Fr. Tom’s “An Advent Carol”
Growing up, the day after Thanksgiving was the kickoff to one of my favorite Christmas traditions. It was the day when all of the classic Christmas specials began playing on TV. My three sisters and I would look through the listings of the TV Guide to see when they would air, lest we miss their broadcast and have to wait an entire year to catch it again on TV. You know the ones: Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, and the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas. Then there’re the many versions of the timeless tale, A Christmas Carol. There’s the one starring Bill Murray called Scrooged and Mickey’s Christmas Carol (my childhood favorite). I even like the latest one now out in theaters—the one with Jim Carey playing all of the major characters in the movie. I saw it in 3D as well as on IMAX.
Whatever the version, the story is timeless: Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly and bitter soul whose worst character flaw was that he treated Christmas day like any other day of the year. On the eve of Christmas, he is visited by an apparition, the ghost of his former, now deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns Scrooge that he will be haunted by three spirits: the Spirit of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future.
Even to this day, the image of the last spirit, the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come, haunts me. He is always depicted as a dark ominous phantom, his face hidden under the shadow of his hooded robe, his boney finger pointing at the empty grave with the name “Ebenezer Scrooge” already engraved in the tombstone. Even Mickey’s Christmas Carol managed to make him appear scary.
Well if you think about it, the story A Christmas Carol is really a story that takes place during Advent. All of the events with the exception of the last scene occur before Christmas day. And so today, as we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent, the Church invites us to ourselves properly prepare for Christmas, lest we waste another year missing the true spirit of Christmas.
During these next four weeks of Advent, the readings at Mass will introduce you to larger than life characters—true, real-life people richer in spirit than any character from the Charles Dickens classic tale. And if you listen closely, these characters will speak to you. And at the risk of sounding like the ghost of Jacob Marley, don’t say that I didn’t warn you that during this Advent season, you too will be visited by three spirits: the Spirit of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come.
Now I know what you’re thinking: “This is some homiletic gimmick carefully crafted to keep you from tuning me out.” (It is that.) No, but more importantly, every year during Advent, the Gospel readings reintroduce us to these biblical spirits who will help us understand the true meaning of Christmas. The first is the Spirit of Christmas Past: John the Baptist. John was the last in the tradition of the great prophets. All of the Old Testament prophets had one underlying message that John himself echoed: “Prepare the way” for the coming of the messiah. Since the age of the prophets, the human race was told to keep watch for the Miracle of miracles. So for generations, people held their breath in anticipation, hoping to be in the right place at the chosen time. So if the world was waiting so long to see this Wonder of wonders, why did only a handful of people recognize the signs of the time? Why was it that only the shepherds heard the celestial serenade of angels singing, “Gloria in excelsis Deo”? And why did only three kings from the distant Orient know to follow the shining star to Bethlehem? Because people did not make room for him in the inn much less make room in their shut-in hearts to receive Christ.
And not wanting us to make the same mistake, you will hear from St. John the Baptist in the next two weeks, reminding us to ourselves “prepare the way for the Lord.” St. John is the Spirit of Christmas Past because his is the voice of one crying out in the darkness, which has echoed through the corridors of time to every Advent season, including this one, warning us against following the strands of thousand of twinkling Christmas lights to the malls, but rather to seek the single candlelight hanging above the tabernacle, the stable where Christ can be found in any church. John’s is the prophetic voice warning us not to be fooled by the plug-in scent of gingerbread house or artificial holly berry spice, but rather to inhale the incense of frankincense, the gift of the magi in adoration of the Body of Christ. Christ is the peace that no discount sales price can buy.
Now the second spirit, the Spirit of Christmas Present, you will meet on the Fourth Sunday of Advent. The Virgin Mary is the Mother of Christmas. Mary has every claim to the title “Mother of Christmas” because she was the first to celebrate Advent as she carried the Child of God in her womb until Christmas day. And everywhere she goes, she bears Jesus into the lives of those she pays a visit. That is the Gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday of Advent—the Visitation, where Mary, while carrying Christ in her womb, makes haste to share Advent with her cousin Elizabeth who was also with child. Not only was Elizabeth’s spirits raised, but the child in Elizabeth’s womb also leapt with joy. You see, even though Mary was still bearing Christ in her womb, she was already presenting Jesus to the world because she had already conceived Him into her heart.
