The Kiss of Peace
The history of the Kiss of Peace within the Church is
indicative of the paradigm shift from physical intimacy that finally saw the
restriction and subsequent forbidding by the Church of the Love Feast. It also
saw a return to the spirit/body dualism.
The primitive usage in the Church was for the "holy
kiss" to be given freely between the sexes. Later (Const. Apostol., VIII,
xxix) men of the laity saluted men with the kiss, while women kissed women.
This latter manner of giving the peace among the laity
seems to have been maintained till the thirteenth century, when a substitute for
the actual kiss was introduced in the shape of a small wooden tablet, or plate
of metal. Recently a 'sign of peace' has been reinstated within the Mass with
the advent of Vatican II.
See the Catholic Encyclopedia,
The Kiss of Peace, referred to in scripture was a key
element of the life and love of the early church, and was one of the central
modes of the physical communication of 'agape' by Christians.
Whilst the primitive Christians reserved much of their
central experiences to secrecy, in the intimations of the texts that we have, we
see an experience of beauty and depth of love and holy intimacy described, that
many humans would not experience in sexual intercourse.
- In the kiss of peace, the action of the Holy Spirit enabled
Christians to meet in divine and boundless love.
- The kiss of peace was freely given between all members of the
church, both male and female, it was given on the lips, and was described as
mystical, a uniting together and a merging of souls.
- Christian women would creep into prisons to 'kiss a
martyrs bonds', and the kiss shared by martyrs before death was seen as a
consummation of their martyrdom. Christians had an expectation of receiving
the kiss in fullness on a saints reception in heaven after death.
- Shared Prayer and the sacraments were considered to be
incomplete without the exchange of the kiss. The kiss of peace was the seal of
prayer. There were warnings about repeating a kiss merely to replicate the
pleasurable feelings elicited, and warnings that the kiss should be given
carefully and without defilement of thought.
- By the kiss the strength of love was impressed. The
mystery of the kiss of peace was that it was the kiss of the heart and soul, and it
could not be given without faith and love. The kiss of peace had a sweetness through
faith, love, and affection. The kiss soothed and levelled.
- The kiss of peace supernaturally gave grace and made peace. The
kiss was a fuel for love, kindling a love in relationships implanted by
spiritual grace, much stronger than the love associated with relationships
implanted by nature.
- The kiss was of a different character to kisses given
in public by common friends. The kiss blended souls one with another, and
courted forgiveness for them. The kiss spoke of souls mingled together, and
the banishing of all remembrance of wrongs.
- In the kiss souls were bound to each other. After an
absence Christians would kiss each other, their 'souls hastening to mutual
intercourse'. It was in the kiss of peace that the workings of the soul were declared
most clearly.
- In kissing a brother or sister a Christian was
sacramentally sharing in the Church's kiss of Christ. The Church had kisses
as a bride. This kiss of peace was described as a pledge of espousals and the
prerogative of wedlock.
When we have ceased from prayer, we salute one
another with a kiss. There is then brought to the President, bread and a
cup of wine
Justin Martyr (100 - 165 AD)
Then the Deacon cries aloud, "Receive ye
one another; and let us kiss one another." Think not that this kiss is of
the same character with those given in public by common friends. It is not
such: but this kiss blends souls one with another, and courts entire
forgiveness for them. The kiss therefore is the sign that our souls are
mingled together, and banish all remembrance of wrongs. For this cause Christ
said, If thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that
thy brother hath aught against time, leave there thy gift upon the altar, and
go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy
gift. The kiss therefore is reconciliation, and for this reason holy: as the
blessed Paul somewhere cried, saying, Greet ye one another with a holy kiss;
and Peter, with a kiss of charity.
St Cyril of Jerusalem (315 -386 AD)
therefore the kiss, or rather the salutation,
should be given with the utmost care, since if there be mixed with it the
least defilement of thought, it excludes us from eternal life
Athenagoras (2nd Century AD)
What prayer is complete from which the holy kiss
is divorced? What kind of sacrifice is that from which men depart without the
peace?
Tertullian (160 - 230 AD)
But there are those, that do nothing but make
the churches resound with a kiss, not having love itself within.
For this very thing, the shameless use of a
kiss, which ought to be mystic, occasions foul suspicions and evil reports.
The apostle calls the kiss holy. ..... For if it is proper
mystically "in the closet" to pray to God, it will follow that we
are also to greet mystically our neighbour, whom we are commanded to love
second similarly to God, within doors, "redeeming the time."
