St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church in Naples recently shared a reflection on the calling into the wilderness. 

“The story of Christmas cannot be told without John, the man who enters our thoughts next weekend,” Fr. Thomas Boyer said in the church’s Nov. 29 bulletin. “He calls people out to the wilderness.”

This is a call to the wilderness, which is where the Israelites began. He similarly calls us to come out of our comfort and go to a place of sacrifice, getting in touch with our origins and remembering what God has provided for us through his son: our baptism, through which we were made clean.

“Repentance is what will restore us, and John’s voice still calls for that repentance,” Boyer said. “It will mean going into the wilderness, for only there can we find what is missing. No human laws, no president, no congress, no courts, no guns, no money, no force nor threat can give us what we need and satisfy that for which we long.” 

It is in the wilderness that we find that we are called to the Lamb of God, who alone can provide us with all that we need.

“This season of Advent warms us with light in the midst of fading darkness and over the sounds of commercials and temptations to buy, and buy, and buy,” Fr. Boyer said. “We are asked to reclaim our heritage; to stir up a spiritual revolution within our own lives and our own community that will open our eyes to the truth of our condition, to the potential of our gifts, and the presence of the Lamb of God who walks even now among us.” 

In Advent, we learn that we are called to a higher existence — a perfect unity with God and a vibrant expression of the love which Christ came to display for us.