A Simple Gesture | A Radical Meaning

In the Roman world, people only greeted their equals. Everyone else was ignored — the poor, the outsider, the overlooked.

Touch meant status.

Silence meant you did not matter.

Then Christians did something unexpected.

A merchant greeted a fisherman.

A wealthy matron welcomed a refugee.

A scholar embraced a laborer.

No hierarchy. No distance. No one left out.

They called it a holy kiss, a gesture rooted in the words of Saint Paul:

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

It was not a romance. It was a recognition.

It was a physical reminder that in Christ, there is no Jew or Greek, no rich or poor, no favored or forgotten.

The greeting was simple. The meaning was revolutionary.
Long after it became a handshake or a word of peace, the message remained:

No person is beneath a welcome. No one is invisible.