A special Valentine’s Day post from a member of the Last Call community.
A Holy Kiss
So I was reading a book commenting on the Bible and came across the phrase “holy kiss.” Specifically, the author was referring to text referring to Christians greeting one another with a holy kiss, as in Romans 16:16, and several other passages. The words “holy kiss” really caught my attention. What was a holy kiss? Is it kind of like a chaste kiss? It seems to be in the context of a greeting, so is it sort of like a greeting where you kiss on the cheek? A little more South American or European? Or something else entirely? But then I started thinking about hugs.
I am recently single. So after years of the casual intimacy that’s so easy to take for granted in an established relationship: kissing on the lips to say hello, holding hands, even comfortably sitting right up next to one another on the sofa while watching tv, not to mention that deeper intimacy and comfort of sleeping next to someone, I find myself alone. Alone and without a lot of physical contact that had become second-nature. I’d almost call it skin-starved at times.
We live in a culture of careful physical contact; such meticulously maintained physical distance. And it’s reinforced by sexual harassment trainings, health warnings, and regular commentary on appropriate touching everywhere from the HR department to the media to school teachers. Sometimes it seems like 12 inches is an entire mile of distance. Or maybe not enough space at all. Especially when the guy behind you in the checkout starts coughing really loudly. There’s good reason for some of those rules. But to me, our “bubbles” of personal space can also start to feel like solid barriers of air.
When I started going to Last Call I didn’t know many people. Over time I met quite a few, but one person came to mind when I read the words “holy kiss.” I thought of her because she gives the best hugs. Without a single word she makes me feel welcome. And she did this from our third meeting or so. I wonder to myself sometimes, where else in my life have I met people that within three meetings will hug me so warmly as a greeting? Without any reservation?
It’s a blessing to be hugged, to be touched in a way that welcomes and invites and breaks the unspoken barriers. It’s a greeting that dips quickly into a special familiarity and evokes something deeper than a surface awareness of each other. And that recognition that goes beyond the surface, that welcome that unconsciously reaches further seems in a way – holy. A “holy hug” seems like something that belongs in a 1960s “Batman” tv show script, but words aside, maybe there’s something worth considering. Perhaps something worth offering. Certainly worth cherishing.
