How to Become Truly Rich

 The once rich man wants Lazarus to go back to life to warn his brothers, but Abraham replies, “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.” It may seem a little extreme. But Jesus’ parable became a reality when a real man, also named Lazarus, rose from the dead… and the Chief priests, instead of believing in Jesus because of the miracle, “made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were deserting them and believing in Jesus.” (John 12:10-11).

How is it possible that a miracle like that would not make the Chief priests re-think their attitude toward Jesus? What can be more powerful than a miracle to convince someone of their mistake? Another question may lead us to the answer: who enjoys being found wrong? Who likes to recognize his or her own error before people? Is it not one of the most difficult things to do, acknowledging our own faults?

The problem is pride. Pride is the inordinate affection for ourselves and for our own things. Sometimes, we are so attached to seeing things the way we do, that nothing in the universe can make us change our mind. And I am not talking so much about our political opinions, artistic preferences or scientific assumptions. I am talking particularly about our opinions regarding what is good or bad for us, our personal views regarding what counts as a sin or not, our judgment about what is the best way to live our own lives. Let us try to understand this.

1- How do we fall into pride? First, we become attached to things that make us feel secure or give us a certain comfort (think money or pleasures). Second, having these things, or experiencing certain things, gives us a sense of worth before others. “I have this, and so people think that I am fortunate, that I am cool or lucky,” etc. And third, when we are considered fortunate by other people, we tend to think that we are actually good, that we are “blessed”… At this point, it is no longer just what people say: we reaffirm our own worth by our own judgment and, from then on, we begin to see our ideas as better ideas, our talents as better than other people’s talents. We begin to resent other people’s gifts and ideas, especially when they are better than ours, or may seem to be better.

The problem of this self-affirmation is not the affirmation itself, but the reason for it. In other words, the problem is not to recognize that I am good or that I have something good, the problem is to think that this is good just because it is mine; that this idea is good just because it is my idea; that my way of doing things is good just because it is the way I do things. The proud person puts himself at the centre of the universe and, in a way, occupies the throne of God, who says what is right and what is wrong.

The ladder of pride, then, has three steps, three wrong judgments by which we ascend to our own self-made throne. First is “Money (or pleasure) is the good for me”; second is “People’s approval and honour is the good for me”; and the third is “I am the good.” When someone arrives at this third step and sits on his own throne, it is so difficult to make him step down that, sometimes, not even God’s miracles or the best arguments are enough to convince this person to change his mind.

2- The problem is not so much pleasure or riches. Pleasure or riches are certainly the first chain that the devil deploys to captivate us. But there is a more powerful force in all of us: our need for human approval. It is so powerful that sometimes people deny themselves pleasures to maintain the respect they have from others, as when someone refrains from committing a sin out of shame of being discovered. But again, this human approval is another chain… Let me be clear: pleasure, riches and human approval are good things, but they become chains when they give us a false sense of personal worth. Pleasure, riches and human approval are good but they do not make you a good person: bad people sometimes have all of those things. We may become bad, proud people when we desire those things to satisfy our desire for greatness, for glory, for happiness… True, we all fear misery and failure, and we sometimes look into those things as a way of securing happiness for ourselves… We want possessions, achievements, as if we were trying to escape the threat of poverty, of our own nothingness…

3- And yet, what makes us happy is not possessions or achievements but being loved. Not approved, loved. Approval comes from achieving something or having something, love comes from just being good. “But how will I be loved if I have nothing to show for it? How will I escape from my own poverty?” The key to overcome this fear is to be reassured of God’s love for the poor and for sinners. This is the good news, but it can only be received by those who realize that they are poor and in need. When you are open to be guided, when you are open to be healed, when you are open to be loved because you realize that you cannot live alone in the world, when you have a wounded heart that can be healed only with love, then you can receive the good news.

Perhaps this is why Lazarus in the parable is portrayed as a poor person… This is what God wants, what God loves: God loves those who are poor of things but rich in love, those who are always hungry for love and forgiveness, not for things. May we be always at the door of Heaven, begging our Lord to show us his Mercy and Love. He will make us rich, only if we are poor in this way.