“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth”

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth” is a lover’s urgent plea in the Song of Songs that Christian interpreters turned into an expression of spiritual desire. In Origen’s reading, the beloved’s longing becomes the Church’s and the individual soul’s yearning for Christ himself; in Bernard of Clairvaux’s sermons, the kiss becomes both a pattern for spiritual growth and an encounter whose deepest reality cannot be conveyed to anyone who has not received it.

The verse and Origen’s allegory

Origen approached the Song of Songs as a work with a surface story and a deeper spiritual meaning, calling it “a drama of mystical meaning.” The opening plea first draws attention through its frank language of physical longing. The woman wants her lover’s kiss and urges him, “Draw me after you, let us make haste.” Her desire is immediate: “Make haste!” Origen did not discard this passionate surface; he interpreted it as the doorway to another kind of desire.

In his allegory, the woman represents the Church longing for union with Christ. The Church has already received gifts that prepare her for him: the law and the prophets have revealed the Son of God to whom she is betrothed. Their teaching has disclosed Christ’s Spirit, works, power, gentleness, and charm, kindling love for him. Yet instruction about the beloved cannot take the place of meeting him. The Church has seen his ministers but not Christ himself; neither angels nor prophets can satisfy her. The kiss therefore signifies her desire for Christ’s own presence and words, “that I may hear him speak himself and see him teaching.”

Origen then brings the interpretation from the Church to the individual soul. The soul wants not merely knowledge supplied by teachers, but fellowship with the Word of God made flesh and entry into the mysteries of his wisdom and knowledge. Understanding becomes a form of encounter: when what was obscure begins to make sense and what was tangled is unravelled, the soul recognizes that it has received Christ’s kiss. The verse thus serves not only as a description of longing but as a prayer for understanding when the search for meaning reaches an impasse.

Bernard’s sermons and the kiss

Bernard made the opening line the starting point of a sustained meditation. He composed sermons on the Song of Songs from around 1135–36, continuing the project through the rest of his life. He addressed the kiss in each of his first four sermons, turned to other topics, and later returned to it for four more. This recurrence makes the image more than an arresting opening: it becomes a central measure of desire and spiritual experience.

For Bernard, the kiss is not a token greeting or a merely figurative scene. It fulfils the longing of the soul and names a mystical encounter between God and the human person. He describes the living and active word as a kiss, an infusion of joy and disclosure of mysteries in which divine light mingles with the enlightened mind. Visions, dreams, figures of speech, and parables are not what he seeks in themselves; his concern is the encounter they cannot replace. The kiss names the union of God with humanity.

Bernard also connects the image to assurance and faith. The soul, conscious of its own frailty, asks how Christ the mediator can be trusted not to withdraw his promise. Bernard’s answer returns to the plea for the kiss. At the close of his second sermon, he gives the kiss two necessities: it strengthens faith, and Christ, the Word, mediates between the person and God. The image therefore holds together intimate desire and theological dependence: the soul seeks closeness, but receives it through Christ.

A progression from repentance to union

Bernard gives the kiss a sequence of meanings that traces spiritual development. The first kiss is at Christ’s feet: the person seeks forgiveness and turns from sin. The second is at Christ’s hand, which lifts and guides the person in growth. The third is the kiss of Christ himself, an intimacy marked by joy in God’s presence. These stages correspond to purgation, illumination, and union: cleansing from sin, learning to live in faith, and coming into communion with God.

The sequence makes the kiss an image of change rather than a single, undifferentiated spiritual feeling. Humility and confession precede renewal; guidance precedes intimacy. Bernard’s account also resists treating the final kiss as something the seeker can claim by effort alone. The earlier stages describe the soul’s preparation, while the culmination remains a gift of encounter. In his treatment of the kiss of the hand, he speaks of Christ’s liberality, which gives generously, and fortitude, which protects what is given. The soul’s development is thus sustained by both generosity and strength.

The kiss is also linked to the character of the one who longs for it. The bride is “thirsting for God,” and the loving relation of bride and bridegroom makes the soul’s love for God central to Bernard’s spirituality. Desire is not an embarrassment to be removed from the religious reading; it is the force that moves the soul toward God. The repeated plea measures the distance between what the seeker has received and what remains desired.

Gift, longing, and the limits of speech

In Sermon 8, Bernard reads the kiss through the risen Christ’s breathing on the disciples and giving them the Holy Spirit. The Bride’s kiss is then the gift of the Spirit, comprising both the light of knowledge and the fervour of devotion. Bernard describes the mind and will as prepared to receive these distinct gifts: reason for insight, will for wisdom. The image joins understanding with love, rather than allowing spiritual knowledge to remain merely intellectual.

Yet the experience is not made fully communicable by describing its stages. Bernard says that no one can grasp the mystical kiss except the one who receives it, likening it to hidden manna and a sealed fountain. This limit on explanation is not a denial of the kiss’s significance; it marks the difference between hearing about an encounter and undergoing it. The verse can teach, orient, and give the seeker words for prayer, but the experience itself remains personal.

Bernard’s own testimony preserves desire even amid gratitude. He gives thanks for the kisses of Christ’s feet and hand and acknowledges that God has granted more than he deserves, yet less than he longs for. The opening plea consequently remains unresolved in a productive sense: forgiveness, guidance, and spiritual joy do not extinguish longing. Across Origen’s allegory and Bernard’s sermons, the verse moves from the Church’s yearning for Christ to the soul’s search for understanding, faith, and union, while retaining the urgency of a lover who asks not only to hear about the beloved, but to meet him.