Christmas of 2012

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I have ambivalent feelings about "get-to-know-you" questions that ask things like: "What is your favorite movie?" or "What is your favorite vacation spot?" On the one hand, I find it fun to force my mind to answer such questions. On the other hand, pointed questions like these drive me crazy because they are so focused. "My favorite movie?" I want to ask, "In what genre? Comedy, Drama? Adventure?", “My favorite vacation spot?" Well it all depends. For a rest? For inspiration? For adventure? I have a hard time choosing just one movie or one vacation spot. I'm going to claim to have a favorite book (not counting the Bible, which priests always have to like the best). My all-time favorite book is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Immediately my mind starts protesting, flooding my consciousness with other options for my favorite book, including: A Tale of Two Cities, Les Misérables, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I could make a good case for any of these. But A Christmas Carol still wins the prize for my favorite book.  Notice, I didn't say "best book." I wouldn't even contend that A Christmas Carol is Charles Dickens's finest book. Is my favorite also in the sense of most frequently read, one can read it in less than two hours. When Dickens himself used to do public, oral readings of the book, he'd take only three hours or so. In truth, A Christmas Carol really isn't a novel is, as Dickens himself labels it, a Ghost Story of Christmas. Why do I love A Christmas Carol as much as I do? Well, two or three simple reasons: it's short enough to be read and re-read with ease, its main theme is Christmas and It's filled with good descriptions. It's got lots of suspense and lots of humor. But none of this accounts adequately for my love of A Christmas Carol. It ranks as my favorite book because of what happens in the heart of Ebenezer Scrooge, and because of what happens in my heart through his experience. This wonderful little book, together with the four gospels, can help us focus on the true meaning of Christmas. One of the questions I want to ask along the way, in fact, has to do with the presence of Jesus in A Christmas Carol. Does he show up? If so, how? And why in this way? ■  Fr. Agustin, pastor.