Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol was first published on this December 19 back in 1843, and it has been a much beloved classic ever since. It is really is an Advent story, as are most Christmas stories, and songs, as Stephen White recently wrote. Just as most marriage films are really ‘engagement’ films – they take place before the big event, and are all about the preparation, the time that went before. In Dickens’ story, it’s about Ebeneezer’s conversion, always necessary to celebrate Christmas, and for some of us, more necessary than others.
Sure, it has some Protestant undertones – why was Scrooge, presumably predestined, given the gift of the ghostly visits, but not his less fortunate and presumably reprobated associate, Jacob Marley? It is a Catholic truth that every soul is offered sufficient grace to go to heaven, if they co-operate with said grace. Perhaps Jacob was given his own grace and rejected it, or perhaps he was in Purgatory…
A quibble, perhaps, for I do love the very Catholic theme that it’s never too late to accept the grace of God. As Saint Augustine, having – in his eyes – wasted much of his life, cried, Late have a loved Thee, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new! Our lives, of course, are never ‘wasted’, for God can use all to the good, makes all things new, and can turn any life into heavenly gold, even at the last minute, as we gasp our last. We have that divine promise given to Saint Dismas, who may have been the first person to enter paradise, teaches us so.
We’re not sure how old Ebeneezer was when he accepted the grace of God, after which he never looked back, becoming the generous, joyful, cheerful lover of all things Christmas God had always intended him to be, and would be in heaven, in saecula saeculorum. This life is simply a gateway to where we will really begin to live.
So, on that hopeful note, here is an audio version of Dickens’ book that I discovered a few years ago, and oft listen to, on Christmas Eve, or the days prior, as a sort of preparation, or perhaps in the days afterward. For now, to more cheerful matters – here are the five ‘staves’ of the Carol – and listen at your pleasure, as you do housework, or baking, or wrapping, or just sitting before your own hearth, with a warm cup, pondering that His yoke is indeed easy, and His burden light.
May these last few days of Advent bring much grace and peace, as we prepare for the birth of our Saviour. And a very Merry Christmas may it be, for everyone… +
