February 1: Ghost's Blessing, Helping the Poor, Precepts

Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but always with a happy end.  The Spirit stood beside sick-beds, and they were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, and it was rich.  In almshouse, hospital, and jail, in misery's every refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts.

Dickens at the shoeblacking factory

This description of Scrooge travelling about the planet with the Ghost of Christmas Present strikes at the heart of Dickens' message.  Dickens wanted to shed light on the plight of the poor and destitute.  Coming out of a fairly desperate childhood (his family ended up in debtor's prison when he was 12, he ended up working in a shoeblacking factory and warehouse as a young boy), Dickens was always aware of poverty.  In A Christmas Carol, Dickens pretty much indicts humankind for things like hunger and childhood disease, or, as The Ghost of Christmas Present later says at the end of Stave Three, ignorance and want.  Dickens doesn't let anyone of us off the hook.

That's the dark side of A Christmas Carol that rarely gets much attention.  Most people prefer to think of this book as a tale of a miser who is taught the true meaning of Yuletide joy.  Really, Dickens is out to teach all of us a lesson.

I may drop my spare change into the Salvation Army bucket outside Wal-Mart during the holidays, but there's Charles Dickens standing over my shoulder, shaking his head and saying, "Not enough."  Helping the poor is not just a Christmas thing.  It's a year-round thing.  That's the real, and most important message, of the novel.  We should keep the image of Tiny Tim's deathbed at the forefront of our minds.  Charles Dickens is like Smokey the Bear, reminding his readers, "Only you can prevent this tragedy."

I know I don't do enough when it comes to helping the less fortunate.  I know it.  Unlike Scrooge, I haven't learned the precepts of the Ghost of Christmas Present, because I still get caught up in the "dealings of my trade" and forget about the true business of humanity:  visiting the sick, lonely, struggling, poor people of the Earth, and, somehow, leaving a blessing.  That's what we should all be doing.  That's what Charles Dickens is telling us.  The real work of Christmas begins after the presents are opened and the last of the leftover turkey is eaten.  That's when we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

I'm going to step off my soapbox now.  I'm not lecturing you.  I'm lecturing myself.  Every time I encounter A Christmas Carol in any of its incarnations, I feel a little guilty.  Sometimes a lot guilty.  I think it's a book that's meant to make you a little uncomfortable.  Sometimes a lot uncomfortable.

Saint Marty is feeling a lot uncomfortable this morning.