[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="452" caption="Watchdog?"][/caption]Inspector Gregory: "Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?" Sherlock Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time." Gregory:"The dog did nothing in the night-time." "That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes. (It's from the short story "Silver Blaze".)A while back I asked my students whether they'd ever heard a homily that talked about taking good care of our health--exercise, good nutrition, rest, retreat, any of those things that might be counted as "good stewardship" of ourselves. Only one student--a rabbi--said that he had. Recently a colleague mentioned a survey in which Catholics were asked whether they'd heard homilies on Vatican II. Nope. The vast majority haven't heard the gospel proclaimed in light of, or in dialogue with, the words of the most authoritative body of Church teaching of the last century, (excepting, depending on how you count, the infallible declaration of Mary's Assumption.) Both of these seem to me to be no-brainers--good physical/mental/spiritual self-care glorifies God, enhances our lives, enables us to serve others better, etc., (and need not be framed in terms of narcissistic self-perfection--in fact, should be rescued from that frame.) Our bodies are gifts, and care and gratitude are in order. And I suspect I don't need to justify Vatican II to the dotCommonweal crowd. So why are they largely missing from homilies?My question here isn't so much about either of these topics in particular, but about what else is missing from this most ordinary level of the practice of church teaching. Is there anything that you find curious by its absence in homilies? And all you homilists out there--please take note!