Facing Addiction During the Christmas Season

People battling addiction face unique challenges during the Christmas season. Times of celebration create opportunities to share drinks with others or overindulge in food. While these things can simply be the occasional splurge for some, they can trigger bad habits for others. What's more, our culture has attached high expectations to our way of life during this time of year, and this has the tendency to raise stress levels, which in turn can exacerbate addictive behaviors. Achieving the joy that we all strive for at Christmastime can be easier said than done for those carrying heavy burdens. However, when we approach the season with a willingness to address difficulties, we create tremendous opportunities for healing and for growing in our understanding of the meaning of the Incarnation.

The birth of Christ is all about working through our difficulties because God gave His only Son to redeem us from our fallen nature and offer us the opportunity for eternal life. So, the best way to honor Christ is to become fully engaged in the gift at the heart of Christmas.

Many have found that the most important first step in overcoming an addiction is the recognition that it can't be done alone. Healing from destructive impulses requires surrender to God and a plea for help in overcoming that which can’t be overcome on one's own, and here is where those fighting addiction have something to teach us all, because this is a universal truth regarding our fallen nature. We can't overcome it on our own. We need Christ. That's why God sent Christ into the world, and it's this miraculous saving grace that we celebrate at Christmas.

The life of Venerable Matthew Talbot, now considered a patron for people struggling with addiction, provides a beautiful example of the fruits that spring up for those who surrender their lives and their struggles to God. Talbot became an alcoholic in his early teens but took the pledge of abstinence when he was 28 and lived for another 40 years devoted to Christ and our Blessed Mother. Though he remained poor throughout his life, Talbot was known for his generosity to others and his outreach to those in need. He died on June 7, 1925, in Dublin, Ireland, the same city where he was born and where he lived and worked as a humble laborer his entire life while witnessing his special devotion to Mary.

Let's never forget the powerful intercession our Blessed Mother can provide to all who turn to her loving arms. In our weakness, she cradles us just as she did with the Infant Jesus when He was at His most vulnerable in the Nativity at Bethlehem. So, let's pray for Mary's intercession for all those struggling with addictions and vulnerabilities of all kinds during this Advent season.

And let us also pray for the intercession of Venerable Matthew Talbot, who once said of his own experience with addiction, "It's as hard to give up the drink as it is to raise the dead to life again. But both are possible and even easy for Our Lord. We have only to depend on Him."

This is the profound message that awaits all who have the courage to look deep into the mystery of the Incarnation, that God sent His Son to us to experience the vulnerabilities of humanity in order to join us in our suffering, to help us carry our burdens, and to lead us beyond those burdens to eternal life.

This essay is a recent "Light One Candle" column by Father Ed Dougherty, M.M., The Christophers' Board of Directors ; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.

Background information:

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