"For we are the salt of the earth."
Clement of Alexandria (150 - 220 AD)
Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of
good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace
shall be with you.
Greet one another with an holy kiss.
All the saints salute you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
St Paul 2 Corinthians 13:11 - 14
Ver. 12. "Salute one another with a holy
kiss."
What is "holy?" not hollow, not
treacherous, like the kiss which Judas gave to Christ. For therefore is the
kiss given, that it may be fuel unto love, that it may kindle the disposition,
that we may so love each other, as brothers brothers, as children parents, as
parents children; yea, rather even far more. For those things are a
disposition implanted by nature, but these by spiritual grace. Thus our souls
bound unto each other. And therefore when we return after an absence we kiss
each other, our souls hastening unto mutual intercourse. For this is that
member which most of all declares to us the workings of the soul. But about
this holy kiss somewhat else may yet be said.
To what effect? We are the temple of Christ; we
kiss then the porch and entrance of the temple when we kiss each other. See ye
not how many kiss even the porch of this temple, some stooping clown, others
grasping it with their hand, and putting their hand to their mouth. And
through these gates and doors Christ both had entered into us, and doth enter,
whensoever we communicate. Ye who partake of the mysteries understand what I
say. For it is in no common manner that our lips are honored, when they
receive the Lord's Body. It is for this reason chiefly that we here kiss. Let
them give ear who speak filthy things, who utter railing, and let them shudder
to think what that mouth is they dishonor; let those give ear who kiss
obscenely. Hear what things God hath proclaimed by thy mouth, and keep it
undefiled. He hath discoursed of the life to come, of the resurrection, of
immortality, that death is not death, of those other innumerable mysteries.
For he that is about to be initiated comes to the priest's mouth as it were an
oracle, to hear things full of awe. For he lost his life even from his
forefathers, and comes to seek it again, and to ask how he may haply find and
get it back. Then God announceth to him how it may be found, and that mouth
becomes more awful than the very mercy-seat. For that mercy-seat never sent
forth a voice like this, but spake much of lesser things, of wars and such
peace as is here below: but this speaks all about heaven and the life to come,
and things new and that pass understanding. And having said,
Ver. 13. "Salute one another with an holy
kiss," he added, "All the saints salute you."
By this also giving them good hopes. He has added this in the place of the
kiss, knitting them together by the salutation, for the words also proceed
from the same mouth from which the kiss. Seest thou how he brings them all
together, both those who are widely separated in the body and those who are
near, these by the kiss and those by the written message?
Ver. 14. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God," and the Father, "and the communion of the Holy
Ghost, be with you all." After having united them to one other by the
salutations and the kisses, he again closes his speech with prayer, with much
carefulness uniting them unto God also.
St Augustine (354 - 430 AD)
15.
And the same Scripture teaches you concerning the infusion of special
grace, that he kisses Christ who receives the Spirit, where the holy
prophet says: "I opened my mouth and drew in the Spirit."22 He, then,
kisses Christ who confesses Him: "For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."23
He, again, kisses the feet of Christ who, when reading the Gospel,
recognizes the acts of the Lord Jesus, and admires them with pious
affection, and so piously he kisses, as it were, the footprints of the
Lord Jesus as He walks. We kiss Christ, then, with the kiss of
communion: "Let him that readeth understand."24
16. Whence should the Jew have this kiss? For he who believed in His
coming, believed not in His Passion. For how can he believe that He has
suffered Whom he believes not to have come? The Pharisee, then, had no
kiss except perchance that of the traitor Judas. But neither had Judas
the kiss; and so when he wished to show to, the Jews that kiss which he
had promised as the sign of betrayal, the Lord said to him: "Judas,
betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?"25 that is, you, who have
not the love marked by the kiss, offer a kiss. You offer a kiss who
know not the mystery of the kiss. It is not the kiss of the lips which
is sought for, but that of the heart and soul.
17. But you say, he kissed the Lord. Yes, he kissed Him indeed with his
lips. The Jewish people has this kiss, and therefore it is said: "This
people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me."26
So, then, he who has not faith and charity has not the kiss, for by a
kiss the strength of love is impressed. When love is not, faith is not,
and affection is not, what sweetness can there be in kisses?
