I’ve spoken earlier about the ethical significance of the trivial. The suggestion put forth is that taking time for the trivial things in life, such as eating a meal, cooking, playing an instrument, cultivating friendships, and so on are all activities in which we make peace by taking time to live our lives free from the powers that would seek to determine them. If this is true, I would suggest that the church’s practice of the Eucharist is the paradigmatic form of a properly ethical practice of triviality. Nothing is more ordinary than eating – though, through the Eucharist we come to know that there is also nothing more extra-ordinary than eating in peace. To eat the Eucharist is to waste time in an menial act that doesn’t demonstrably “change” the world. It makes little sense for us to waste time receiving the Eucharist if the powers that seek to determine our existence actually do so determine it. However, if the cross and resurrection determine our existence, our trivial activity of eating together in peace, remembering our Lord has cosmic significance. This is seen in Jesus’ serving his disciples the last supper. Only if the powers that sought to determine his existence were in fact powerless would have made sense for Jesus to waste his time on the night he was betrayed by just sitting down and eating with his disciples. And that is exactly what he did.
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