June 30th, 2010
Finding Room in the Crowd
G20 protests in Toronto (Photo: Dennis Marciniak)
The Gospel reading at my church last Sunday was the story of the demoniac and the pigs. In light of current events, I began to think about crowds and to associate those in the story (demons and a town mob) with the crowds that gathered in our city. Yet, I realized that I was in the midst of a crowd in the church, and that the similarities might be greater than the differences. Immediately I was reminded of Father Sertillanges’ words, “In the crowd one loses one’s identity, unless one keeps firm hold of oneself, and this hold must first be created.” Wherever we found ourselves this past week, whether among the protests or chattering on about them, it is worth examining where our true self might have been.
