When I was fit and in good health, I remember people telling me how blessed I was to have good health. I had never been sick or ever been in hospital and people would tell me how lucky I was and very often they would say to me “your health is your wealth”.

But one day that all changed for me. I became very sick and in hospital for months. I couldn’t even walk. People who visited me would encourage me and say to me “you will get well again”. I think that when they saw me sick, they were reminding themselves how important health is and that they valued their own health.

We feel very incapacitated when we don’t have full health and less than a full person when we are not able to do the things we used to do. We envy those who enjoy good health and can do so many things we can’t do. So that phrase “your health is your wealth” has a lot of credit. We often take our health for granted and don’t always appreciate it.

After lengthy efforts to regain my health, I finally realised I would never be the same as I used to be again. Before the accident I loved walking, running, swimming, exercising. Keeping fit was my hobby before the accident. When I was very sick, I did not want to hear “your health is your wealth” ever again. I knew my health was now in the poverty class.

But one day I began to think about this and the thought “is it really true, that if you have not got full health, you have no wealth?” Are you less of a person because you are not in full health? Are people who are incapacitated or sick really poorer than others? How do we value people who haven’t full health? How do we feel about them? Do we pity them, feel sorry for them? Are they the ones who need all the mercy?

While I was aware of my physical limitations, once I adapted to these, life seemed to make me stronger in other ways. I realised, as time went by, that God was compensating in other ways. I had much more time to appreciate all around me.

I began to see the beauty of many things that I had not much time to look at during my keep fit days. I saw the extraordinary beauty of caring and loving people who give their lives to help others. I discovered the richness of life is in the psyche, the mind. There are so many good Samaritans that we don’t notice when we are immersed in our own lives and focused on our own welfare.

I had time to think about people who I had met and were sick all their lives. I remembered how they were great people and how I had admired them. I often felt they were better off than I was, even though they were very sick. In the midst of their terrible suffering, they had peace and calm, and were positive. They didn’t despair about anything. I realised what their strength was and what helped them make sense of the confusion and their weakness. It was their great faith.

Their faith helped them to trust in God and understand how and why difficult and painful things happen. Their faith could help them to accept, and not regret, what had happened to them. Your faith can help you also, to understand how and why things happen, and why maybe life is sometimes made difficult for us.

I too found that faith and prayer can change your life around and enable adapt and cope in the worst situations. What impressed me most was to see so many people, much worse off than me, in the midst of their suffering, remaining positive, still trusting in God and never blamed Him. Faith gives us such strength.

So now, during this ‘Year of Faith’, I say to people, “Your Faith is your wealth!”. My health is not my wealth, but my ‘Faith’ is my wealth. Now, I value my faith more than ever. My faith carried me through my problems, my sickness. The emphasis I had on my health has become replaced by an emphasis on my faith.

Now I know that there is nothing more precious than my faith. Faith will get us through this life, with all its obstacles, successfully. When we die, the one thing that we take with us is our faith. Faith will bring us into God’s Kingdom.

Faith is all we need. If your faith is strong, then you have everything you need and that is your wealth!

In this ‘Year of Faith’, the focus is on the importance of Faith. Devotion to Divine Mercy deepens our faith. It helps us understand how Faith is so precious. The more Divine Mercy is part of your life, the more your faith will grow.