Charles Dickens’ timeless classic, A Christmas Carol, is a moving illustration of the failures, trials and triumphs of daily life, which reminds us of the importance of compassion and understanding.

Dickens’ main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is a cold-hearted, selfish man, who has no love for Christmas, children, or anything that seems to provoke happiness. Intent on spending Christmas Eve alone, Scrooge is awakened in the night by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley who spent his career exploiting the poor and finds himself in the after-life as a damned soul.

Marley’s appearance to Scrooge is a warning that he risks the same fate and as Marley despairs over “life’s misused opportunities,” Scrooge trembling with fear and guilt attempts to defend their behavior by claiming: “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.” Upon which the Ghost cried out in anguish:

Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!

Marley’s words are an eloquent reminder of our divine human purpose, and propose that our routine activities in themselves are but a “drop of water” compared to our “business” of caring for others. And they serve to remind us that our thoughts, feelings, motives and priorities all contribute to either the emptiness or fullness of our lives.

Dickens cleverly illustrates how easy it is to be caught up in a narrow circle of thought and become blinded to matters that need our full attention. Scrooge receives his first awakening when he learns from Marley’s Ghost that the steel chain encumbering him — made of cashboxes, padlocks, heavy purses and the like — is wrought from his material and covetous thoughts. The Ghost further alerts Scrooge that he too must have acquired a chain equally if not more ponderous. We do indeed forge of our own free will every link in the chain of effects that binds us to this earth, and only we can lessen the burden as we awaken to the needs of others with greater sensitivity and understanding.

Scrooge experiences a gradual inner transformation through the exchange with Marley’s Ghost and visitations of the Spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come. The three Spirits visit Scrooge in turn and show him his past, what he is building in the present, and the bleak and friendless future ahead of him if he continues on in the direction he is going.

He is reminded often of lost opportunities to show charity and love; for instance, for the Cratchit family who so courageously face their deprivations and Tiny Tim’s frailty, while the warmth and joy of family sharing more than compensate for their troubles and the leanness of their holiday feast.

He is deeply touched by Tiny Tim and asks the Ghost of Christmas Present “with an interest he never felt before,” if Tiny Tim will live. “Not if these shadows remain unaltered by the Future,” is the answer he receives. He visits everywhere with this Spirit: in almshouses, hospitals, jails; “in misery’s every refuge,” learning as he goes. The Spirit also warns him of the evils of Ignorance and Want, who take the form of two poor, dirty children.Scrooge’s conscience is gradually aroused, and his bitterness toward life becomes transmuted into understanding.

Aware that people’s courses will determine “certain ends,” he begs the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come to allow him to change the shadows of the future by a changed life: “Hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. . . . I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all three shall strive within me.”

The crowning point is, of course, Scrooge’s triumph. He makes good his promises, helps the Cratchit family and others in need, and he and Tiny Tim become the best of friends. From this moment he sees everything with new eyes for his heart is filled with joy, and wherever he goes on the familiar streets he derives particular pleasure especially on Christmas day!

A Christmas Carol arouses our sympathies and gives hope for humankind. It belongs to this sacred birth time of the year, a time of beginnings and opportunities, when all things — and people too — are touched by the tide of renewal. And serves as a subtle reminder that “we are our brother’s keeper” and that “Mankind Is My Business.”

(Adapted from Sunrise magazine, December 1985/January 1986; copyright © 1985 Theosophical University Press)