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[Back to index of December articles] Monthly Meditation : By Linda Freeman It always is a pleasure for me to teach Dickens's, A Christmas Carol, to undergraduates. Although nearly all of them know the story from such versions as Scrooge McDuck or the Muppets, very few of them have ever actually read it (or had it read to them). They always are impressed with the power of the text itself. And they should be; it is a little masterpiece, one that can be successfully discussed by students in head scarves or yarmulkas, or by the other sorts of believers and young pagans on today's multi-cultural campuses. What these students don't know - and don't need to know because the story works so superbly on a secular level (church is hardly mentioned in it) - is that Dickens's story masks a great secret: it has a deeply Christian core. The clues are many. There is, for example, more than a touch of Zacchaeus in the reformed Scrooge (Luke 19:1-10 "Half my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor… "). Scrooge's death of self in the Ghost-of-Christmas-Yet-to-Come section echoes Matthew 16:21-27: "Those who lose their life for my sake will find it…" Furthermore, incarnation theology pervades the story. This is seen especially in the Christmas Present section - in the delight the tale takes in the food bounties and fellowship warmth found in this world. The piteous, restless phantoms that Scrooge sees in the air after Marley's ghost has disappeared weep because they desired "to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever." It is only in this world, not the next, can we hope to alleviate some of the misery of your fellow human beings. By far the most sustained echo of Scripture in A Christmas Carol, however, is the story of Dives the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) the poor man starving at his gate. In the after life, Lazarus is rewarded, but the rich man, who is in torment, seeks to have someone warn his five living brothers of what awaits them. "If someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent" (verse 30). Well. Only two people that I know of actually come back from the dead to urge us on to repentance: Jesus - and Scrooge's dead partner, Jacob Marley. How audacious of Dickens! This Christmas season I hope your will find time to re-read (or read for the first time) Dickens's perennially fresh little story. Scrooge is not really a bad person (as most of us, too, are not), and the sins he is involved with are sins of omission (as most of ours are too, the things we have left undone, the good things we could have done, but didn't do). Because we all are guilty of such shortcomings, we all also intensely feel Scrooge's relief and joy at having another chance (and many more chances after that) to try to go out and love his neighbors. At its base, A Christmas Carol is a profoundly moving conversion story, holding out the Gospel message of hope to all of us. As so "at this festive season of the year," along with Tiny Tim, I say, "God bless us every one!" Dr. Linda Freeman teaches Victorian literature at the University of Maryland, serves on the Diocesan Council and is a member of St. Luke's, Bethesda. She will be leading an online discussion of the spiritual aspects of A Christmas Carol during Advent on the diocesan Web site: edow.org [Back to index of December articles]
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