Become The Anti-Wolf of Wall Street–Not By Becoming Poor, But By Becoming Very Very Rich
Saint Seraphim of Sarov presents the true Way to unspeakable riches without the crash and burn: acquiring the Holy Spirit–the true aim of human life.
“Act as if you’re a wealthy man, rich already, and then you’ll surely become rich.” — Jordan Belfort
Become the Anti Wolf of Wall Street
The Wolf of Wall Street is a powerful image of a man who descends into destruction as quickly as he rose to fame and fortune. The typical overshoot and collapse story of Hollywood … But we love those kinds of stories: rags to riches to utter and total ruin. There’s something about the unhinged greed of it all that we resonate with–like an inverted icon of the sum total of our passions.
The thing is, at least as my father of confession tells me, the passions are actually inversions of the virtues we ought to be living. The fact that just as we can destroy our lives at any given moment, we can also in that very moment become a saint. The riches we pursue can actually lead us, when inverted, to the riches of the spiritual life.
Thus pursuing God, the Source of Being, with all the passion and drive we can muster leads to riches, to becoming more and more rich.
But how? …
It’s Lent right now–actually the week leading up to Holy Week, and I don’t feel at all ready. Having been in a place of dryness and hunger and thirst, I am yearning for a renewal of the Holy Spirit in my life. I need Christ. And in this week leading to Holy Week, and beyond, I need to shift my appetites away from worldly things to Christ, especially in this great procession of the Church towards Holy Pascha.
St Seraphim of Sarov writes about this very thing in his little big book, entitled The Acquision of the Holy Spirit. In this book the blessed saint shows us how to become very very rich, and through that what the Christian life is all about. In Lent, much of our efforts are directed towards prayer and fasting, attending liturgy, and trying to live more intentionally. But for St Seraphim, all of those acts must have an overarching telos, a purpose, a direction and goal.
St Seraphim …
However prayer, fasting, vigil and the other Christian practices may be, they do not constitute the aim of our Christian life. Although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end, the true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God … That is it, your Godliness. Acquiring the Spirit of God is the true aim of our Christian life, while prayer, fasting, almsgiving and other good works done for Christ’s sake are merely means for acquiring the Spirit of God (Acquisition of the Holy Spirit, 11-12).
St Seraphim goes on to say that good works not done for a greater desire–namely the acquisition–will not do anything for us. There has to be deeper intent that motivates them, like acquiring money or a position in society. The goal is to acquire the power of God. And this is where we get into the anti-Wolf of Wall Street–where all the striving and working and acquiring get redirected towards acquiring the Spirit of God.
Driving for Real Capital
St Seraphim …
Acquiring is the same as obtaining. Do you understand what acquiring money means? Acquiring the Spirit of God is exactly the same thing … The aim of ordinary worldly people is to acquire or make money; and for the nobility it is in addition receiving honours, distinction, and other rewards for their services to the government. The acquisition of God’s Spirit is also capital, but grace-giving and eternal, and is obtained in similar ways, almost the same ways as monetary and social capital (12-13).
St Seraphim says that this is what Christ means when he gives parables about money and buying and selling, namely that we have a short time to acquire the Spirit of God, to work and even hustle, to do all we can to acquire the Spirit of God. I’ve not thought of the parables related to money in such a way …
The acquisition of God’s Spirit is also capital, but grace-giving and eternal, and it is obtained in very similar ways.
God the Word, the God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, compares our life with the market, and the work of our life on earth He calls trading. He says to us all: “Trade up till I come” (Lk 19:13), “buying up every opportunity because the days are evil”(Eph 5:16). In other words, make the most of your time getting heavenly blessings through heavenly goods. Heavenly goods are good works done for Christ’s sake that confer the grace of the All-Holy Spirit on us (14).
The Real Hustle
Working, labouring, struggling, striving to receive, to acquire the Spirit of God in our lives, to bear His Image to everyone around us. St Seraphim references St Antony who taught about three wills: God’s all-perfect and all-saving will, our own human will, which if not destructive neither is it saving, and the devil’s will which is wholly destructive. The devil’s will prompts us to do nothing good or to do good out of vanity; the second will prompts us to do everything to flatter our passions, or to do good merely for good’s sake and not to care about acquiring the Spirit of God …
But the first, God’s all-saving will, consists in doing good solely to acquire the Holy Spirit as an eternal inexhaustible treasure that is priceless (16).
St Seraphim refers to the acquisition of the Holy Spirit as the oil that the foolish virgins lacked …
They were foolish … because they had forgotten the necessary fruit of virtue, the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which no one can be saved (16).
Then St Seraphim lays out a truly convincing and inspiriting interpretation of the parable …
The foolish virgins, though they went to market to buy more oil when their lamps were going out were unable to return in time, for the door was already shut.
The market is our life; the door is the Bridal Chamber, which was set and barred the way to the Bridegroom which is human death. The wise and foolish virgins are Christian souls. The oil is not the good deeds [themselves] but the grace of the all-Holy Spirit of God that is obtained through good deeds and changes souls from one state to another–such as from a corruptible state to incorruptible, from spiritual death to spiritual life, from darkness to light, from the stable of our being (where the passions are tied up like dumb animals and wild beasts) into a temple of the divinity, the shining bridal chamber of eternal joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, the Creator, Redeemer and eternal Bridegroom of our souls (18).
