Kissing is seen as a sign of affection in most parts of the world, and it often symbolizes a close bond with another person. While not everyone engages in kissing other people, culturally it is strongly associated with love, even if it is filial love.
One thing that can be difficult in our relationship with God is the reality that we can not physically see or touch Jesus as he was 2,000 years ago. Jesus does not walk around on this earth in a bodily form and so it can be difficult to express our own love of him.
At the same time, one of the most supreme ways we can encounter Jesus in a physical way is through the reception of Holy Communion.
A kiss of love
St. John Paul II described the reception of Holy Communion in this way when visiting the church of St. Valentine in Rome in 1992:
[A]ll of us, must prepare well for this “osculum pacis” [kiss of peace], for this Eucharistic Communion in which Jesus wants to begin to live in us .... [In] Eucharistic Communion, Jesus enters us, he wants to live in our hearts, this is the expression of the most complete, most perfect love.
Have you ever thought of receiving Holy Communion as a kiss of love?
Often we can forget that we are even receiving Jesus, as the host does not look any different and typically we do not feel any different after Mass.
Yet, the simple truth is that at Mass, the bread and wine change into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. When we receive him during Holy Communion, he is "kissing" us with his love.
Jesus is the Divine Bridegroom who desires his Bride, the Church, which consists of you and me. Every time we go to Mass we are entering into the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, open and receptive to receive the love of the Bridegroom.
It is a beautiful reality that takes time to mediate on and to integrate into our own personal beliefs. Once we are able to do that, Mass changes from something boring and repetitive, into a beautiful exchange of love.
