I know, I know — there are only two days left until Christmas. But if you’re looking for a nice little holiday read that can be easily begun and finished in one sitting, you might consider Charlie Lovett’s The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge.
Set 20 years after the events of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Lovett’s novel introduces us to a Scrooge who still puts people off, but because of his indefatigable enthusiasm rather than because of his miserly cruelty. We find him annoying the denizens of London with many a “Merry Christmas” and a deluge of holiday cheer…in the sweltering heat of late June.
Before I proceed, a quick note on Dickens. As far as I know, Dickens was neither overly religious nor an orthodox Christian. But he does seem to have had a sort of intuitive grasp of the radicalness of the Gospel, especially in terms of:
- its demand for active compassion towards the less fortunate;
- the magical wonder of Heaven coming to earth; and
- what I like to call the “obligation of joy”
Many will say that “A Christmas Carol,” which arguably embodies Dickens’ sense of the Gospel better than any other of his works, was instrumental in reviving the celebration of Christmas in Western society. Therefore, both the source material and anything inspired by it merit the attention of serious Christians, the Birth of whose Lord inspired this great season in the first place.
Further Adventures draws out some of the Christo-significant elements in the original story in some nice ways, whether consciously or no. For example, Lovett describes Scrooge’s joy as being so intense that he is totally unaffected by the miserable heat — or any other weather pattern, for that matter — that causes everyone else discomfort. Nor has the enthusiasm of his “conversion” been dampened by the passage of two decades. If anything, it has grown stronger.
Whether Lovett knows it or not, he is describing the life of a saint. Forget the caricatures you may have learned — that is, the dour, puritanical sourpusses always walking on eggshells. One of the sure signs of a saint filled with the presence of God is an unspeakable joy that cannot be affected by anything in this world. And as holiness grows, so does the joy. (Don’t believe me? Just look at any picture of John Paul II, Mother Teresa, or Thérése of Lisieux.)
Also notable is the treatment of Scrooge’s deceased partner, Jacob Marley, in both stories — and this for Christians in general, but especially for Catholic readers.
I would say that we have in Marley a suggestion of Purgatory. The former swindler is clearly suffering for his sins, but he is still able to exercise care for his surviving partner (Dickens fans will remember that it was as a result of Marley’s intercession that the three Christmas spirits were able to visit, and redeem, Scrooge). While his situation and that of the souls in Purgatory are not precisely synonymous, the latter resemble Marley in that they are suffering the uncompleted temporal punishments due to sin while also being able to aid people on earth with their prayers.
In Lovett’s book, we have a situation analogous to another aspect of Purgatory: The souls therein can help us, but they cannot help themselves.
Lovett’s Scrooge continues to hold discourse with Marley’s ghost (a fact that will surely bother Dickens purists, since at the end of A Christmas Carol we are told that Scrooge had no further dealings with spirits), and he learns that in all these years Marley’s chains have lessened very, very little. The problem is that he can only shed his chains by helping mankind in a way that compensates for his lack of compassion in life; and because he is dead, he cannot directly help the living.
So Scrooge agrees to do it for him, as a sort of “intermediary.” However, he will require the help of the three spirits who converted him.
Just as Marley, from the spirit world, interceded for Scrooge in what was essentially a problem of the spirit, so now Scrooge is teaming up with the three spirits on Marley’s behalf as a benefactor for the living.
Here we most definitely see the Christmas spirit, because it reflects the spirit of Christ, the “one mediator between God and men” (2 Tim. 2:5).
I won’t go any further in terms of plot details. But let me end with a shout-out to the One this is all about.
Why did Christ come to earth? In short, out of love. God has loved us from the very beginning — in fact, from before the foundation of the universe. But we, both as a species and individually, have turned away from Him. And since friendship with God was a grace to begin with, it follows that once we have turned away from it, we cannot of our own power regain it.
That’s where God’s mercy comes in. He becomes one of us, but without ceasing to be God. And so, as the Second Person of the Blesséd Trinity and as the God-Man, He becomes our mediator with the Father. By bearing our sins on the Cross, He cancels our unpayable debt. And by rising from the dead, He restores our life, our peace, our joy.
In Christ, the Great Mediator, we also enjoy the great privilege of being “little mediators” — the living for the dead, the dead for the living, the rich for the poor, the saint for the sinner, and so on.
And here, we find a major aspect of what Dickens called the “Carol philosophy”: Whatever we have that others don’t, we must use for their advantage. That’s what God’s gifts are four.
And now we celebrate the coming of the One Who revealed to us our sublime vocation. “And so, as Tiny Tim observed, ‘God bless us, every one!'”
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Acknowledgements
1. Photo from Amazon
2. “Charles Dickens sketch 1842” by Unknown – Bonhams. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Dickens_sketch_1842.jpg#/media/File:Charles_Dickens_sketch_1842.jpg
3. “A Christmas Carol – Scrooge and Bob Cratchit”. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Christmas_Carol_-_Scrooge_and_Bob_Cratchit.jpg#/media/File:A_Christmas_Carol_-_Scrooge_and_Bob_Cratchit.jpg
4. “San felipe neri” by Unknown – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_felipe_neri.jpg#/media/File:San_felipe_neri.jpg
5. “Marley’s Ghost-John Leech, 1843” by John Leech – http://historical.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=683&Lot_No=57424&type=&ic=. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marley%27s_Ghost-John_Leech,_1843.jpg#/media/File:Marley%27s_Ghost-John_Leech,_1843.jpg
6. “Cefalù Pantocrator retouched” by Andreas Wahra – Own work (own photography). Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cefal%C3%B9_Pantocrator_retouched.jpg#/media/File:Cefal%C3%B9_Pantocrator_retouched.jpg
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