Sweet thoughts in "Why ‘A Christmas Carol’ Endures", a New York Times essay by Roger Rosenblatt – concluding:

We are all capable of narrow-mindedness, of selfishness and greed. We are all concerned for our own material enrichment. But so too are we capable of fantastic generosity and selflessness. Dickens understood this, and it was in demonstrating the benefits of raising our moral consciousness that the quiet genius of “A Christmas Carol” most shines through.

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Nothing satisfies a sinful reader (that is, everyone) as much as a tale in which we are given a chance to vicariously work off our sins — particularly when redemption comes fairly easily, after the scare of a single night and three brief sermons. We look at the repentant Ebenezer and think: C’est moi! From now on, I shall live differently, more honorably. I shall reform.

Entire religions are based on what Scrooge experiences and on what he vows.

This is what Dickens sought to teach us nearly 200 years ago, and it is why his message resonates all these years later. “A Christmas Carol” has endured both because it is a great story and because it offers us an eternal example of the joy that is possible when we turn toward our better angels.

We will take to “A Christmas Carol” in this season, as have the millions before us, but with a special thump of the heart. Because the story believes in our better, more generous inner selves. And the actions of those inner selves are the only way we will be truly blessed. Every one.