Is it possible to engage in a kiss without any malice and without sinning? I mean kissing in a platonic kind of way, is it really possible? A lot of young people in our time thought that kissing is evil in itself that whenever someone kisses somebody there are always malice present in it. The Media has portrayed in billboards, movies and in the Internet that Kissing is a part of lust. It is a human sexual instinct that drives us to gratify the weak portion in us. But that is totally wrong. Kissing in itself is not evil, furthermore, it is a universal language of human affection that transcends age, culture, and race. Heck even animals kiss. Actually in some websites, Kissing has been enumerated, type casted and categorized in so many ways and form that I often wonderr if it is still a result of Love. Of course that is the secular point of view. But how about the theology of Kissing? Have you heard of it? Do you know that there are also different ways on how to kiss a person or a thing without Malice? Of course in some culture, kissing is a part of their tradition and custom. But how about you as a Christian, have you ever kissed without any malice?

According to St. Augustine, Kissing is a sonet to the almighty God “You awaken me to delight in your mouth, and my lips are restless until they?re kissing you”. St. Thomas Aquinas however argued that “There are five ways to prove the existence of a kiss….” and that “Kissing is an occasion of lust unless it is the custom of the country”. But for St. Francis of Assisi, kissing is a sign of humility when he said: “I conjure you brothers, kissing your feet and with the charity of which I am capable, to show all reverence and all honor possible to the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom the things that are in heaven and on earth are pacified and reconciled to the Almighty God.”

But what is really a kiss? A kiss can be:

AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE TO OUR PARENTS

1 Kings 19:20 “Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

AN EXPRESSION OF A FATHER’S LOVE TO HIS SON

Genesis 48:10 “Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.”

OR A MOTHER’S LOVE TO HER CHILDREN

Ruth 1:8-10 “Then she kissed them and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

IT CAN ALSO BE AN EXPRESSION OF OUR GRANDPARENTS LOVE FOR US

Genesis 31:55 “Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.”

OR A SON’S LOVE FOR HIS FATHER

Genesis 27:26 “Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here, my son, and kiss me.”
Genesis 27:27 “So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.”
Genesis 50:1 “Joseph threw himself upon his father and wept over him and kissed him.”

A KISS CAN BE BETWEEN SIBLINGS: BROTHERLY AND SISTERLY KISS

1 Peter 5:14 “Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.”
Romans 16:16 “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.”
1 Corinthians 16:20 “All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.”
2 Corinthians 13:12 “Greet one another with a holy kiss.”
1 Thessalonians 5:26 “Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.”

IT CAN ALSO BE AN ACT OF FRIENDSHIP

1 Samuel 20:40-42 “Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, “Go, carry them back to town. After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together?but David wept the most. Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.”

AN ACT OF AFFECTION

Genesis 29:12-14 “He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father. As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”

AN ACT OF RESPECT

Exodus 4:27 “The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.

Exodus 18:7 “So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent.”

AN ACT OF HOMAGE

Job 31:27 “So that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage,”

AN ACT OF BLESSING

2 Samuel 19:39 “So all the people crossed the Jordan, and then the king crossed over. The king kissed Barzillai and gave him his blessing, and Barzillai returned to his home.”

AN ACT OF SINCERITY

Proverbs 24:26 “An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.”

AN ACT OF FAITHFULNESS

Proverbs 7:12-14 “now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks. She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: “I have fellowship offerings at home; today I fulfilled my vows.”

AN ACT OF RESPECT TO HOLY THINGS

1 Samuel 10:1 “Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, “Has not the LORD anointed you leader over his inheritance?”

AN ACT OF HUMILTY

John Paul II kissing a feet during a Holy Thursday service

John Paul II kissed the hands of Auschwitz Holocaust survivors

2 Samuel 14:33 “So Joab went to the king and told him this. Then the king summoned Absalom, and he came in and bowed down with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom.”

2 Samuel 15:4-6 “And Absalom would add, “If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that he gets justice. Also, whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and kiss him. Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the men of Israel.”

AN ACT OF FORGIVENESS

Genesis 33:4 “But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.”

Genesis 45:14-16 “Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.”

AN ACT OF APOLOGY

Genesis 29:11 “Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud”

AN ACT OF REPENTANCE

Ali Agca, John Paul II’s turkish assassin in 1981 kisses the hand of the Pope

Luke 7:44-46 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.”

AN ACT OF COMPASSION TOWARDS OTHERS

Luke 15:20 “So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

AN ACT OF PEACE

Psalm 85:10 “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.”

AND AN ACT OF SAYING GOODBYE

Acts 20:36-38 “When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.”

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY,

A KISS CAN ALSO BE A LOVE SONG TO GOD…

John Paul II’s last year of reign

Song of Solomon 8:1 “If only you were to me like a brother, who was nursed at my mother’s breasts! Then, if I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.”

Song of Solomon 1:2 “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth? for your love is more delightful than wine.”

BUT NO MAN ON THIS EARTH, EXCEPT THE ONE I KNEW, HAS EVER PERFORMED SO MANY KISSES IN HIS LIFETIME, THAT HE WAS ACTUALLY AN EXAMPLE OF LIVING THEOLOGY OF KISSING FOR ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD.

JUDAS BETRAYED THE WORLD WITH A KISS,

BUT THIS MAN CHANGED THE WORLD WITH HIS KISS…