Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart

By Freya Elessandra G. Patron, Sr-D

“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” Many are in dire need of the blessings and implementation of this beatitude in their lives. We live in a rather dubious world – shrouded with materialism, competition and other forms of selfishness that many of those who are not interested become inevitable victims of injustice. Eventually they are stripped of their dignity and are now famished, extremely hungry for righteousness.

Choosing a vocation in the Christian aspect implies observation of all the beatitudes, yet I want to focus on the one I especially mentioned. There will always be those around me who I will encounter, who will be or are already in need of moral revival – in my workplace, in my home, in my community. Regardless of which vocation I opt to pursue, I know I have the responsibility to make sure the beatitudes will serve as a guide for a harmonious and successful pursuance of my vocation, which, hopefully, will be grounds for my being a saint one day. However, I strongly believe that one must not concentrate and give much thought to being a saint. I find it more sincere eventually being a saint without even trying too hard to be one.

Life has served me many platters – some of which have been difficult to handle, some of which I have dealt with accordingly. I’ve gone through much storms, but despite all that I have not failed to weather all of them. Sometimes I get very irritable and my mood changes drastically, and I find myself just very frustrated and depressed, and it affects what I’m doing and the people around me. Yet God has His ways of comforting even the angriest part of ourselves, and so in the end I use my strong emotions in doing progressive things. I’ve experienced being in the middle of a heated argument between two good friends, and I tried to settle things and let peace prevail between them. There was also one phase in my life where I have loved and have been fooled by that person I loved – it was probably the most unfair thing that ever happened to me because I have given that person everything good and essential for our relationship. I didn’t get the justice I deserved until I met the person who loves me just the way I am, without any ifs or buts. God always has His ways. He says that in heaven we will be rewarded, but I believe that we can experience heaven on earth because I am still living and I have experienced his mercy, love and rightful judgment. Things fall apart sometimes, yet there is no other way to go but up when I completely feel doomed and at the bottom of everything.

It is difficult for me to live out the beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven”. I am still in the state where I don’t know how to achieve the state of being poor in spirit, or if I really have to be poor in spirit to be able to enter the kingdom of God. Yet I also believe that such doctrines as the beatitudes cannot be clearly explained orally or in paper. It’s a private journey for each Christian to find out, and while I am living, I will not stop embarking on that journey.

I know it is not easy living out each of the beatitudes especially in our technologically-advancing world where science dictates each action we make in our lives, yet there is no harm in not being “like everyone else” and start living out each of the beatitudes, in hopes of influencing others to do the same. Maybe then, the world will really be living the way God has always imagined us to be living. Maybe, too, others would contest that it is impossible to have such a world because nothing can ever be perfect. But I speak up with this rebuttal: all of us living out each of the beatitudes does not create a perfect world; rather, it creates a happier, more peaceful world, in the image of the perfect God who created it.