Turba

http://hymnographyunbound.blogspot.com/2008/03/crowd.html

Ephrem, over at Hymnography Unbound, has a very good post on why we should not all find ourselves mumbling "hail, King of the Jews" or "you are not one of His disciples" next week.
I rebelled against it when I was a kid, but I don't remember waht my reasons were. I just wouldn't read the "crowd's" part (it is called "Chorus" in one missal I saw, as if it were a Greek tragedy...) I suppose it was more on aesthetic than theological or liturgical grounds. I have come to believe, (even though I now read the part which we are asked to read,) I was right for the wrong reasons.

it is far too literal and turns the reading of the Passion--a liturgical act--into a dramatic act. Outside of the liturgy, dramatic stagings of important events of the life of the Lord are very helpful. But are they right for the liturgy?
In the Good Friday liturgy, the ministers prostrate themselves. We kiss the feet of the Lord. We take Communion. We worship the Cross. These are the heightened, symbolic, liturgical ways for Christians to acknowledge their joy in the salvation won for them by His blood. There is a deeper drama.