The Song of Songs, the Theology of the Body, and Heal Me with Your Mouth

"The Song of Songs (or Canticle of Canticles) is an exquisite collection of love lyrics, arranged to tell a dramatic tale of mutual desire and courtship. It presents an inspired portrayal of ideal human love, a resounding affirmation of the goodness of human sexuality that is applicable to the sacredness and the depth of married union....The Song is seen as a beautiful picture of the ideal Israel, the chosen people whom the Lord leads by degrees to a greater understanding and closer union in the bond of perfect love. Such readings of the Song build on Israel’s covenant tradition....It frequently proclaims a joyous reciprocity between the lovers and highlights the active role of the female partner, now a pure figure to be cherished rather than an adulterous woman to be punished and abused....Christian tradition has followed Israel’s example in using marriage as an image for the relationship with God....Christian writers have interpreted the Song in terms of the union between Christ and the Church and of the union between Christ and the individual soul" (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)

St Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body

As I wrote elsewhere:

Across a span of five years (1979 to 1984), Saint Pope John Paul II used 129 general audiences, to convey a true appreciation of marriage, family, and human sexuality. Those 129 audiences are now known collectively as His Theology of the Body:

The whole of the catechesis that I began more than four years ago and that I conclude today can be grasped under the title, ‘Human Love in the Divine Plan,’ or with greater precision, ‘the Redemption of the body and the Sacramentality of Marriage’….

The first part is devoted to the analysis of the words of Christ….

the text in which Christ appeals to the beginning’…

about the unity and indissolubility of marriage….

the words Christ spoke in the Sermon on the Mount

about “concupiscence’ as ‘adultery committed in the heart’….

the words…in which Christ appeals to the resurrection of the body….

The second part of the catechesis is devoted to the analysis of the sacrament based on Ephesians…which goes back to…the words of Genesis, ‘a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one flesh’…at the end of this whole cycle of catechesis, the analysis of Humanae Vitae” (11/28/84; this quote utilizes the 2006 translations by Michael Waldstein.)

Those who cherish human life from the first moment of fertilization till natural death, while acknowledging marriage to be the only appropriate place for husbands and wives to cooperate in God’s continuing work of Creation, and acknowledging the need for each conjugal act to be open to life are promised authentic happiness – a happiness finding its fulfillment in Heaven itself.  Human life is sacred; the conjugal act between husbands and wives is sacred.  All of us need to be shouting this from the proverbial rooftops! (Catholic Stand, 6/11/2021)

Heal Me With Your Mouth

As Cardinal designate Fernandez primarliy discusses passionate kissing, I hoped for ample reassurance that he was presenting an authentic Catholic understanding of the proper place for such (i.e., a man and a woman united in marriage, that MUST be exclusive and lifelong.with each marital act open to life.).  I do not feel reassured.  Unless his poetry has been translated abysmally, parts sure seem misogynistic:

The kiss is the thermometer of love. For this reason, when things do not work out between the two, rather than pretending to fix them in the bed, one must follow the paths that lead to the kiss. What can those paths be? The most important are these five: speaking, looking, touching, creating, searching....

it can be that one of the two is having bad breath, which can be deeply unpleasant and take away the whole enchantment from the kiss. But it is solved by taking precautions by brushing one’s teeth and chewing a few coffee beans, or rinsing with baking soda; and if it is more serious and persistent it is solved by visiting the dentist or checking the digestive system.... 

It can also be the perfume that one of the two uses; or an annoying smell that is solved by showering more often, or by changing clothes more often....

You don’t notice,

inattentive.

Your lips murder.

Your eyes don’t notice,

distracted,

the wandering eyes

that are preoccupied

before the divine flesh

of your mouth.

And you pensively miss

with that open mouth,

while behind you remain

the raving lunatics.

Come on down, my dear,

before you awaken

suddenly

someone desperate

with a terrible hickey.

How was God

so cruel

as to give you that mouth…

There is no one who resists me,

bitch,

hide it (Víctor M. Fernández).... 

Sex is not just the satisfaction of a primal necessity; it is also the expression of a love and a total surrender to the other, which requires exclusivity and mutual belonging. That’s why you cannot kiss anyone in any way.... 

(Heal Me with Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing, Archbishop Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández) 

Conclusion

Bear in mind that Father James Martin, SJ, is also a favored son of the Holy Father.

I am unclear about Cardinal designate Fernandez's understanding of passionate kissing between two people of the same sex.  However, he certainly does NOT seem to limit his discussion of kissing to a man and woman united in marriage, which MUST be exclusive and lifelong with each marital act open to life.

I am going to pray that it is not too late to reconsider making Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández a cardinal and/or putting him in charge of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.