Crowds Gone Wild

Learning to listen to our inner shepherd

02/06/2021

Mark 6:30-34 The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

In the past few years we have seen two startling examples of the mob mentality, or crowds gone wild. First, we saw it in the Black Lives Matter protests where protestors got carried away and destroyed private property. Second, it reared its ugly head in the riots and raiding of public property, namely, the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6. In other words, people who otherwise might have remained peaceful protestors got swept up in the moment and went with the crowd or the mob.

These people switched off their personal navigating instruments, which we call our conscience, and rode the wave of crazy crowds. They did things that in more sane and solitary moments they would never have done because their conscience would have cautioned them. But we should not point fingers at protestors and rioters for switching off their conscience because we have done the same. We have gone along with crowds of friends when we drank too much one Friday night, or jumped on the bandwagon and criticized others on social media.

We see this “crowds gone wild” mentality in the gospel today. Jesus and the apostles cannot rest for the sheer number of people who follow them. Notice Jesus’ reaction to this mob mentality: “When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Let me point out two things about this poignant passage.

First, they were like sheep without a shepherd because they had switched off their inner navigating system, their conscience, and were riding the wave of the crowds. Think of how “schools of fish” dart in one direction and then suddenly change course. Secondly, Jesus taught them many things in order to jump-start their consciences. To be sure, Jesus is the Good Shepherd as it says in John 10, and in Psalm 23. But our Lord also wanted them to heed their “inner shepherd,” their conscience, and not merely follow the mob mentality.

Let me suggest a few ways we can hear Jesus teaching us today so we do not get caught up in the “crowds gone wild.” This is one reason people who pursue higher education are told not to study in the same university for their masters and their doctorate. A truly educated person knows there are many ways to understand any given issue, his or her conscience is keen, and can see how all sides have something to contribute in the conversation. A friend of mine is politically conservative, but she regularly reads the left-leaning New York Times because she wants to hear other sides of the debate. After she hears both the conservative and liberal sides, her conscience decides which path to follow.

This may also calm some of the anxiety parents feel when their sons or daughters start to question or rebel or even reject their family values. In some cases, it truly may be a cause for concern. But in many cases, this is the normal course of development for an individual’s conscience. The “crowd,” in this case, is the family and the young person wants to think for himself or herself. The crucial thing to teach a young person, though, is that while it is good not to get swept up in the crowd gone wild, don’t’ substitute your “family crowd” just to be part of your “friends crowd.” In that case, your conscience, your inner shepherd, is still switched off.

Here is a last example. In my latest study on the Acts of the Apostles, I recommended reading a book by A. N. Wilson, who has a very anti-Catholic perspective on the Apostle Paul. Listen to these lines about Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 7 about celibacy: “Paul’s apparently grudging attitude to marriage provided celibate fanatics in later Christian generations with plenty of ammunition to support their body-hating, women-hating philosophies, their monkish despairs, their flagellations, their hairshirts, their cells and their vows” (Paul, 162). See, I read more than just Scott Hahn books! When we find a favorite author or politician or news anchor, we can easily switch off our inner shepherd, and let someone else do our thinking for us. We look down on those who follow the mob mentality walking down one street, but we miss how we are doing the same on another street.

At this Mass, let us listen to Jesus our true and good Shepherd, as “he teaches us many things,” for we are the people he looks upon with pity. And one of those things he teaches us is how to listen to our inner shepherd.

Praised be Jesus Christ!