December 24

KEEPING CHRISTMAS ALL YEAR LONG

At the end of our story Scrooge promises the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come that he will honor Christmas in his heart and strive to keep it every day of the year. What does this mean for him, and what does it mean for we the readers? To many of us Christmas is a time of generosity, and in the case of Scrooge his main character defect seemed to be his miserliness. So for him, turning into a more generous person as we see at the end of the book shows that he has indeed undergone a “spiritual awaking”.

Wouldn’t we be lucky if the lesson of transformation came so clearly, in one haunted night? For many of us a spiritual awakening comes from hard work, praying and listening to God’s direction in our lives. And having had a spiritual awakening as a result of our faith, we can learn to fulfill the meaning of Christmas by not just gift giving, but treating people in our lives with compassion, understanding and truth. It’s a journey that provides meaning to our lives.