Radical Theology Advent (fourth Sunday of Love)

​Over the last few weeks these liturgies have evolved. They have become more eloquent and less liturgical. Though they follow the same form, the words within the structure have loosened and moved more freely. I hope you have enjoyed these little practices. On Christmas Eve I will publish the final rite. 

Introductory rights

In the spirit of reframing the liturgical season, we look to advent from a more radical perspective. In so doing, we transform the season into a time of waiting and preparing ourselves to a renewed commitment to the practice of subjectivity. To take a step back from ourselves and consider how our activities and roles contribute to our identity and meaning. Today we take a closer look at the epistemology of love.
 
 
Opening prayer

​May the network of the Holy Spirit move us, and may we be filled with jouissance while we wait for the decentering to begin. Let The Real be at the center of all we do during this special time of the liturgical year.
Thanks be to The Real
 

Love Candle

On this the fourth Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of love. We light this candle, and set flame to desire. Jacques Lacan a psychoanalyst from the late 20th century so eloquently wrote that love is giving something you do not have, to someone who does not want it. At first this statement confuses us, but when we really think about putting our finger on our needs and wants, do we ever really know? We are born into an enigmatic abyss. Our cry a guttural scream to have our needs met. But does the baby know what it needs? Does the mother know what she wants? Lacan continues to write that we are all born with Das ding; a thing in itself we do not know and some unknown dimension of the others desire. In other words, we all go through life trying to give something we do not have to someone who does not want it. Perhaps this may seem dystopic, but is it? Last week we learned from the candle of joy about the need for lack in producing desire. A liminal space where juoissance can grow. Instead of crying amidst the pain of Das Ding shall we learn to rejoice in the desire it brings.   

Thanks be to Das Ding  
 
 
What people struggle with today is the reality of difference. But conflict is good, because the inability to have a disagreement, is war. We all know we are supposed to love each other, but it’s decentering, disturbing, and easier to not. Jacques Lacan, described love as making a harbour for your lovers lack. According to the book of Corinthians, the boats in the harbour of love have names like patience, kindness and long suffering. These are relevant but many of us set sail and leave this harbour. We’re quick to judge others but want them to be patient with us. We call ourselves compassionate, but find ourselves surrounded by the boundaries of our life raft all alone in the middle of the ocean. We can no longer play dumb. Let us confess that none of us really know what we want. Let us see the truth that we dine on broken promises and drink to our fading dreams; and that although adults, we are still crying like babies marked with a perceived sense of loss and filled with a yearning for something we can never get back. It’s impossible for the baby to return to the womb. And epigenetics shows that the environment isn’t as perfect as we so often think. We kid ourselves that we can ever get back to wholeness and completeness; for it may never have existed in the first place. Entering the abyss and tarrying with the lack is where we find emancipation.

Thanks be to the lack
 
 
The collect

Tonight, we come seeking the abyss. We come to create spaces of lack so that we can enter into this abyss. We bravely move into the subjective destitution that follows. The ontological death of the subject to allow the birth of something new. Instead of cancelling others, let us move into the keeping of relationship. Let us remain open to the abyss of the other. And let us tarry with the lack that exists there. We long to be transformed by the lack through relationship.
 
 
Benediction

Many of us participate in religions that promise a return to some lost state. A future bliss of oneness with God. A belief that helps us endure our suffering here on earth. Others of us demand of God experiences. Whether mystical, spiritual or oceanic, we look to these mountain top experiences to cover over the lack. But what if we looked to the very thing we avoid? What if we entered into the abyss. What view might we find there? Let us find the courage to enter in the unknown and become lost. Many believe that entering into this place will cause death. It might. But the death will be ontological. The gods of your big others will come crashing down and you will enter into subjective destitution. A place where you will strip away a lifetime of ideology and dogma. This is the place where you will find the purest forms of love and grace. Where there is hatred, let us bring love. Where there is injury, let us find pardon. And where there's doubt, let us find true faith. May we be a channel of love for another’s lack.