Radical Theology Advent (week 3)

Third Sunday of Joy

The world is full of centering practices. These exercises are no different than those found in religious structures. They become part of a Big Other that helps us avoid the disruptive parts of our existence. My hope is to interrupt the love affair we have with religion without doing away with structure all together. To create liturgies that help suspend us in a place of possibility.

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.

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

Joy Candle

On this the third Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of joy. We light this candle, and slowly pass our finger through the flame. In so doing, we experience the pleasure in pain. This we call jouissance; a concept difficult to explain. We all want joy, but none of us want pain. At least we think we don’t. And yet, every day we engage in behaviors that unbeknownst to us, cause us pain. We complain, but continue to engage, like poking at a sore tooth. Somehow, we forget that to experience joy, we must first lack. For the flame of desire arises from this lack. And truth be told, many of us secretly dream of being consumed by the flame of desire.

Thanks be to the flame of desire

The mistake we make is thinking we need to get rid of lack and desire. Our joy is not in getting rid of lack nor stamping out desire. It is in the encounter of a limit. Jouissance is sitting in the very being of lack. A space that helps us explore possibility. Religion sells wholeness. But how can we desire if we are whole? It could be said that a religious experience is found more deeply in yearning. So, let’s stop hedonistically filling our void. Instead, let us find the liminal spaces in our lives. Spaces that position us on both sides of an encounter with a limit. Let this create the flame of desire within us. |For there can be no desire without lack.

Thanks be to the lack

Collect

Tonight, we come seeking the lack. We come to create spaces of lack so that we can be filled with desire. To allow the lack to reveal something new. Let us go into the lack, to reveal another way. We long to be transformed by the tarrying of lack.

Benediction

Modern civilization shields us from eternal lack. There is a world out there full of festive holidays, platitudes, and positive psychology. A world of people looking to avoid the abyss and cover over their lack. But the lack is at the core of everything. This inherent not at oneness of reality cannot be overcome. Many liturgies give you rituals of certainty. The trad revival returns you to these distractions. Radical liturgies usher you into this lack. So let us be the people of tomorrow. The people willing to pull their eyes away from the bright stars of religion or hedonism, to explore the dark spaces between.