INSIDE THE HUMAN TEMPLE 

CALLED THE SKULL 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 17 Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Inside the Human Temple Called the Skull.”

In this homily, I want to think out loud  - using words as I try to figure out what’s going on inside my temple - inside my tent = also  called my skull, my head, my brain - with thoughts in the form of words released through my mouth.

I’ve heard various people tell me that one of their thoughts - inside their head - is wondering what goes on inside the homes they walk or drive by.

“Who and what is behind that front door?” “What’s happening behind those window curtains?”  “Who lives under that roof?” Knock, knock, who’s in there?

We have this temple here [touch head  with fingers] - our head - our brains - our skull - and it’s not that big - but like a computer - it can have millions of bytes - and lots of Random Access Memory.

There are 100 people in the room - at times -  wouldn’t we like to know what everyone is thinking and talking to themselves about? Or do we only wonder about a few people when we’re in church or in a crowd?

We find out who’s who and what’s what at times by talking - by communicating - by Holy Communion with each other. As we heard in Sunday’s gospel - by knocking, asking and seeking.

At times Jesus asked his disciples what they were talking about among themselves - what were they arguing about - as they walked the roads of Palestine.

What was Jesus thinking?   WWJT  What was Jesus thinking when he chose Judas?  What was Jesus thinking when he went into the same temple as an adult that he went into as a kid?

TODAY’S FIRST READING

I got this thought and these wonderings from today’s first reading from Exodus 33 and 34.

It’s the story of Moses leaving the camp and going to the meeting tent.

There he prayed. There he consulted the Lord. And when people saw smoke at the entrance to the meeting tent when Moses was inside, they would go stand at the entrance of  their own tents and meet the Lord.

And in these meetings with God in the tent Moses discovered that God is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity,

And in those meetings with God he deepened his understanding of the Ten Commandments.

Exodus is telling us what Moses was thinking and doing when he took the time to enter the tent that was the temple before there was a temple.

OTHERS AND OURSELVES: WHAT’S IN OUR BRAIN

Like the TV commercial that goes, “What’s in your wallet?” - a possible reflection for today would be this:  “We probably won’t ever know what the other people in this tent, this church, are thinking when they are here.”

However we can take some of the time we are in church to reflect upon what we talk to  God about when we are in here - or if we do this at home - say on a porch or in a prayer chair - keeping Jesus’ message that we all have an inner room - that ought to be a house of prayer.

What do I talk to myself about?  What are my conversations with myself and with God like?

The first step might be we need to clear our temple up - getting rid of our weeds - what we heard about in today’s gospel. 

Next we might use the WHY question - asking why - not of others in our mind - but the WHY question about ourselves.  

Or we can ask the Kojak question: “Who loves ya, baby?” Isn’t that a regular question we all ask? 

So  I think today's first reading challenges us to do want Moses did: visit and go into our inner temple.