The Beat of a Different Drummer

Introduction

Palm Sunday Kingship

There are really two feasts of Christ the King: the one in late November and then today, Palm Sunday. Look at the opening prayer: “Today we joyfully acclaim Jesus our Messiah and King.”

Mobs and Masses

The Holy Week celebration of the Christ as king keeps the triumph of Palm Sunday close to the tragedy of Good Friday. And that shows how quickly (from Sunday to Friday) the "hosannas" of the masses can turn into the "crucifige, crucifige" of the mobs. And that says something to us about mobs and masses -- about all mobs and masses, whether right wing or left wing, whether religious or political mobs.

We remember the Nazi mobs in Germany fired up into frenzy by the mad Hitler. //The Iranian mobs set aflame with hatred by the "holy" Ayatollah//The Iraqi masses jumping up and down as they are being seduced by Saddam. //The Palestinian masses whipped up into fury by fundamentalist Islamic clergy at Friday prayer. //Every now and then we are treated to the rock-concert mobs which stampede people to death in order to get a good seat, or the soccer-sport mobs who, as poor losers, beat the rival fans into a pulp. //And now today (as we speak) there are the mobs in Miami who really stand in the way and complicate the solution (re Elian Gonzales).

//Oh, and yes, by all means, the peer-group mobs who force our young ones (those great non-conformists) to conform. These mobs can turn those, who won’t conform, into monsters like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, perpetrators of the most infamous school massacre in American history. It was the peer-mob that killed the human being in these two young men. The secret is out: the school massacre at Littleton, Colorado (April 20 – Hitler’s birthday, 1999) was a rather successful attempt on the part of these two monsters to kill the mob that had first killed them!

Wrong because…..

All mobs are wrong simply because they are mobs. Mobs and masses transform us into something we really are not, if left to ourselves alone. Mobs make us more powerful than we really are. Mobs make us more daring and reckless than we really are, if left to ourselves. Mobs make us more cruel and ruthless than we really are as simple single individuals.

Conclusion

(on standing alone)

As simple single individuals, there is in us an aloneness. To "cure" our aloneness, especially when it turns into loneliness, the Synagogue, the Mosque, and the Church all call us to community. But in itself, our aloneness, which rises out of our being a simple single individual, needs no curing at all. In fact, we are called to respect it and do it justice. We are called to be prophets, to be people who drop out of mobs, and who stand alone but who, at heart, aren't really lonely at all. Prophets are people who march to the beat of a different Drummer. Despite the appearance, the “lonely” Drummer and his thrilling beat is infinitely more exciting than the boring mob which has no beat at all.