Pursuing Wealth

“There is something immensely seductive about danger, about heading into the unknown. Show that you have a reckless streak and a daring nature, that you lack the usual fear of death, and you are instantly fascinating to the bulk of humanity.

- The Art of Seduction, Robert Greene

This is quite a controversial topic, especially for the ethnic Christian community (I will be talking about Egyptians for my case). As a Christian, there is an intense irony and humour to the entire narrative: become poor in spirit, be humble and meek and obedient, give alms to the poor, keep less than you need, do not live a life of pleasures – but get rich.

How is one to make sense of this? Why is the culture unchanged, if not intensified, if we are taught that a camel can more easily enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter through heaven? The disparity between what the community values and what the Church teaches us has become disturbingly uncanny. And just because it has been normalised does not make it OK – we need to ask ourselves what the purpose of it all is!

Now I am not being an ungrateful child - never think that -  and I am not ignorant of what our generation of parents have done for us. They have immigrated to Australia with the hopes of supplying us with better opportunities, a better lifestyle, a good education, high-value career opportunities, etc etc, the list is endless. They have sacrificed their life, their home, so that we could be happy and thrive in this country. I understand that it was completely out of love that they did this – and indeed to end up crippled in debt and struggling for necessities would be an absolute insult to them. Would not a failure to reciprocate to our best ability the love they have shown us be like spitting in their faces, like turning away from them with ingratitude as the prodigal son did; and would not a failure to love and respect them be absolute insolence on our part and fundamentally un-Christian?

So we encounter here a dilemma: why can’t I just be a middle-class citizen and ‘get by’, to be absolutely average? Wouldn’t this provide the perfect conditions for being humble? And wouldn’t these conditions condone a Christian disposition? What is it namely that we need to do here as Gen-Z Copts? What is the purpose of becoming wealthy and acquiring status as a Copt?

Because clearly, our parents desire us to be different, otherwise they wouldn’t have immigrated. And to really breath in the air, there is something intensely meaningful and respectful in fulfilling our parents' legacy. Our generation of parents have decided to bring their lamps to the darker unexplored places, fearing their oil to run out: they were bold and almost ignorant to assume there to be oil where they went. But above their boldness and ignorance was a shameless hope and an unshaken moral dignity.

It doesn’t make sense for us to settle for being ordinary, lazy, uninspiring Christians – we cannot pretend that to be like the rest of the world, even the Christians that live in poverty and starvation, is our noble calling. There is much more expected from us, and to the unwilling ears this pressure and expectation will anger them and they will adamantly deny this truth. We have such a core role in spreading Christianity through our abundance of talents, through technology, through our rich and historic character, through our heritage – that this is nothing but a deeply vested honour to bear, and all of us should see it as so. For if we took our ministry seriously – and ministry can totally be done through indirect means, through demonstration and by our act – the Church will thrive with the greatest number and the richest diversity imaginable.

What a beautiful thought, that if we exploited our talents to the full, the Church will naturally increase!

But then to be wealthy? Clearly we need more wealth, for with wealth we create influence, and with influence we incite change!

I am not denying that there is a certain miracle behind the numbers of our church, which is for a large part irrelevant to our influence and wealth, but this does not deny the power which influence could have, which large networks of connections could have!

There is nothing deceptive about inciting change through wealth if we know the aim to be beneficial. And to look at it in this light seems the best way to frame our parents hope for Gen-Z: there is no benefit to collecting personal wealth if we are not seeking influence, for this is mere selfishness – it is not humility! But being rich can be a noble path to bringing the light of Christ to others, for your light to finally shine on the hill! It is absolutely abhorrent to hide behind wealth, just as it is abhorrent to burn the harvest and save the weeds! And there is no intrinsic benefit in merely donating wealth, for money is not a problem in our society – wealth will come easily, but not so much reputation.

If there is anything more clear for us Copts now, it is to realise that Christianity has a reputation in the world for being a weak, ruthless, poor, and silenced religion. Indeed the world is getting so impatient with us now because all of us are in hiding, and so they provoke us with all these mockeries, trying to get us to talk, but we merely shrink in the shadows before them. As much as it seems the opposite, they are desperate to meet us: how much they would pay merely to be hugged by one of the Christians they have offended!

“Let us all rise from our laziness,

With diligence seeking the heavenly reward…

To her success, let us all join together!

My Coptic Church, her faith is Orthodox,

Forever strong, Egypt is Christs’.”