Thanksgiving is here. But what are we to be thankful for this year when the stock market has just taken a nose dive of more than 30% in 2 weeks? What are we to be thankful for when the future of everyone’s personal financial stability is full of uncertainty because the age-old banking system and financial institutions of the world are creaking with instability and confusion, ready to collapse in any moment? What are we to be thankful for?

For the high school student who learned from his parents that his plan for higher education would have to include a part-time job because his RESP savings that were good for 4 years of university education 2 weeks ago are now sufficient for only 2.5?

For the university graduate who can no longer contribute the knowledge and skills he learned from university because the market has no jobs to offer?

For the young dating couple whose plan to purchase an apartment before getting married must now be abandoned because the banks are not loaning them money?

For the worker nearing retirement who now must work a few more years because his RRSP is only half of what it was 2 weeks ago?

What if this financial turmoil continued to get worse and in another week or two all our hard-earned savings were all but evaporated? This is no longer a hypothetical discussion or an academic exercise. Every one of us has been hit hard and devastated in some manner. It is getting too real and too close for comfort!

I reflected on this long and hard before praying the Rosary on my way to work yesterday. As our beloved JPII said, the Rosary is a powerful and praiseworthy contemplative prayer; it is also a prayer that brings you peace because its focus is on Jesus, the Prince of Peace (cf. JPII, On the Most Holy Rosary, #5-6). As I contemplated on the sorrowful mysteries of Jesus’ Passion, my agony and distress subsided and my heart was filled with peace, thankfulness, and great joy!

15 years have gone by since the Holy Spirit converted me and gave me a complete transformation of heart. It was a significant heart surgery that was no less than a quadruple by-pass! Without this spiritual conversion, the current economic crisis would have been extremely nerve wrecking and hard to accept. Sometimes, it takes a traumatic turn of events for people to understand or remember life’s priorities and what it is that we are here to live for. Through the Rosary, the Holy Mother reminded me what God had already given me. “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). Everything that I was created to live for; everything that I would ever need has already been given to me! Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6 ). He is in me and I am living in Him! What more would I need? This is the only thing that matters in the final account and I already have it! It’s a sure thing and, unlike
the nose-diving stock market and my personal investments, nobody can take it away from me other than myself!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Thanksgiving, in spite of the unrelenting financial crisis, the loss of personal and family savings, and the uncertainty surrounding our financial future, we still have plenty of things to be thankful for. As Christians, we may look “sorrowful [and] yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things” (2 Cor 6:10).

Happy Thanksgiving!