{"id":5129,"date":"2016-01-03T23:23:16","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T05:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/acatholicthinker\/?p=5129"},"modified":"2016-01-03T23:23:16","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T05:23:16","slug":"jacob-marley-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/acatholicthinker\/2016\/01\/jacob-marley-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Marley & Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Marley's_Ghost-John_Leech,_1843\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Marley\u2019s Ghost by John Leech<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I know, I know. The Christmas season is winding down (to be exact,\u00a0Christmas<\/em> officially ends January 10 on the Liturgical Calendar), but there is something that has continued to haunt me.<\/p>\n

Jacob Marley.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me explain.<\/p>\n

Every year during Advent, I try to read Charles Dickens\u2019 classic tale,\u00a0A Christmas Carol.<\/em>\u00a0I realize that, for some, the story may seem all too familiar, if not a little tired. After all, countless Scrooges\u00a0ranging from Seymour Hicks or George C . Scott, from a cartoonish Jim Carey to a Muppet-besieged\u00a0Michael Caine, annually inundate our television screens as soon as the first snow falls. But I would offer that the vivid London lives of Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit and the three visiting Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come can\u00a0never\u00a0<\/em>be dull if you are reading the written yarn as composed from Dickens\u2019 own hand. His writing is sheer genius.<\/p>\n

As the familiar story goes, Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly counting house operator. Harsh to his single employee, annoyed by his one living relative and disdainful of any solicitors for charity, he trudges home to a cold, dark, foreboding home. It is here that the door knocker eerily transforms to the head of his long-dead partner, Jacob Marley. And it is in his locked, darkness-encroached\u00a0upstairs room that the terror began. Anyone who hasn\u2019t read Dickens\u2019 story has missed out on a fearsome description that rivals Edgar Allen Poe:<\/p>\n

\n

[Scrooge] sat down again. As he threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the room, and communicated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the highest story of the building. It was with great astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. The bells ceased as they had begun, together. They were succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below; as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine merchant\u2019s cellar. Scrooge then remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The cellar-door flew open with a booming sound, and then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight towards his door<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Within moments, a spectre passed through Scrooge\u2019s final defenses. It\u00a0was indeed his long-deceased partner, Jacob Marley. And their first exchange speaks volumes. With fear masked by insolence,\u00a0Scrooge\u00a0addresses Marley\u2019s ghost. \u201cWhat do you want with me?\u201d<\/em> Marley simply replies, \u201cMuch!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The Ghost\u00a0then sets up his case. The past mistakes of Marley are the current mistakes of Scrooge. While Marley suffers, Scrooge doesn\u2019t have to\u2026 If only Scrooge will listen and change. If only\u2026 But Scrooge just doesn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBut you were always a good man of business, Jacob,\u201d faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness!\u201d cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. \u201cMankind 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!\u2026<\/em><\/strong>Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wow.<\/p>\n

And while Jacob Marley scared\u00a0Scrooge (and me) into re-considering the eternal consequences of what we value and how we liver our lives, it was the Ghost of Christmas Past who made a\u00a0stunning\u00a0point I have missed for years. Shortly after Jacob Marley disappeared, the first of three hauntings would begin. The \u00a0child-like, illuminated Ghost of Christmas Past appeared at clock\u2019s stroke of One. Before long, Scrooge made his fearful inquiry,<\/p>\n

\n

[Scrooge] then made bold to inquire what business brought [the Ghost of Christmas Past] there.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYour welfare.\u201d said the Ghost.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end. The Spirit must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYour reclamation, then. Take heed.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Again\u2026Wow. In reading this, I stopped short and considered Dickens\u2019 precise language. Our welfare, yes, is a concern. But, in truth, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge \u2013 the story of all of us \u2013 is a story of reclamation. We are lost. Sin has blinded us and obscured our path. Our fears, our worries, our appetites, our selfish desires have separated us from the life God wants for us. And while we become comfortable in our sin, deeply and smugly entrenched in our self-centered habits, the message the Ghosts have for Scrooge and, likewise, the message God has for us is quite clear,<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s not about your comfort.
\nIt\u2019s not about your happiness.
\nIt\u2019s about your repentance and reform.
\nIt\u2019s about your ultimate fulfillment as a Child reconciled with your Heavenly Father.
\nIn sum, it\u2019s about your reclamation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s about your reclamation. Yes, of course.<\/p>\n

This season the Ghost of Jacob Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Past reminded me of this.<\/p>\n

How haunting.<\/p>\n

How true.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013
\nPhoto Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marley\u2019s Ghost by John Leech \u00a0 I know, I know. The Christmas season is winding down (to be exact,\u00a0Christmas officially ends January 10 on the Liturgical Calendar), but there is something that has continued to haunt me. Jacob Marley. Let me explain. Every year during Advent, I try to read Charles Dickens\u2019 classic tale,\u00a0A Christmas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1686,"featured_media":5143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJacob Marley & Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Marley's Ghost by John Leech   I know, I know. 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