Like a lot of us, I was very interested in the stories coming out of Washington regarding the Covington (KY) Catholic High School students and others at the Lincoln Memorial after the March for Life. What was first reported as an incident where some young men from CovCath (as I understand it is known) harassed a Native American elder, for which the Diocese quickly apologized, became something quite different when the facts actually came out. It now appears that the situation was much more complex, with multiple actors involved in provocations, dueling noise-making (drums vs. cheers) and a whole variety of motives. Two things struck me: (1) I found the picture of the young man from CovCath smiling in the face of the older gentleman who was beating a drum quite close to him to be compelling. Grace under pressure-- an effort to defuse things with the only tool he had-- a smile. Nice job, CovCath young man!; and (2) I was struck by how these days it seems like our most common method of communicating, especially with those with whom we think we disagree, is to yell. Apparently the yelling started with a third group, not the CovCath kids or the Native Americans who had the drum. But pretty soon there was druming, apparently in an effort to calm the situation, which led to the CovCath crowd trying to use school cheers to overpower the yelling and drumming. Yikes-- how not to de-escalate a situation. Not surprisingly, it seems like no one was listening to anyone else. It happens all the time these days. What starts as a debate quickly becomes a shouting match, or a speech is disrupted-- even stopped-- by people making noise. We seem to have forgotten that people can be moved by rational arguments, and that it is possible with facts and logic to change someone's mind. We see a very different approach in today's Gospel reading (Mark 2: 23-28). Jesus and His disciples are passing through a field of grain on the sabbath and they are hungry. As they are passing through the field they pick some of the heads of grain and eat them. The Pharisees call them out on that, asking Jesus why His followers are doing something that should not be done on the sabbath. The Pharisees are making a serious accusation in a serious way. "Look," they say, "why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?" Jesus' response is not to raise the temperature of the exchange. He doesn't yell at them, or make accusations, or call them names. He responds, it seems, firmly but politely. He answers their question. The basic tool He uses it the citation of historical fact, pointing out that David and his companions also did something that violated the law when need compelled them to do so. If David and his companions could violate the law when they were hungry, Jesus seems to be saying, why can't My companions and I do the same. Mark gives us nothing more of the discussion, so we have to presume that the facts and logic Jesus uses satisfied the Pharisees. Funny how that can work. As followers of Jesus we say we try to folow His example. Today He gives us a great example of discussion, of the use of persuasion rather than brute force. We might take that to heart in our own interactions, and bear in mind that those who seek to use words to bully, rather than persuade, are not following the example of Christ.