Homily: “Crowd Noise”
“We have perhaps read the studies which show that once a group has decided to differentiate itself from another group, the rules of conversation change toward that group. We are inclined to believe the worst of them, paranoia and conspiracy theories soon abound, they are fair game for the commentators, and our chosen mistrust looks for any justification whatsoever to fear, hate, or even kill. Soon any defensive or even offensive attacks toward that person or group are fully rationalized and justified. It is a rare person who can stand uninfluenced by this field of gossip and innuendo. This is the sad pattern of human history” (Rohr, 2011).
What do we do when we find ourselves inundated by “Crowd Noise”? We are reminded once again this Palm Sunday in our Passion Narrative that it is only one short step from “Hosanna in the Highest” to “Crucify him!” One short, easy step too often and too mindlessly taken. In the fervor and fury of the crowd noise we too can be easily caught up. Being “in step” with each other as an act of solidarity, can quickly become “lock step” with each other and the next thing you know we are “stepping on” others whom we’ve allowed the crowd to convince us are undeserving of our care; who, we are told, don’t necessarily share the same human dignity that is ours.
Richard Rohr writes that is is “a rare person” who can stand uninfluenced by this field of gossip and innuendo… this “Crowd Noise.” But that is exactly who we are called to be. As Christians, as disciples of Jesus, we are called to be the rare person who stands uninfluenced by the crowd noise. It doesn’t matter if that “crowd noise” is liberal-progressive or conservative-traditional, the follower of Jesus always stands firmly in Christ who firmly stands against stepping on anyone. The Christ who stands in the midst of the crowd noise and stands on his own two feet. The Christ who would rather allow himself to be stepped on by the crowd than participate in stepping on another human being.
The power of Crowd Noise is “the sad pattern of human history.” Which perhaps is a very sad commentary on the history of Christianity as well. But we are reminded again this Holy Week, we can be the rare person who can stand amid the frenzy of the crowd mentality and freely choose, as Christ freely chose, to stand with the belittled, stand with the marginalized, stand with the forgotten, stand with the trampled down. And step up our own efforts to do the one and only thing that will protect our own human dignity: First protect the human dignity of your brothers and sisters!
It’s one short step from “Hosanna in the Highest” to “Crucify him!” This Holy Week ahead, this coming Easter, where do we find ourselves standing in that Crowd? Where in our own lives are our hearts being turned from praise to hate? Where are we perhaps sacrificing the dignity of our own humanity, by walking all over the humanity of our brothers and sisters? By this Eucharist that we share, and by the haunting beauty of the Paschal Mystery, may we, each one of us, discover we are the rare person. And no matter the din of the crowd, we stand with, and in, Christ!
Chiaroscuro Spirituality 