My Father of Confession tells me all the time about the treasure chest and about the great cheque I’ve been given at baptism and the importance of cashing it in rather than putting it away in a drawer for another time. What does cashing the cheque provide me with? The acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God Himself. And he says that the simplest and most powerful way to cash in the cheque is through prayer, for
Prayer is always possible for everyone, rich and poor, noble and humble, strong and weak, healthy and sick, righteous and sinful (20).
St Seraphim writes that it might be that we want to attend Liturgy but the church is closed. Or we might want to give alms but there are no beggars around. Or we might want to preserve our chastity but we are too weak to withstand the powers and wiles of the enemy, or we would like to do a good deed for someone out of charity, but no opportunity exists at the moment. But in spite of that, we can still acquire the Holy Spirit through prayer, for
Great is the power of prayer, and it brings most of all the Spirit of God, and is most easily practiced by everyone. We shall be happy indeed if the Lord finds us watchful and filled with the gifts of His Holy Spirit (21).
The Upside Down Kingdom of Riches and Wealth
St Seraphim advises that we should stand in prayer and then when the Holy Spirit descends upon us we should be silent and just receive …
I have not understood St Seraphim’s words like this before; that my life as a Christian should have one purpose namely acquiring the Holy Spirit of God; and that the acquisition of the Spirit of God must be the sole thing I direct my will, my actions towards. That I should pursue it like I would pursue anything Beautiful, Good, and True in this world. That I should go after it like I’ve never pursued anything before!
It’s a complete overturning of the money changing of this world; it’s the upside down Kingdom; it’s applying my labour, my will, my thoughts towards acquiring the Spirit of God.
St Seraphim …
Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit also by practicing all the other virtues for Christ’s sake. Trade spiritually with them; trade with those which give you the greatest profit. Accumulate capital form the superabundance of God’s grace, deposit it in God’s eternal bank which will bring you material interest, not four or six percent, but one hundred percent for one spiritual ruble, and even infinitely more than that. For example, if prayer and watchfulness gives you more of God’s grace, watch and pray. If fasting gives you much of the spirit of God, fast. If almsgiving gives you more, give alms. Weigh every virtue done for Christ’s sake in this manner (27).
Acquiring the Holy Spirit and becoming a saint are univocal. And as one in the pursuit of art, what is more important than acquiring the Holy Spirit of God?
I have books on wealth that I’ve carelessly skimmed through. It all seems so dry. But I’ve not understood acquiring the Holy Spirit of God as acquiring wealth like this before. For a time I was interested in monetary wealth but it seemed shallow. Investing in companies remain for me supporting the machine that subjugates me and causes so much suffering in the world so I don’t invest in that stuff.
The Simple Way
But now that the Spirit of God can be pursued like wealth, I want that more. I can strive towards that. But that striving, that struggling to attain the wealth of God is not like a name it and claim it sort of striving; it’s not the sort of thing I need to or even can command at my will through some kind of jacked up faith–no. It’s simpler than that, much much simpler.
St Theophan …
You asked, “Should I be doing something?” Of course that is necessary. Do whatever falls in your hands, in your circle and in your situation–and believe that this is and this will be your true work; nothing more from you is required. It is a great error to think that you must undertake important and great labours, whether for Heaven, or, as the progressives think, in order to make one’s contribution to humanity. That is not necessary at all. It is necessary to do everything in accordance with the Lord’s commandments. Just exactly what is to be done? Nothing in particular, just that which presents itself to each one according to the circumstances of his life, and which is demanded by the individual events with which each of us meets. That is all. God arranges the lot of each person, and the entire course of life of each one is also His all-good industry, as is each moment and each meeting.
I love this–who can’t or doesn’t want to do this? The acquisition of the Holy Spirit is achieved by doing what comes into our hands to do at each moment, placed there by God. Christ says His yolk is easy and His burden is light. We don’t need to be out there looking to do ‘big things for God’ marching gallantly to the triumphalist ballad Onward Christian Soldiers–no. The Christian faith is more like Hobbit work: it’s simple, meek, under the radar, quietly and fervently doing the work of acquiring the wealth, the Spirit, of God.
The purpose of the blessed life beyond the grave; the means are the words according to the commandments, the execution of which is required by each instance of life. It seems to me that all of this is so clear and is simple; there is no reason to torture yourself with difficult problems. You need to put out of your mind any plans about “multi-beneficial, all embracing, common to all mankind” activity such as the progressives rant about. Then your life will be regarded as enclosed within the peaceful boundaries, and leading towards the final goal without hindrance. Remember, the Lord does not forget even a glass of cold water given to someone tormented by thirst.
How many times in our fantasies do we think about doing big things in this world–and even big things for God! A lot of this is fuelled by American triumphalism–big projects, global reach, blah blah blah. That’s more for our egos, and not necessary for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. A simple act of Love is all it takes.
Therefore, in this Lent season, as we’re in the great procession towards Christ’s Passion and His glorious Resurrection, and all the brightness and fullness of Pascha,
Put yourself in God’s hands and pray that He puts you in the place He considers best, so that your faith does not hinder you, but instead helps you to attain the blessed life beyond the grave without dreaming about some splendid lot. After you’ve made up your mind in this way, wait patiently for the time when God will speak to you.
