“Excessive wealth is neither glory nor happiness; the cold and sordid wretch who thinks only of himself; who draws his head within his shell and never puts it out but for the purpose of lucre or ostentation; who looks upon his fellow-creatures not only without sympathy but with arrogance and insolence, as if they were made to be his vassals, and he be their lord; as if they were made for no other purpose than to pamper his avarice; such a man may be rich, but trust me, he can never be happy, nor virtuous, nor great.”
William Wirt (1772-1834) U.S. Attorney General and statesman, in Day’s Collacon compiled and arranged by Edward Parsons Day (New York: IPPO, 1884) 1013.
Wirt’s words point us toward the radically countercultural pathway that our Lord Jesus Christ instructs us to take! The wealthy must abandon the benefactor model and adopt instead a service model. Our greatness must be rooted in our sympathy, our generosity, our love.
Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. Luke 22:25-26