Genesis 29:11

Jacob continued on and turned aside to a well where he saw Rachel the shepherd girl, who, with her bare feet, her shabby clothing and her face burned from the sun, could not be distinguished from the charred brands that come out of the fire. Jacob knew at once that he who had provided the beautiful Rebekah at the spring now provided Rachel in her shabby clothing at the well. Then he performed a heroic deed in her presence, for, through the Son who was hidden in it, he rolled away the stone that even many could raise only with great difficulty. When he betrothed her to God through this marvelous deed, Jacob then returned and married himself to her with a kiss.

In addition Rachel is interpreted as a "sheep of God." And some consider her to be with good reason a symbol of the church among the nations. She is also the sheep of Christ, mixed in the ancient folds, and finally received in the fold of the Savior. Therefore he said, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." And the holy disciples acted as shepherds of the church of Christ, when they supported her as reasonable creatures and when they were her lovers and bridegrooms and presented her to God as a pure virgin without spots or wrinkles, or as something similar, "holy and immaculate."

ON THE KISS JACOB GIVES TO RACHEL. — Concerning the text that says: And Jacob kissed Rachel, and cried with a loud voice and wept. And he told Rachel that he was the near relative of her father, and the son of Rebecca . It was the custom, especially in the beautiful simplicity of ancient times, to kiss between parents and relatives, and even today this custom is practiced in many countries. But one can ask how Rachel accepts the kiss from a stranger, since Jacob revealed his kinship only after kissing her. One of these two assumptions must therefore be used: Thus, it is necessary to think that he, who had already heard who she was, rushed himself with all confidence to kiss her, or that the Scripture narrates later, as a recapitulation, what had happened before, that is, that Jacob had already said who he was. It is something similar to what happens with the story of Paradise. It tells how God, having already said before that He had planted it and had put in it the man who He had formed (Cf. Gen. 2:8). There are many other examples that must be interpreted as presented as a recapitulation. [