Wealth Management
Recently I have been thinking about the accumulation of wealth (possessions, experience, and relationships). These are the things that are very precious to people. We protect them, ponder them and hold them tightly in mind and the mere thought of it may give delight and pleasure. A few months ago I visited Cat Island for the third time but this time my experience was none like I have encountered before. I climbed the highest Point of Cat Island with six others. There were two choices a more gradual path and there was a steeper path. I took the steeper path and each step was an experience within itself. On the way upward were Stations of the Cross. As I passed the Stations of the Cross; I noticed that they were carved out of stone, all the way up to the summit. Just being up there for a while was an emotional recovery and an experience of solitude; in a dramatic way. The atmosphere was very tranquil and calm. There were others with me but at times it seemed that I was all alone.
This takes me back to Jerome Hawes, a British man who constructed the Stations of the Cross on the side of the hill. He died about 54 years ago but those structures still stand strong. It does strike me that he came from an affluent family and gave it all up to live in such simplicity. He purchased the highest hill in Cat Island which is also the highest point in the Bahamas where he built (due to his diminutive size) a model of a miniature abbey. He was ordained as an Anglican Priest but converted to Roman Catholicism and built a few churches in the process (from Long Island to Cat Island and beyond.)
He is entombed at the hermitage; which is a living testimony to the values which altered and governed in his life. He did not seek reputation or fame but he came to be recognized as a world renown architect, a philosopher, a poet, and sculptor. Father Jerome Hawes gave up all his treasures and came to Cat Island in The Bahamas to seek solitude and to live in poverty.
It is ironic that if it were not for his vast wealth he would be unable to buy the hill on which he built the monastery and he would not been able to build the churches that he built (using his own funds) and he more than likely would not be able to afford the education which gave him the architectural “know how.” Yet he chose to live in utter destitution while spending his money in doing “God’s work.” This tells me that having wealth is not bad in and of itself but we should be very prudent in how we choose to use what we are given.
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