In a sermon on the Song of Songs, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a 12th century monk, demonstrated remarkable imagination by perceiving in the very first line of this poem, attributed to King Solomon, insight into the relationship among the three persons of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). “For my part I am convinced that no creature, not even an angel, is permitted to comprehend this secret of divine love, so holy and so august.” (Bernard). But, he says of that love “...what can it comprise if not a kiss that is utterly sweet, but utterly a mystery as well?” And I think this is our invitation today, to consider the love of the triune God that is utterly sweet and utterly a mystery as well.
The sermon Bernard preached was on the first verse of the Song of Songs, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” Bernard’s take on the beautiful poem is a bit fantastic, and lacks certain standards of modern scholarship that allow him to read into the notably erotic text a great deal that it’s hard to say is really there. It’s a classic case of bringing something to the text that its author could never have intended. A twelfth century French monk sees in a fifth century BC text attributed to King Solomon, a description of the love of God the Father and God the Son for one another, stemming from the doctrine of the Holy Trinity that wasn’t really taking shape until the 3rd century CE. So let’s acknowledge a hefty dose of poetic license.
But if Bernard takes a lot of license with the poem, it has to be said that for a monk he knows a lot about kissing. He reminds us that “truly the kiss… is common both to him who kisses and to him who is kissed.” And Bernard sees more than the relationship of the Father and the Son in the divine kiss, and at one point he paints a sort of word picture that produces a very clear image:
If, as is properly understood, the Father is he who kisses, the Son he who is kissed, then it cannot be wrong to see in the kiss the Holy Spirit, for he is the imperturbable peace of the Father and the Son, their unshakable bond, their undivided love, their indivisible unity.
Do you see the picture he’s painting? The Father kisses the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the kiss itself, contained in the breath that is shared when Father kisses the Son with the kiss of the mouth. Bernard was a monk, but he was also French, so it feels like he can be trusted here. The French know their kisses! We have heard that the double kiss on the cheek may be doomed by the recent imposition of social distancing in France. But don’t count on it - they’ll be smooching again before long!
It’s so hard for us to think about God kissing. For one thing, sometimes we are embarrassed when kissing takes place in front of us. Also, the most famous kiss in the Bible is the kiss that Judas gives to Jesus to betray him. Like anything wonderful, of course kisses can be abused. We know this.
Theologians tend to talk about the three persons of the Trinity dancing with each other. I’ve imagined them singing together before. But presented with the possibility that the essential activity of the holy, blessed, glorious, eternal, and undivided Trinity is kissing, who can resist? Not me.
Bernard was concerned with who’s kissing whom, and with what kind of kiss it is, which is all fine and well... But I’m taken with the idea that one of the reasons God has revealed God’s self to us as a trinity of persons, is because the divine activity might consist largely of kissing. And of course you need more than one to kiss!
Of course, the reason Bernard’s image seems convincing is because we are already convinced that God is love. And if God is love, why shouldn’t God spend lots of time kissing? Of course God can be both giver and receiver of the kiss, and God can be the kiss itself. If there are many mansions in God’s house, that I suppose there isn’t a one of them that God hasn’t kissed and been kissed in.
No matter how good or bad you are at kissing, one thing you know is that kisses bring us together. It is notoriously difficult to kiss from afar. And even if the substance of the kiss is the breath of the Holy Spirit, blowing a kiss will only ever get you so far.
The Book of Genesis reminds us that “God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” If we are made in God’s image, then does that imply that we are made for kissing. I mean, for kissing God, and being kissed by God? And if the Holy Spirit is the very kiss itself that the Father and the Son exchange with one another, isn’t it marvelous to think that that Spirit, that kiss, has been shared with us! And isn’t it worth considering that God wants us all to be kissing more, which requires us to come together, to unite.
Since masks have become the ubiquitous accessory of the pandemic, for the moment this vocation - to kiss more - seems doomed. But you can be prepared, at least, to kiss one another from six feet away, in fact it can make you want to kiss that much more.
On this Trinity Sunday, as we peer into the “secret of divine love, so holy and so august,” we are living in a world that has not only been kept apart, but driven apart from one another. We can’t travel; we can’t go about our daily lives; we can’t work, or go out; we must keep our distance, wear our masks; and the politics of the moment excel in exploiting and exacerbating our distance from one another. It is easy, under the circumstances to forget that we have been made in the image and likeness of God. And that that image, that likeness is one of a divine kiss, shared by the kisser and the kissed, in which the kiss itself contains the breath of God.
Bernard of Clairvaux had some guts. His sermons on the Song of Songs continue, and if you keep reading them, before long you will get to another verse from the first chapter: “I am black and beautiful.” His preaching on that text is not really what we need today, but it’s worth noting, in passing, that he had no trouble finding good news in the text. But that’s another sermon.
For now, I am grateful for the suggestion of a kiss, “utterly sweet, but utterly a mystery as well.” A kiss that is shared with every one of us, since the kiss itself is the breath of God, the Holy Spirit. And if we let it, if we want it, it’s a kiss that will bring us together, as any kiss of love will inevitably do.
If God is very good to us, and if we truly are made in his image, then when we share in this divine, trinitarian kiss, maybe we too will enjoy at least a measure of what Bernard told us that the three persons of the Trinity enjoy: imperturbable peace, an unshakable bond, undivided love, and indivisible unity.
That would be some kiss!
Preached by Fr. Sean Mullen
Trinity Sunday 2020
Saint Mark’s Church, Locust Street, Philadelphia
All quotations are from Sermons on the Song of Songs, by Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 8: The Holy Spirit, the Kiss of the Mouth
