God Bless Us, Every One

One of the most famous and enduring Christmas stories is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This novel has greatly influenced the way Christmas is viewed and has given us the phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ and the concept of the Christmas Spirit. It has also given us a model for the transforming power of this great feast. At the time, the British were losing their Christmas traditions under the dehumanizing effects of the industrial revolution. The industrialization of society added to the hard life most people already knew a sense of utilitarian hopelessness. Human labor became a commodity, and once human labor is a commodity it leads to man being treated as livestock. In a world where productivity is how a man is valued, someone like Tiny Tim is useless. Being crippled and weak, he will never be productive. Society has no place for him and there is no future for the likes of Tiny Tim. He is like an ox that can’t plow, a hen that can’t lay eggs, a horse that can’t pull a cart.

Scrooge, on the other hand, is at the top of the heap. He is rich and can afford all that he wants. As far as the world is concerned, of all of the characters in A Christmas Carol, Scrooge should be the most happy and hopeful while it is Tiny Tim who should be sad, dejected, hopeless, and miserable. Just the opposite is true. It is Tiny Tim who is the embodiment of hope and Scrooge who lives a pitiful meaningless life. Scrooge is not a wretched character because he is rich or because he owns his own business. He is the most pitiful character because he is a miser, making money his god. He has great wealth but he eats gruel because he is afraid to lose his money. He is stingy because spending money means parting with what he loves most. But all of that money does not bring him joy, freedom, comfort, or any of the things the human heart longs for. As a miser, Scrooge serves his money instead of letting his money serve him. He is a miserable figure in the most literal sense of the word because miser is the very root of the word miserable.

Scrooge overcomes his misery by putting aside his miserly ways. The way Hollywood sets the story, it is in giving that one becomes happy and finds meaning in life. Indeed, the way A Christmas Carol is almost always performed, it comes across as an endorsement for the benefits of philanthropy. Yes, being generous is rewarding and it can certainly transform one’s life. But is that the only message Charles Dickens was trying to send? Is it all about doing away with greed, miserliness, and ill will towards our fellow man? Is it simply a matter of it being better to give than to receive? If we look at Scrooge alone, this might be the message of A Christmas Carol. But what about Tiny Tim? How is it that he is happy and hopeful despite having nothing? How is it that he is happy and hopeful well before Scrooge has a change of heart and provides for his needs? Hollywood does not address these questions and really does not want to go there at all. This is not a place Hollywood is comfortable with.

Tiny Tim is happy and hopeful despite having nothing, despite having poor health, because he has everything. He has Jesus, and that is what he needs most. Toys, sweets, and medical treatments can improve his life, but toys, sweets, and medical treatments are not life. Jesus is life. Material goods can make life better, but toys, sweets, and medical treatments cannot give life meaning. Jesus does.

Given what possessing Jesus means and what it does, one might think that holding on to Jesus like a miser holds on to his money would make sense. After all, a miser clings to his money because money is his god, he does not spend for fear of losing it. It does not work that way with Jesus. One of the easiest ways to lose Jesus is to keep Him to ourselves. No, Jesus is God the Father’s gift to us that is meant to be shared freely with others. We cannot truly possess Jesus unless we give Him to others: He is certainly meant to be re-gifted. It is in re-gifting Jesus that we possess Him more and more.

So let us tread where Hollywood fears to go. Let us be like Tiny Tim, content to have Jesus as our one true possession. All of the other possessions we have will be taken away at some point in life, but Jesus can’t be taken from us especially if we freely give Him to others. So let us give our most prized possession that we might retain Him, let us give Jesus to others so that we can say along with Tiny Tim, “God bless us, every one.”

—Fr Booth