the skull in my room

I have a skull in my room. I cannot remember now how it ended in my room but it is there right on the table where we usually sit for the IC or for spiritual direction. I don’t know how you people feel in front of a skull while discussing with me your issues or struggles. But as for me I feel secure with it. For me the skull and what it symbolizes put everything in the proper perspective. It reminds me that whatever pretensions I show, whatever image I prefer to be known, whatever thought I would like you to have about me, all these will end up after all in death and decay – a skull. It reminds me also that whatever impression I would like to project, whatever reputation I would like to collect, and whatever impact I would like to impress on you regarding myself, in reality, literally just skin deep is ugliness and unattractiveness, and even repulsiveness to many. My face conjures power and control, however just beneath it, unknown to many is powerlessness – a skull. The skull is a reminder that there is an end and death is the great leveler. The skull is a reminder that a time will come when we can no longer control things, when we lose whatever power we have on others, whatever control we have over ourselves – when our real self is finally revealed – nothing but a skull!


The skull in my room invites me and you to be real to each other, because the skull and the death it symbolizes put everything in perspective. The meaning attached to the skull clarifies everything. Some of us appear good, holy, and pure. Some of us use perfume literally and symbolically to smell good. Some pretend what we are not. But when you go to IC and SD remember the skull in my room for it is a call to be real. It is a reminder to be real because whatever we pretend to be and however we seek to cover who we are, we will all end up just as we really are – no more, no less – a skull.
Today’s first reading is about death – that all of us will die but there are things in our life that will outlive us in death, things that are undying.
What are the things that will outlive you? It will be the mark that you will leave behind in the community – something that will make people remember you with fondness. There is an undying part of ourselves that will remain fresh amidst the rot of death. What is it in you that you intend to leave behind?
Today’s gospel is also about death. We are reminded that Jesus has power over death. The truth about us will always prevail – the real in us will be all that is left, like the skull. Only Jesus can transform our rotten self, only in Jesus, only in prayer, only in the times that we spent before the Lord – for it is only Jesus who has power over death.