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The great Solomon describes, in an admirably
delicious manner, the loves of the Saviour and the
devout soul, in that divine work which for its
excellent sweetness is named the Canticle of
Canticles. And to raise ourselves by a more easy
flight to the consideration of this spiritual love
which is exercised between God and us by the
correspondence of the movements of our hearts with
the inspirations of his divine majesty, he makes use
of a perpetual representation of the loves of a
chaste shepherd and a modest shepherdess.
Now making the spouse or bride begin first by
manner of a certain surprise of love, he first puts
into her mouth this ejaculation:Let him kiss me with
the kiss of his mouth.(1) Notice, Theotimus, how the
soul, in the person of this shepherdess, has but the
one aim, in the first expression of her desire, of a
chaste union with her spouse, protesting that it is
the only end of her ambition and the only thing she
aspires after; for, I pray you, what other thing
would this first sigh intimate? Let him kiss me with
the kiss of his mouth.
A kiss from all ages as by natural instinct has
been employed to represent perfect love, that is, the
union of hearts, and not without cause: we express
and make known our passions and the movements which
our souls have in common with the animals, by our
eyes, eyebrows, forehead and the rest of our
countenance. Man is known by his look,(2) says the
Scripture, and Aristotle giving a reason why
ordinarily it is only the faces of great men that are
portrayed,- it is, says he, because the face shows
what we are.
Yet we do not utter our discourse nor the thoughts
which proceed from the spiritual portion of our soul,
which we call reason, and by which we are
distinguished from beasts, except by words, and
consequently by help of the mouth; insomuch that to
pour out our soul and open out our heart is nothing
else but to speak. Pour out your hearts before
God,(3) says the Psalmist, that is, express and turn
the affections of your hearts into words. And
Samuel's pious mother pronouncing her prayers so
softly that one could hardly discern the motion of
her lips: I have poured out my soul before the
Lord,(4) said she. And thus one mouth is applied to
another in kissing to testify that we would desire to
pour out one soul into the other, to unite them
reciprocally in a perfect union.
For this reason, at all times and amongst the most
saintly men the world has had, the kiss has been a
sign of love and affection, and such use was
universally made of it amongst the ancient Christians
as the great S. Paul testifies, when, writing to the
Romans and Corinthians, he says, Salute one another
in a holy kiss.(5) And as many declare, Judas in
betraying Our Saviour made use of a kiss to manifest
him, because this divine Saviour was accustomed to
kiss his disciples when he met them; and not only his
disciples but even little children, whom he took
lovingly in his arms; as he did him by whose example
he so solemnly invited his disciples to the love of
their neighbour, whom many think to have been S.
Martial, as the Bishop Jansenius(6) says.
Thus then the kiss being a lively mark of the
union of hearts, the spouse who has no other aim in
all her endeavours than to be united to her beloved,
Let him kiss me, says she, with the kiss of his
mouth; as if she cried out: -so many sighs and
inflamed darts which my love throws out will they
never impetrate that which my soul desires? I run -
Ah! shall I never gain the prize towards which I urge
myself, which is to be united heart to heart, spirit
to spirit, to my God, my spouse my life? When will
the hour come in which I shall pour my soul into his
heart, and he will pour his heart into my soul, and
thus happily united we shall live inseparable.
When the Holy Ghost would express a perfect love, he
almost always employs words expressing union or
conjunction. And the multitude of believers, says S.
Luke, had but one heart and one soul.(7) Our Saviour
prayed for all the faithful that they all may be
one.(8) S. Paul warns us to be careful to preserve
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace."(9)
These unities of heart, of soul and of spirit signify
the perfection of love which joins many souls in one.
So it is said that Jonathan's soul was knit to
David's, that is to say, as the Scripture adds, He
loved him as his own soul.(10)
The great Apostle of France (S. Denis) as well
according to his own sentiment as when giving that of
his Hierotheus, writes a hundred times, I think, in a
single chapter of the De Nominibus Divinis, that love
is unifying, uniting, drawing together, embracing,
collecting and bringing all things to unity! S.
Gregory Nazianzen and S. Augustine say that their
friends and they had but one soul, and Aristotle
approving already in his time this manner of speech:
" When," says he, " we would express how much we love
our friends, we say his and my soul is but one."
Hatred separates us, and love brings us into one. The
end then of love is no other thing than the union of
the lover and the thing loved.
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