Mary is the Spirit of Christmas Present because Mary makes “present” Christ to those who desire to conceive Christ in their own heart. It is that Christmas spirit that should fill our hearts this Advent season as we patiently endure the long checkout lines at the local Wal-Mart or Target stores or as we circle around the mall parking lot searching for the last empty space before it reaches maximum capacity. In our frantic quest for the perfect present, let us ask Mary to inspire in us patience, lest we be tempted to lay on the steering wheel horn, the vehicular equivalent of a “Bah Humbug!” that dampens the Christmas spirits of others.
Now we come to the last of the Advent spirits: the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come. You’ve already heard from him. This “Spirit” made an “appearance” in today’s Gospel reading. He came in on a mysterious-appearing cloud, but not cloaked in the shadow of darkness. No, he comes robed in the radiant light of his glory. The Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come is the Son of Man at the Second Coming. You see, Jesus came into the world on the first Christmas and he will come again on the Last Day. But unlike the Ghost of Christmas Future from the movies who was a dark figure that represented death, the Son of Man is the Light that banishes the darkness. Whereas the Spirit of Christmas Future showed Ebenezer Scrooge the empty grave and then pushed him into it, the Son of Man will raise our bodies from our graves and usher the righteous souls into eternal life.
You know, it’s ironic that Christmas is the celebration of the Light that comes into the world. Yet the commercialism that capitalizes on the Christmas season chooses to focus on monetary profits when it names the busiest shopping day of the year as Black Friday. Don’t get me wrong, you may very well see me standing in the checkout line during the Christmas shopping rush…but all good things in moderation. So here at Prince of Peace, there are many opportunities to escape the chaos and the noise of the holiday shopping season. Last Friday, commercial retailers had Black Friday. This coming Friday, Prince of Peace will have Light Friday. This coming Friday in the Mary Chapel at 7:00 p.m., there will be an evening of Eucharistic Adoration and praise and worship music, an alternative to spending the holidays shopping at the malls.
Now most movies that are based on books have to cut out a lot of details to streamline the narrative into a two hour long running time. Many of the movies based on Charles Dickens’ novel don’t bring up the detail that originally, the ghost of Jacob Marley, on Christmas Eve, warns Scrooge that each of the three spirits would visited him on three separate nights—the first on Christmas Eve, the second on Christmas day, and the third the following day. That’s why when Scrooge awakens in his room, the first question that he asks when throws open his bedroom window and sees the young boy passing by is: “What day is it?” Scrooge half expected that he had missed Christmas yet again and that is why he does back-flips when he learns that it is still Christmas day. Apparently the spirits decided to do it all in one night instead of three.
That’s what could happen to us—the Church could let us go on our merry way and, in the course of it, miss the true spirit of Christmas. But instead, the Church gives us the season of Advent to slow us down enough to spend some time recalling the past coming of Christ, to invite Christ into our hearts in this present Advent season, and to look to the future advent of Christ at his second coming. Past, Present, and Future—those are the spirits of Advent.
If you think about it, the story A Christmas Carol is an allegory of a conversation a soul will have to have with God at the final judgment, when the soul is asked to make an account of its life. But the moral of the story is that we don’t have to wait until the final judgment to have this conversation with God. In our prayer—tonight even, we can examine our conscience and ask God, to show us our past, to see when we have glorified God by our actions and when we have fallen short of a life of grace. And we can ask God to guide us in the present moment to make the right choices by understanding our role in the lives of others as well as understanding all of the consequences of any missed opportunities. And we can ask God to reveal to us what to hope for in the future so that we can pray incessantly that God’s will be done in this spiritual war between light and darkness.
So in the days ahead, it should be our desire to be visited by the Spirits of Advent Past, Present, and Future. Because after we have experienced our own “An Advent Carol,” we pray that “God bless us, everyone!” with the true spirit of Christmas.
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