There is a place in every home, even in the humblest home, whose function it is to come to terms with our hygiene. “You must wash your hands with soap and water”, we are told in all the publicity these days in the fight against coronavirus. You must wash your hands, not to get rid of a problem like Pontius Pilate, but to remove all evil that contaminates us.  Thus, the bathroom in our home has acquired a value of even greater importance than we had given it before.

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Most people, although not everyone agrees on this point, feel uncomfortable when they smell bad because they are sweaty or have soiled their bodies or their clothes.

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All physical activity makes us sweat and feel unclean: work, play, the kitchen, playing sports, everything gets us dirty.  Soil and stains speak of a man who works hard and makes an effort because, inevitably, he who struggles and works hard gets his hands dirty.  It’s a good thing for man to see himself and recognize his uncleanliness, physical as well as moral, because this is a judgement that makes him more realistic and dissatisfied with any disagreeable experience.

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Since all exaggeration is disastrous, one must say that any obsession for hygiene is quite undesirable because it may lead us to some sort or neurosis.

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Chesterton points out that criminals are extremely neat and tidy when they commit a crime so as not to leave any traces of the offense and not get caught.  That is why it is not scandalous for man to discover this tainted aspect of himself.  Only human beings who recognize a birth mark or stain that is present, since the very origin of the human creature, are content with life.

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When a child returns home after an intense day of playing with his friends in the park or, when toddlers have to take a bath every night, because they are filthy, parents wash them and scrub them because they know that what’s in front of them is not just a mass of dirt and germs, but that inside this mass, there lies an adorable creature who is their son.

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In some humble homes, the bathroom consists of only a toilet which, by the way, is a place of great satisfaction. The human body has been created to be generous daily, and return part of what it receives, although, due to strange circumstances in nature, it is necessary to turn your head to look at it.

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The shower is one of the most pleasant places in the bathroom, since it is like coming back to life, like being forgiven once and for all, like being born again.  Whoever showers expects to be ready to start anew and confront life in a much better way.  Washing is not about brushing off a little dust or grooming like cats, or brushing away eye boogers with one finger. Rather, it is an endeavor that requires energy and determination to do in-depth work, which will have to be done frequently and not once and for all.

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If we go into a bathroom that has no mirror, we feel uncomfortable, because we expect that when we are alone, the mirror will show us something that we cannot do without it, which is too see our own face. The mirror therefore has the function of showing us the human face, so I can be amazed of my own self. You should not look in the mirror to hide or disguise what is not right, but to look at reality and at our wounds and, in this way, truth appears before us. Looking straight into our eyes we may perhaps ask ourselves, who am I? and thus go from hygiene to a reflection that cleanses us also from within.