The Reclamation of Ebenezer Scrooge

An old sinner. That is how Charles Dickens described Ebenezer Scrooge in the very beginning of his 1843 classic, A Christmas Carol. But that was not all.

Dr. Tod Worner – Word on Fire Blog –

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.

… what did Scrooge find?

In encountering his past with profound intentionality, he saw people again as if for the first time. And even though he was imperceptible to them, Scrooge experienced them in full with a profound attention to their words and expressions, to their touch and bearing. His dear sister Fan and his mirthful boss Mr. Fezziwig, his earnest nephew Fred and his long-suffering employee Bob Cratchit, all came before him with a dazzling luminosity. And in his lost love Belle and the frail Tiny Tim, Scrooge remembered what he had long forgotten: heavenly love and bottomless pity. In his ghost-ushered evening, the old man reckoned with neglected pain and loneliness, glowed with fondness for friendships and loves, brimmed with an empathy for the plight of others, and burned with a hunger to do what is right.

Indeed, Scrooge’s evening was a walk of intentionality for a deeply unintentional man. But it was also an unparalleled examination of conscience. His heart soared and plummeted. He laughed joyously and wept bitterly. At the beginning of the evening, when Scrooge fearfully (and cynically) questioned the intent of the Ghost of Christmas Past, the spectre answered, “Your reclamation.” By the end of the evening, that is exactly what happened. The old sinner, at last, knew that he had sinned. And he craved absolution.

To be sure, Ebenezer Scrooge’s story is an instructive one. After all, I too am an old sinner. Self-absorbed and distracted, I can be incurvatus in se. Too often, I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down and can even miss the blessed Star. A Christmas Carol reminds us that it is the season for intentionality, for examination of conscience. Yes, it is a season of reclamation.

This Christmas let us be reclaimed.

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