God bless us, every one!
One of the Christmas season’s favorite traditions is a short story by Charles Dickens, called, appropriately enough, A Christmas Carol. It’s been turned into numerous movies, and everyone has his favorite version. The very name of Ebenezer Scrooge has become synonymous with the sin of avarice, so miserly and miserable was he. His mistreatment of his long-suffering yet ever-cheerful employee Bob Cratchit is the very antithesis of the Christmas spirit, and yet, for all that, it is this very Christmas spirit that ends up converting his miserly soul. It comes in the form, actually, of three Christmas spirits, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. They visit Scrooge in turn the night of Christmas Eve, and reveal to him the most unfortunate results of his selfish and money-hungry behavior. They are preceded by the phantom of his late partner, Jacob Marley, whose chains and shackles reflect his state of damnation. With blood-curdling moans and screams, Jacob laments the time he and Scrooge wasted on the affairs of business: “Mankind was our business!” The final visitation of the Ghost of Christmas Future takes Scrooge to the graveyard, where he sees his final fate, knowing that he too will be damned for all eternity for his sins against his fellow-man.
And then, of course, there’s Tiny Tim. This saintly child represents the very opposite of the character of Scrooge. His father, Bob Cratchit, describes him to his wife, saying that he is “As good as gold and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.”
The cautionary tale of Ebenezer Scrooge makes a profound impression on us in so many ways. Perhaps the strongest impact it has is deep within our subconscious. For here is a terrible man who doesn’t even realize his own wickedness. He is on the pathway to hell, and except for the divine intervention of the story’s ghosts, he would no doubt have ended up there. We cannot help but turn inwards, wondering to what extent our wickedness might be the cause of own damnation. And without that divine intervention, will we continue in our ways, blithely ignorant of our inevitable fate? Charles Dickens’ masterful story may be the very divine intervention we need, a message from God that we had better not wallow in the ignorance of our guilt. For that fate that awaits us is actually not inevitable. We can avoid it by confessing our sins to God, by resolving firmly to change our ways, and by spending the rest of our lives making restitution for the sins of our past, making mankind our business, and showing love, charity and compassion to those around us.
This is the message of the Christmas season. May we all be showered with the graces of this message, living our lives from now on with the Christmas spirit in our heart, and the vision of the Christ Child lying in his manger ever before our eyes.