Is Not This To Be Rich?

At the very end of the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens, the protagonist Esther described her life married to Allan Woodcourt. He was a doctor who sought to help the sick who were poor. She wrote, “We are not rich in the bank, but we have always prospered, and we have quite enough. I never walk out with my husband but I hear the people bless him. I never go into a house of any degree but I hear his praises or see them in grateful eyes. I never lie down at night but I know that in the course of that day he has alleviated pain and soothed some fellow-creature in the time of need. I know that from the beds of those who were past recovery, thanks have often, often gone up, in the last hour, for his patient ministration. Is not this to be rich?” I love that idea about what riches are—the ability to help and heal others. Woodcourt was not wealthy in money, but he was rich in knowledge so that he had the ability to care for and help heal the sick. This reminds me of the words of the Savior in our dispensation: “Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:7). We should seek for wisdom over riches, for with that wisdom we will be rich in ability to help and bless others. That was the case for Joseph in Egypt: he was as poor as they come, a former slave in prison. And yet through the wisdom he had from keeping he commandments of God and staying close to the Lord, he was able to interpret dreams which ultimately led him to be able to help all of Egypt as well as his family through a major famine.

                Jesus Christ was the perfect example of this. Paul described what he did, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). He was born in the humblest of circumstances to parents who had little in terms of worldly wealth despite the fact that He was “rich” in the premortal world. But in mortality He did not have riches as far as we know. He was a refugee in Egypt and then grew up humbly in Nazareth. During his ministry He described His possessions this way, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). He was without a home and he also “took upon him the form of a servant… being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself” (Philippians 2:7-8). James, the brother of Jesus, would later say, “Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?” (James 2:5) Certainly these words apply to mortal disciples of the Savior, but perhaps most importantly they apply to Him: Jesus was among “the poor of this world” who was also “rich in faith.” And despite His poverty, He made a greater impact than any other who has ever lived. “He walked the roads of Palestine, healing the sick, causing the blind to see, and raising the dead.” As Esther said of her husband, “Is this not to be rich?”

               And so, we should seek, like the Savior, to “be rich in good works” instead of rich in the things of the world (1 Timothy 6:18). As Jacob encouraged us, we can seek for means and wisdom and everything else we accumulate in this life “for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted” (Jacob 2:19). That is what Woodcourt did in the novel, and the gospel of Jesus Christ invites us to do the same. We should strive so that it can likewise be said of us each day, “He has alleviated pain and soothed some fellow-creature in the time of need.”