"Let Him Kiss Me With the Kisses of His Mouth..."

God is so great! Just when we think He is already awesome, He shows us even MORE of His love! We are always left in awe of His Greatness!

We are all the brides of Christ, holding the hand of a groom unknown to us as we walk down the aisle of a magnificent, empty Church. It is just us and this unknown man, in full wedding attire. We make sure to hold the hand of this man, so that it becomes not us who act anymore (our hands are tied! hah!), but this man whose right hand acts for us, and whose left hand guides us around. We cranes our necks to look around the Church with gaping mouths, in awe of the beauty that surrounds us, still unaware of the unknown groom beside us, who guides us, and even carries us at times. And we find no reason to look at him, fascinated rather by the beautiful stucco, the magnificent sculptures and paintings, the glorious altar! Meanwhile, we trust in this man beside us without even looking at him.

Cut to the wedding. The priest says, "you may kiss the bride," and BAM reality hits - and you are now the WIFE of the unknown man beside you. And you turn to him, and realize that He is JESUS! And, all of a sudden, you not only come to see His Face, but you come to know it, and enter into it through the kiss. And, in the moment of that kiss, you focus fully and completely on Your Husband, the Love of your life!!! And the paintings recede into the background, the sculpture falls away as you REALIZE the very source of that beauty in the man whose works you were admiring!! What joy, awe, and gratitude! What an apt analogy for how we all live!

We tend to live our day to day lives so focused at the WORKS of God - the beautiful buildings, beautiful forests, the beauty of nature - and these are all PRAISEWORTHY things!! And we can know these things and come to know God better through these things. But at that moment when we receive God in the Eucharist, when He becomes a PART of us, and we are reminded that we ARE Christ's hands and feet on earth... WHOAH. The only Being that we focus on is CHRIST in our soul, and we receive Him lovingly and contemplatively - He fills us in all the moments of our life with His Soul and Divinity, His Body and Blood. "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth" takes on a WHOLE new meaning in Christ!!! We must ALLOW and PERMIT Christ Himself to kiss us, and remain vulnerable to Him, to kiss BACK with all of our being, to let our knees go weak, our head spin around and get caught up hopelessly (I see it more positively - hopeFULLY :P) in love with Our Lord and Savior, Our Beloved Husband who not only WOULD die for us, but HAS died for us!!! A kiss is a VERY different sign of love than simple happiness at the appearance of beauty - a kiss has a depth that goes far beyond sight. It does not require seeing because it KNOWS. It does not require hearing because it UNDERSTANDS. It has feeling and drive and breath and life!!!! A kiss is alive with the Holy Spirit!

It may be true that a rose by any other name may smell just as sweet, but a kiss will never simply be JUST the physical action of kissing. It is the unity of two individuals, a sign of a complete focus on another person, living and breathing with them in that moment. It is a moment of ecstasy and joy at the beauty of God, a moment of complete and utter vulnerability and trust, placing one's whole self at the feet of the beloved. How much more so the "Kiss of Christ" in the Eucharist?? For, if His Church is His Bride, and Mary Our Mother is Christ's new Eve, then we are certainly heirs to the title of "bride of Christ"!!!

And if the kiss is such a powerful metaphor for our relationship with Christ, imagine how much more so it is important to our relationships with other children of Christ! It is not something to be quickly bastardized, but rather something to be held sacred! It looks for the Christ in someone, brings out the Christ in someone, when a kiss is received and given passionately and in His Love. It turns something that may be just a fun fling of a thing into a deeply connecting act that brings us closer to God. And when we don't find God in the kiss, it troubles us deeply, because even if we don't realize it at first, we are looking for LOVE when we kiss. And God is love!!! :) (There is a reason why people - women AND men - are endlessly fascinated by sappy romantic movies in which the main characters finally kiss at the end. Women, take this as license to feel free to be sentimental, girly, and romantic, and expect to be treated like a princess by a man you will love and forgive endlessly.) ;) Our God loves us and wishes us to want Him in the same way that He wants us - fully and completely, no reservations. So our kiss is the love shared back to a God who watches us always with longing and love, with heartfelt patience for our simple "I do," waiting for a glance from our wandering eyes, waiting for the action to prove the steel resolve of our words.

May this day we realize that the entire mystery of the universe, of the Trinity, of our lives and of our God, is summarized in the simplicity of a three letter sentence: God is love, or I love you (take your pick - both represent the Father (God/I), Son (love/you), and Holy Spirit (is/love)). May today our hearts open up to the presence of God, and not only rejoice in the love of the Savior, but return that love back to Him! May we love our God so passionately that our lives become eclipsed by focus on Him! May our hearts speak through our actions, and our actions reflect our hearts full of the love of Christ!!! May our eyes never wander from the source of all Goodness, Glory, Honor, and Praise, Our Lord, Jesus Christ!!!

Love in Christ through Mary,
Christina :)