Feb. 3, 2013: 4th Sunday in Ordinary (C)

A little girl trying to pet Mike the Tiger (VI) at his habitat

Many of you have been to LSU Tiger Stadium and the habitat nearby to visit Mike the Tiger. It’s a very impressive 15,000 square feet enclosure with thick glass that safely separates you as Mike the Tiger is just inches away from you. Right now he weighs 500 lbs. and eats 25 lbs. of meat each day. Of course, that meat is fortified with the minerals and vitamins he needs to keep him healthy. Those of you who own dogs or cats, imagine what kind of budget you would need to buy 25 lbs of food every day (that’s 175 lb of meat a week!). There was an interesting incident back in 1981 with Mike IV. At 1AM, LSU police frantically informed the caretaker that Mike was out. It seems some pranksters had cut the chain and lock to the door, releasing the tiger. Mike was wandering around the north end of the Assembly Center. Can you imagine a 500 lb cat wandering around your neighborhood looking for his next 25 lb snack -- and it could be you! After three tranquilizers, Mike (IV) was returned to his cage and awoke the next morning with no ill effects.

Mike the Tiger lives in a well-fortified and controlled habitat where his desires are met each day. We too have have desires for people, for things, and for events that must be fed and nurtured. Sometimes this appetite can be voracious like Mike the Tiger’s appetite for 25 lb.meat a day. But when our desires are well-ordered, that is when people, things, and events are loved within and through God, there is harmony. Our desires are then contained similar to the way Mike is behind the enclosed habitat, where even a three year old child can come and enjoy. There is harmony and peace within our soul, and others feel safe and attracted by this peace and harmony. Our soul achieves this peace and harmony when our desires are determined, formed and shaped in light of the love of the gospels. In the second reading today, we hear St. Paul speak of this kind of love. The actual Greek word he used was agape, which is translated often as charity in our English language. It is a love that forgets the self, denies the self, and puts itself in service of others. Think of the person when they are patient, kind, gentle, filled with compassion and hope. We are somehow attracted by them. We use the word, beautiful, to describe such a person, but it is not their physical beauty that attracts us to him. In this week’s bulletin, there is a picture of Mother Teresa. She exudes patience, kindness, gentleness, and compassion. Her beauty is not the supermodel kind of beauty; her beauty is something deeper and lasting; her beauty reflects the beauty and goodness of our Infinite God. We see through her, mystically, the face of Jesus--the same Jesus who expressed the greatest of love by laying down his own life.

In contrast, what happens when our desires are simply guided by our wants? When I put my desires exclusively to satisfy my own appetites, something strange happens. It’s like someone unlocked Mike the Tiger’s habitat, and Mike is loose on Nicholson Drive. All of a sudden, the cute and cuddly Mike is described as dangerous, lethal, and a 500 lb. carnivore looking for blood. Everyone in the neighborhood runs away from Mike, and they lock themselves in their own safe homes. When someone expresses a desire to get even, a desire to explode his volcano of anger, a desire to boast of their self importance, a desire to recite a list of wrongs that’s been done to them, we feel the need to run away from that person. Something is ugly about that person, and we don’t want to be near them. When our desires are out of order, they increasingly causes fatigue, anxiety, confusion, a sense of guilt, and finally an inability to do anything about it. There is no peace and harmony in the soul.

We become as big or as small, as beautiful or as ugly, in the way we express our desires. We heard in today’s gospel how the people in the synagogue were erupting with anger and filled with desire to murder Jesus. How did we feel? Did we want to stay near those folks? Jesus who was meek and humble of heart was contrasted with folks who were braggarts and hot heads--gentle lamb versus a bull in a china shop.

We all need to reflect on today’s Second Reading to see if our desires show the face of Jesus to others. Do we strive for the patience, kindness, gentleness, and compassion, or insist on our own ways?