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The Wilderness of 2023

As we observe the Season of Advent amid the wilderness of 2023, we are reminded to not get ahead of ourselves and celebrate Christmas before spending time reflecting and preparing. This is good advice. I do not think we are meant to move from Halloween directly into celebrating Christmas without preparation. But depending on how you look at it, I feel like there is a lot of stuff going on.  

How many of you have already put up your Christmas trees and not even patiently decorated them progressively each week in order to build upon the sense of Advent hope, expectation and waiting? Do you feel guilty? I know several people have told me (some whispered) they put their Christmas tree up on November 12^th. Still others I know put their Christmas tree up annually by the end of October and listen to Christmas music year-round. In my years working in public libraries, I learned there is a whole group of people out there who read Christmas romance novels all year long. Others watch Hallmark Christmas movies regardless of the time of year. And did you know in Philippines it is common for Christmas trees to go up as early as September or October? Four months!

Driving the 134 between Shediac and Rexton, I have never seen so many houses lit up so early and so brightly as this year. Full confession here…our Christmas tree went up shortly after Remembrance Day. My plan was to decorate it slowly and light it the Fourth Week of Advent but this plan failed almost immediately and that tree is fully decorated and lit brightly enough to be seen from Truro. This year we needed the light. I do not think my Christmas tree means I am celebrating Christmas already, but it does remind me that I am waiting for something greater. It gives me hope for better days to come. It softens the darkness.  

There is no need to describe the harsh darkness in the world we navigate in December 2023 as we struggle to hear the voice in the wilderness. Globally there are escalating wars, a worsening climate crisis. Locally, we are experiencing a homelessness epidemic, economic insecurity, and an ever-deepening despair among many.  If you feel unaffected by these I would like to know your secret.

Advertising messages are almost inescapable. We need products to make us more skinny, less old, more successful, less ugly. There will always be peer pressure messages to fit in: “You have to do it this way,” “you don’t fit in,” “you need to be more Catholic,” “you obviously have that wrong,” “if you think this you’re wrong,” or “if you did that you’re clearly imprisoned by sin.”

Even in our Church, how often is the message we receive about our need to be more virtuous, more Catholic, less secular, more loving, more evangelized, more liberal, less conservative. Always more something and less something, but how often do we hear we are enough? When was the last time you felt that you were enough? I wonder if there is there a place that would allow us to step back, rest, and disconnect ourselves from the multitude of messages telling us what we need to be?  A place where we can be enough?  A place where we dare to feel joy or hopeful anticipation.

Interestingly, those early Christmas trees I mentioned earlier, the bright outdoor lights I see everywhere I go, the movies on television, the music on the radio, the Christmas baking in August? Something about all of these helps to silence the other competing, often toxic messages I encounter in the wilderness, and takes me to a place and time when I can hear more clearly the voice I listen for, “Get ready for something awesome, folks.”

In case you have not heard this lately, you are enough. I think God wants us all to know this. Now get ready, I heard someone say a miracle was supposed to happen.  

Trevor Droesbeck
~Archdiocese of Moncton Office for Evangelization and Catechesis