Friday, October 15, 2004
(8:45 AM) | Anonymous:
Pontifical Standing Committee for Continental Philosophy in the Liturgy: The Death of a Young Jewish Saint.
This is a funeral liturgy for Jacques Derrida. I have tried to reflect Derrida's passion for the name of God, justice, a celebration of life and death. This is my first attempt at a liturgy.
Invocation: None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For if we live, we live unto the Lord, and if we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors.
The Celebrant says the following Collect, first saying:
Celebrant: The Lord be with you.
People: And with thy spirit.
At the Burial of a Child
O God, whose beloved Son did take little children into his arms and bless them: Give us grace, we beseech thee, to entrust this child, Jackie, to thy never‑failing care and love, and bring us all to thy heavenly kingdom; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
First Reading: Isaiah 61: 1-3
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
Responsorial: Psalms 42
The People read together at the asterisks.
Like as the hart desireth the water‑brooks, *
so longeth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God; *
when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
My tears have been my meat day and night, *
while they daily say unto me, Where is now thy God?
Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself; *
for I went with the multitude, and brought them forth into
the house of God;
Why art thou so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
and why art thou so disquieted within me?
O put thy trust in God; *
for I will yet thank him, which is the help of my
countenance, and my God.
God is in the midst of her,
therefore shall she not be removed; *
God shall help her, and that right early.
Be still then, and know that I am God; *
I will be exalted among the nations,
and I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us; *
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Second Reading: Romans 8:14‑19, 34‑35, 37‑39
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Gospel: Derrida Aporias 76
If death is indeed the possibility of the impossible and therefore the possibility of appearing as such of the impossibility of appearing as such either, then man, or man as Dasein, never has a relation to death as such, but only to perishing, to demising, and to the death of the other, who is not the other. The death of the other thus becomes again “first,” always first. It is like the experience of mourning that institutes my relation to myself and constitutes the egoity of the ego as well as every Jemeinigkeit in the difféarance - neither internal nor external – that structures this experience. The death of the other, this death of the other in “me,” is fundamentally the only death that is named in the syntagm “me death,” with all the consequences that one can draw from this. This is another dimension of awaiting [s’attendre] as awaiting one another [s’attendre l’un l’autre], awaiting oneself at death and expecting death [s’attendre soi-même à la mort] by awaiting one another [s’attendant l’un l’autre], up to the most advanced longevity in a life that will have been so short, no matter what.
Benediction: Give courage and faith to those who are bereaved, that they may have strength to meet the days ahead in the comfort of an a/reasonable and holy hope.
