands from you a more than ordinary attention. To begin on a level more lofty than usual, it appears to me that He Who said, “No one knoweth the Son but the Father, neither doth anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him,” by these words designated a kind of kiss which is altogether ineffable and incommunicable to any creature. “For the Father loveth the Son” and embraces Him with an infinite affection, as the Supreme His Co-equal, the Eternal His Co-Eternal, the One His Only-Begotten. But not less for Him is the love of the Son, Who even died for the love of the Father, as He Himself testifies when He says, “That all may know that I love the Father, arise, let us go.” He spoke evidently of going to His Passion. Now, What is that mutual love and knowledge between Father and Son but a most sweet and incomprehensible kiss?

I, at any rate, hold it as certain that no creature, not excepting even the angels, is admitted to a comprehension of this secret of love, so great and so holy St. Paul was of the same mind when he affirmed that this “peace surpasseth all understanding,” the angelic understanding included. Hence not even the Spouse, although otherwise daring enough, would yet venture to say, “let Him kiss me with His Mouth,” for she reserved that to the Father. But she asks for something less in the request, “Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His Mouth.” Do you wish to behold this new Spouse receiving the new kiss, not from the Mouth, but from “the Kiss of His mouth”? “He breathed on them,” says the Evangelist, namely, Jesus on the apostles, that is, on the primitive Church, “and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Assuredly that was a kiss. What? The corporeal exhalation? No, my brethren, but the invisible Spirit. And the reason why He was communicated by the Lord’s breathing was this, in order that we should understand that He proceeds from the Son in like manner as from the Father, being truly a Divine Kiss, common to the Mouth That kisses and the Mouth That is kissed. Consequently, it is enough for the Spouse to be kissed “with the Kiss” of the Bridegroom, without being kissed with His Mouth. For it is no small thing, nor a matter deserving of but slight esteem, to be kissed with that Kiss, namely, to receive an infusion of the Holy Spirit. This should not seem fanciful; because if I am right in regarding the Father as the Mouth That kisses, and the Son as the Mouth That is kissed, I cannot be very far wrong in understanding by the Kiss Itself the Divine Spirit, Who is the imperturbable Peace of the Father and Son, the everlasting Bond, the undivided Love, the indivisible Unity.

It is, therefore, with regard to Him that the Spouse is so venturesome, and she confidently asks, using the image of a kiss, that He Would deign to infuse Himself into her heart. If she is so daring, it is because she has heard something which appears to encourage her presumption. For has she not heard the Son saying, “No one knoweth the Son but the Father, neither doth any one know the Father but the Son,” and adding, “and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him”? But she has no doubt that the Bridegroom would be pleased to make this revelation to His Bride before all others. Hence she boldly asks a kiss, that is, the Holy Spirit, in Whom are revealed both the Father and the Son. One, indeed, cannot be known Without the Other. Hence the Lord said, “He who seeth Me seeth My Father also.” And St. John, “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; he that confesseth the Son, hath also the Father.” From this it is evident that neither the Father can be known without the Son, nor the Son without the Father. Rightly, then, is supreme felicity made to consist, not in the knowledge of One or Other, but of Both, by Him Who says, “This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent.” Finally, those who follow the Lamb are said to have His name and the name of the Father written on their foreheads, which means that they rejoice in the knowledge of Both.

But some one may here object and say, “Therefore the knowledge of the Holy Ghost is not essential to our happiness, because when Christ declared that eternal life consisted in knowing the Father and the Son, He said nothing of the Third Person.” Nothing explicitly, I grant you. But when the Father and the Son are perfectly known, known also must assuredly be the Holy Spirit, Who is the common Goodness of the Two. Even one human being cannot be fully known to another so long as it is uncertain whether his disposition is good or evil. Yet even when the Saviour said, “This is eternal life that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent,” if this mission demonstrates the good-will both of the Father, Who so lovingly sent His Son, and of the Son, Who so freely obeyed His Father, even then, I say, He was not silent respecting the Spirit, for He made mention of that infinite Loving-kindness common of Both. And is not the Holy Ghost the Love and the kindness of Father and Son?

Consequently, the Spouse, in requesting a kiss, prays for the grace of this threefold knowledge, so much, at least, as is possible for her to receive whilst still in the flesh. And she asks this of the Son to Whom it belongs to reveal the Father “to whomsoever it shall please Him.” The Son, therefore, reveals both Himself and His Father to such as He pleases. But the revelation is made by a Kiss, that is, by the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle witnesses, when he says, “But to us God hath revealed Them by His Spirit.” Now in giving the Spirit by Whom He reveals the Father and Son, He also reveals the Spirit Himself. He reveals by giving, and by revealing He gives. Besides, the revelation which is made by the Holy Spirit not only communicates the light of knowledge, but also enkindles the flames of love. Hence the words of St. Paul, “The charity of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost Who is given to us.” And perhaps this is the reason why, with regard to those, who “knowing God, did not glorify Him as God,” we do not read that they got their knowledge by revelation of the Holy Ghost. Because, namely, their knowledge was not accompanied by love. The Apostle simply says, “for God had manifested it unto them,” and does not add “by His Spirit.” Otherwise, the kiss, which is the privilege of the Spouse, would be usurped by impious souls, who, content with the knowledge that “puffeth up,” are unconcerned for the charity that “edifieth.” But St. Paul himself shall tell us whence they derived their knowledge of God. They “perceived” Him, he says, “by the things that are made, being understood.” Hence it is manifest that they could not have known Him perfectly Whom they loved not at all. For had they possessed such perfect knowledge, they surely would not have been ignorant of that infinite goodness wherewith He willed to be born in the flesh and to die for their redemption. Hear now what attributes of God were revealed to them: “His eternal power also and Divinity.” You see how, in the presumption of a spirit not divine but human, they investigated His attributes of sublimity and majesty, but failed to understand that He was “meek and humble of Heart.” This should not surprise us, since Behemoth, their chief, “sees everything high,” as is written of him, but nothing that is lowly. David, on the contrary, would not “walk in great matters nor in wonderful things above” him, lest, as a “searcher into majesty,” he should “be overwhelmed by glory.”