Sean was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Throughout his life, he’s never had a concern about his welfare. He’s never had to look at the price tag of anything he bought. Such is the privilege of wealth. However, it appears that such affluence had a limiting influence on his character — he seems unable to measure personal relationships except by material means.
This flaw surfaced during his wedding and turned what was supposed to be a joyous and happy occasion into anything but. The wedding was a lavish affair. A team of professional wedding planners was employed to oversee the management of the ceremony and reception. Unfortunately, the wedding planning team was less than professional. The staff failed to recognise the members of his family beyond his parents and siblings. Many uncles, aunties and cousins were turned away from seats specially marked for family members. So, egos were bruised and pride dented, in short, many very unhappy relatives.
As someone once said, “man can make a bad situation worse”. In the case of Sean, he managed to turn what was an embarrassing situation into a hurtful one. When news of the fiasco surfaced during a post-wedding dinner with some of his family members, he was shocked. Unfortunately, he unthinkingly said, “Oh, I must send my apologies to Uncle John.”
“Why only to Uncle John?” said an aunty, who was also one of those relegated to the back of the hall during the wedding ceremony.
“Oh, I feel so bad about it. Uncle John gave me such a big present.”
It transpired that Uncle John had given Sean a monetary present that was at least twice as much as what each of the other relatives gave. In one unwitting remark, Sean had hurt the feelings of many of his relatives, many of whom made the long journey from other countries to attend his wedding. Such is the burden of wealth that it had warped the poor young man’s perspective — he only had eyes for material presents and was unable to appreciate the intangible gift of love and care.
In Christianity, the issue of the burden of wealth was illustrated in one episode of Jesus Christ’s ministry. According to the Gospels (Matthew 19:23-24, Mark 10:24-25 and Luke 18:24-25), a rich man asked Jesus what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied that he should keep the commandments.
“Ever since I was young, I have obeyed all these commandments,” the man replied.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one more thing you need to do. Sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven: then come and follow me.” But when the man heard this, he became very sad, because he was very rich. Jesus saw that he was sad and said, “How hard it is for rich people to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is much harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”
Many rich people perhaps are despaired by those words. It sounds like a sentence to damnation. A perceptive reading of that teaching, however, renders a profound meaning rather than a dogmatic statement.
It is said that the ‘eye of the needle’ was a small door in the big city gate of Jerusalem. The city gate, being huge, was opened only on special occasions. On ordinary days, passage in and out of the city was via the small doorway. To enter the city, the caravan of camels laden with goods had to do three things — the goods had to be unloaded; the camels lined up to enter one by one; and finally the animals had to bend their knees to clear the low entrance.
It was a lesson about patience, humility and the detachment from material wealth. The problem with wealth (and money) is that it has its own imperative and its stranglehold on us can be very firm. Being used to wealth and the power it brings, a person may find it very hard to be humble and patient.
Such was the case of one rich arrogant man according to a posting on the Internet. According to the story, a crowded flight was cancelled. A single attendant was rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travellers.
Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and said, “I have to be on this flight and it has to be first class.”
“I’m sorry, sir. I’ll be happy to try to help you, but I’ve got to help these people first, and I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out,” the attendant replied.
The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear, “Do you have any idea who I am?”
Without hesitating, the attendant smiled and grabbed her public address microphone: “May I have your attention please? May I have your attention please?” she began, her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal.
“We have a passenger here at Desk 14 who does not know who he is. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to Desk 14.”
With those behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the attendant, gritted his teeth and said, “F@#& you!”
Without flinching, she smiled and said, “I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll have to get in line for that too.”
I have not been able to attest to the veracity of the story but it does make a very valid point about the powerful grip of wealth and its consequent impact on our behaviour. Such is the allure of its siren call that many cannot resist it. Thus, we find multi-millionaires who would still, by hook or by crook, seek to expand their riches. It seems to them it’s never enough.
Some even seek to carry their worldly wealth and position into the next life. Such is the story of one very determined and smart rich man. A rich tycoon dropped dead and found himself in the presence of the gatekeeper of heaven. As the gatekeeper checked through the roll of those who died that day, he spotted a mistake.
“Wait a minute,” said the angel, “it is the wrong year.”
“Huh?”
“Someone entered the wrong year. You are to die this day next year. So go back and come back next year.”
The tycoon being a shrewd businessman said, “Can I bring anything with me when I come back?”
“Oh, sure,” said the angel, “you can bring whatever you want and in any amount.”
Knowing that his days were numbered, the man went about converting as much of his wealth into gold bars as possible. A year later when his hour was nigh, he instructed his family to bury the gold bars with him.
Soon he found himself dragging a huge sack of gold bars on the road to heaven. It was heavy and it was slow going, and he arrived outside the gate of heaven huffing and puffing.
“What have you there, that is dragging you down?” asked the angel.
“Oh, it just my wealth in the form of gold bars.”
The angel opened the sack and sure enough there were thousands of gold bricks. “Why did you bring that common thing along?”
“Common?” asked the man.
“Yes, that is the stuff we used for lining our pavement.”
The man looked over the gate into heaven and sure enough all the pathways were paved with gold bricks, millions of them! It is indeed more difficult for those burdened with excessive wealth to accept the fact that the afterlife does not operate on the same currency as we do in this material world.
However, not all super rich people are as myopic and foolhardy as that. Recently I read about the case of one Yu Pengnian. The 88-year-old billionaire’s journey from poor street hawker to Hong Kong real estate magnate was already a remarkable one. Then he did something even rarer that shocked many in an increasingly materialistic China — he gave it all away.
Saying he hoped to set an example for other wealthy Chinese, Yu called a press conference last April to announce he was donating his last 3.2 billion yuan (about US$500 million) to a foundation he established five years earlier to aid his pet causes — student scholarships, reconstruction after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and paying for operations for those like him who suffer from cataracts.
I have since found out that Yu is not the only one intending on divesting himself of worldly material wealth. In good company are such financial luminaries as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Chen Guangbiao (billionaire chairman of Jiangsu Huangpuy Renewable Resources Utilisation Co Ltd of China). Even the famous Hong Kong actor, Chow Yun-Fat, has vowed to give 99 per cent of his wealth to charity when he dies.
It heartening to note that the example of the sixth century BC young prince, Siddhartha Gautama, and the teaching Jesus Christ (and I am sure that of many other prophets and sages) can reach across the millennia to touch the hearts of even the most challenged — those burdened by the weight of wealth.
The writer can be contacted at [email protected].