18. But the Church ceases not to kiss the feet of Christ, and therefore
in the Song of Songs she desires not one but many kisses,27 and like
Holy Mary she is intent upon all His sayings, and receives all His
words when the Gospel or the Prophets are read, and "keeps all His
sayings in her heart." So, then, the Church alone has kisses as a
bride, for a kiss is as it were a pledge of espousals and the
prerogative of wedlock.
St Ambrose - Letter to his Sister XLI
The
Priest says the prayer of salutation: O Sovereign and Almighty Lord,
look down from heaven on Thy Church, on all Thy people, and on all Thy
flock. Save us all, Thy unworthy servants, the sheep of Thy fold. Give
us Thy peace, Thy help, and Thy love, and send to us the gift of Thy
Holy Spirit, that with a pure heart and a good conscience we may salute
one another with an holy kiss, without hypocrisy, and with no hostile
purpose, but guileless and pure in one spirit, in the bond of peace and
love, one body and one spirit, in one faith, even as we have been
called in one hope of our calling, that we may all meet in the divine
and boundless love, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom Thou art
blessed.
The Divine Liturgy of Mark
he again mingles them in the equality of charity, and in the holy kiss, saying,
Ver. 16. "Salute one another with an holy kiss."
To cast out of them, by this salutation, all arguing that confused
them, and all grounds for little pride; that neither the great might
despise the little, nor the little grudge at the greater, but that
haughtiness and envy might be more driven away, when this kiss soothed
down and levelled every one.
Chrysostom Sermon XXX on Romans
Martyrs also considered the kiss important
And when the populace called for them into the
midst, that as the sword penetrated into their body they might make their eyes
partners in the murder, they rose up of their own accord, and transferred
themselves whither the people wished; but they first kissed one
another, that they might consummate their martyrdom with the kiss of
peace.
Martyrdom of St Perpetua 200 AD
Abundantly blessed are they who, from your
number, passing through these footprints of glory, have already departed from
the world; and, having finished their journey of virtue and faith, have
attained to the embrace and the kiss of the Lord, to the joy of the
Lord Himself.
Cyprian Epistle XV
4. And you also,
retaining this faith, and meditating day and night, with your whole
heart prepared for God, think of the future only, with contempt for the
present, that you may be able to come to the fruit of the eternal
kingdom, and to the embrace and kiss, and the sight of the Lord, that
you may follow in all things Rogatianus the presbyter, the glorious old
man who, to the glory of our time, makes a way for you by his religious
courage and divine condescension, who, with Felicissimus our brother,
ever quiet and temperate, receiving the attack of a ferocious people,
first prepared for you a dwelling in the prison, and, marking out the
way for you in some measure, now also goes before you.
Cyprian Epistle LXXX
It is worthwhile noting a snapshot given by Tertullian,
c 200 AD describing certain 'normal' aspects of Christian womanhood that he
considered to mitigate against a Christian Woman marrying an non-Christian man.
For who would suffer his wife, for the sake of visiting
the brethren, to go round from street to street to other men's, and indeed to
all the poorer, cottages? Who will willingly bear her being taken from his
side by nocturnal convocations, if need so be? Who, finally, will without
anxiety endure her absence all the night long at the paschal solemnities? Who
will, without some suspicion of his own, dismiss her to attend that Lord's
Supper which they defame? Who will suffer her to creep into prison to kiss a
martyr's bonds? nay, truly, to meet any one of the brethren to exchange the
kiss? to offer water for the saints' feet?(10) to snatch (somewhat for them)
from her food, from her cup? to yearn (after them)? to have (them) in her
mind? If a pilgrim brother arrive, what hospitality for him in an alien home?
If bounty is to be distributed to any, the granaries, the storehouses, are
foreclosed.
- Athenagoras 177 (legat pro Christian 32)
- Clement of Alexandria Paedagog lib iii cii)
- Origen (in Roman lib x 33)
- Tertullian (ad Uxon lib ii c4) (de orat c18)
- Bona (Rer Liturg. lib ii c xvi 7)
- Tertullian 'To his wife'
- Cyprian to Sergius, Rogatianus, and the Other Confessors
in Prison
.
- Cyprian in a letter to Moysius and Maximus
- St Chrysostom homily 31
- St Ambrose a letter to his sister XLI
- The passion of the holy martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas
- The Divine Liturgy of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark
- Cyprian to Fidus On the baptism of Infants
- Cyril of Jerusalem Lecture 23 to the newly baptised
- St Chrysostom Homily 30
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