Saturday, July 24, 2004
(10:36 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Pontifical Standing Committee for Continental Philosophy in the Liturgy: First Attempt
My first attempt at incorporating continental philosophy into the liturgy will be to create a set of readings for a hypothetical mass; a reading from Derrida takes the place of the New Testament epistle (usually a letter of Paul). We can assume that these readings occur in a season other than ordinary time, since the "epistle" is more closely incorporated into the set of readings than is usually the case. I am not sure which season this fits into.First Reading: Leviticus 9:8-10, 22-24
Aaron drew near to the altar, and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar. But the fat, the kidneys, and the appendage of the liver from the sin offering he turned into smoke on the altar, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he came down after sacrificing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the offering of well-being. Moses and Aaron entered the tent of meeting, and then came out and blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.
Responsorial: Psalm 141:1-2, 3-4, 8
R. Let my prayer rise up like incense before you
I call upon you, O Lord; come quickly to me;
give ear to my voice when I call to you.
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. R.
Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;
keep watch over the door of my lips.
Do not turn my heart to any evil,
to busy myself with wicked deeds
in company with those who work iniquity;
do not let me eat of their delicacies. R.
But my eyes are turned toward you, O God, my Lord;
in you I seek refuge; do not leave me defenseless. R.
Second Reading: Jacques Derrida, Given Time, pp. 107, 113
What is tobacco? Apparently it is the object of a pure and luxurious consumption. It appears that this consumption does not meet any natural need of the organism. It is a pure and luxurious consumption, gratuitous and therefore costly, an expenditure at a loss that produces a pleasure, a pleasure one gives oneself through the ingestive channel that is closest to auto-affection: the voice or orality. A pleasure of which nothing remains, a pleasure even the external signs of which are dissipated without leaving a trace: in smoke. If there is some gift--and especially if one gives oneself something, some affect or some pure pleasure--it may then have an essential relation, at least a symbolic or emblematic one, with the authorization one gives oneself to smoke.
The offering and the use of tobacco give access to honor and virtue by raising one above the pure and simple economic circulation of so-called natural needs and productions, above the level of the necessary. It is the moment of celebration and luxury, of gratuity as well as luxury. Tobacco seems to open onto the scene of desire beyond need.
Gospel: Mark 14:3-9
While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, "Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they scolded her. But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her."
[All biblical readings taken from the NRSV translation; all Derridean readings translated by Peggy Kamuf.]
