After six weeks dwelling in a pagan abode, we finally had our new house blessed. Of course, the home was beautiful in a wild, pre-Christian kind of way. But now, it has reached its ultimate mission: to be the holy sanctuary of a not-yet-holy-in-any-way family.
Father Wilfred Gomes graciously came to the house and went room to room, sending little droplets of holy water into every nook and cranny. We sang Immaculate Mary as we followed him up the stairs and even into the yard as he blessed the quail and beehive. When he finished, I took a big breath of satisfaction and felt such gratitude for the goodness of God and the service of his priests. Our house was now God’s as well.
In the first century, the Church Fathers used a Greek word, ecclesiola, which means “little church.” They were referring to the home, where love and all the virtues are meant to have their beginnings. The home was understood to be the seed of holiness, the beginning of vocations, where truth, goodness, and beauty were welcome, and the people within sought to know, love, and serve God. The domestic church.
After watching a show called Me and My House on Formed.org, I was inspired to talk with my children about this idea, that our home is meant to be a sanctuary. The word “sanctuary” means a sacred place. It is meant to be a dwelling place for God. We talked about creating a home that was preserved, intentionally, and thought of as a place where God feels at home.
Now, before I go on sounding too pious, we talked about it because it needed to be talked about! We are most certainly a very human family, each struggling with our own flaws and imperfections. We are concupiscent and prone to selfishness.
It may take a lifetime to reach a point of spiritual maturity and perfection. But there are obvious and immediate things that need to happen in a home before it can be considered a sanctuary. A home that pleases Our Lord must seek to do good and avoid evil.
I think it’s fair to say many of the most obvious evils we are fighting in our days are the Trojan horses that enter the gates through pretty little devices. The movies that are watched, the games that are played, the violence, hatred, and pornography that are called entertainment – are they what we would expect to find in a sanctuary? Are we speaking words, reading books, entertaining ourselves in a way that is fit for such a place?
Every sanctuary is meant to be a place of peace and safety for those seeking refuge. But sanctuaries are also defended against those who seek to defile them. Do we invite people into our little churches who offend God (and scandalize our children) without care or restraint? What are we allowing into our homes that is shameful and abhorrent to the God of beauty and goodness?
Perhaps the greatest weapon and thing you would expect to find in a sanctuary is prayer. In our morning offerings I have prayed that God would help us to create a dwelling place for him in our home, and in our hearts, that we would be inspired to keep our home sacred, preserved from the outside vices that attack at the gate. The gift of life and family is Satan’s greatest loathing, and he will not cease slamming the barracks.
So, do not cease praying that God would bless your home and your family. Ask him to make his presence known among you. Then get to cleaning house from all that defiles. I do not think this will suddenly put our families into perfected states of grace. We will continue in our post-Eden struggles, but we will know that God is with us in the muck of it all, because he will have accepted the invitation to make a simple home his sanctuary.