Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6, 12-14 / Colossians 3:12-21 / Lk 2:22-40
If we are from a traditional Catholic family, then our homes would have been blessed by a priest already.
For traditional Catholic families, it is important, and even necessary for the home to be blessed.
So it is the usual practice to invite a priest to come over to the home to bless it.
And the priest would say some prayers, asking God to bless the house as well as the members of the family.
And then he will go around the house, even going to each room, to sprinkle holy water.
In the prayer book for the blessing of the home, there is even a prayer of blessing for the bathroom.
Some people thought it was rather funny, you know, to bless the bathroom.
But why not. After all, we have heard of many cases of people slipping and falling in the bathroom.
And, if we have a case of constipation or diarrhea, then the bathroom somehow will become a prayer room.
So it would be a consolation to know that that the bathroom has been blessed.
Well, back to the priest going round the house to say prayers and sprinkle holy water.
That would be the normal ritual for a house blessing. But not many people know or understand the meaning of the ritual.
Practically speaking, the priest just have to say the prayers, and that ought to be sufficient, isn’t it?
Why sprinkle holy water all around? Especially if there is a new parquet flooring, and people would step on the water and leave their footprints all over the place.
Well, in the first place, when people are asked why they want to have their homes blessed, there would be various kind of answers.
Some say that if there is any kind of evil spirits around the house, then the blessing would drive out all the evil spirits.
Oh surely, the blessing will certainly drive out all the evil spirits.
But if it is the people in the house who want to act like evil spirits, then the blessing can only do so much.
Or, if it is a new house, then they will say that the blessing will cleanse the house, because they don’t know what had gone on during the construction of the house.
So the house blessing will make the house “clean”. So it seems like the house blessing is to ask God to do house cleaning.
Or when they feel that the family is having a string of bad luck lately, (children fail exam, mahjong always lose), or always quarreling, then they might want to ask for a house blessing, so that the priest will come over and say some prayers for them.
Well, all these reasons for asking for a house blessing are well and good.
But what is the main purpose and reason for a house blessing?
As in the usual house blessing, the priest will say some prayers and sprinkle holy water around the house.
Some families will even light the candles at the family altar.
Now, holy water and lighted candles will remind us of the symbols of a particular sacrament – the sacrament of baptism.
So how is the house blessing connected to baptism? The connection and the meaning here is that the first place to live out our baptism commitment, is none other than in our homes.
Yes, the home is indeed the first place to live out our baptism commitment. Because the home should be where love is, and where there is love, there is God.
And if our home is the dwelling place of God, then our home is to be like a domestic church – meaning to say, our home is to be a house of prayer.
But the awkward reality of some homes is that they are a dwelling place of many gods. Meaning to say that everyone wants to be served, but not everyone wants to serve.
Maybe that’s why it is necessary to bless the bathroom because some family members use it as a prayer room – they do their Holy Hour in there.
And we would knock on the door every 3 minutes and ask: Are you still in there? We are like visiting those who are in prison.
Yes, many strange and comical things happen at home, not to mention other things that cause friction and brokenness with the family members.
It cannot be assumed that where there is a house, there will be a home, and where there is a home, there will be family love.
In fact,, it is the other way round – where is there is love, then the family will be at home.
So that is why we must remember to live out our baptismal commitment to love, and first and foremost, at home.
But the home can be a challenging place to be in when the family members are gathered together.
There is this interesting story about porcupines. An extremely cold winter was coming and the porcupines had to find a way to survive.
At first, they decided to group together to keep warm and protect one another.
But unfortunately, their sharp spiky quills poked at each other as their huddled together, so they dispersed.
Of course this left them exposed to the bitter cold and they started to freeze to the point of death.
So they had to make a fundamental life or death choice – either they stay apart and die, or they tolerate and accept each other’s thorns and survive.
And to think of it, we are a bit like porcupines. We have our own “spiky quills” and with that we hurt others and others hurt us too.
At times, living as members of the family can be so painful and hurtful, that we think it might be better off living alone.
But if the porcupines know how to stay together in order to survive, then we must also learn to accept and live with the spiky quills of others.
The Holy Family showed us how to live together in love and to bear the pain together.
And let us also call upon the grace of our baptism so that our families will be a blessing for the Church and for the world.