Being Poor in Spirit is Baltering - Teomasino 2015 Essay Writing - Second Place

TEOMASINO ESSAY WRITING CONTEST 2015

The UST Institute of Religion

Theme: "Blessed are the Poor in Spirit." (Mt 5:3)

Second Place, Mary Allysa S. de Castro (Faculty of Engineering) 

Being Poor in Spirit is Baltering

Balter (v.): To dance artlessly, does not require a skill, form, or practice; usually done with enjoyment.

In a world which requires and prefers educated people, technology, and systematized knowledge, the meaning of happiness is usually taken the wrong way. A new phone, a car, big house, money, gadgets—worldly things which any person would want to have, but unfortunately, symbolizes happiness to most people nowadays. To dance means allotting long hours of practice, learning the skill itself, working hard, striving for the best performance that one could ever have, practicing until their feet hurts so that one day, they can show their accomplishment to the world. This is what society does today: they dance. Sadly, they only dance for themselves, they work hard and practice for their own betterment, they learn to be able to buy the things which will make them “happy”, and when they dance to success, they forget the other people who were not able to learn how to dance according to the world’s standards. Happiness, which is beatitudo in Latin (meaning supreme happiness or blessedness), usually implies a temporary feeling. However, genuine happiness is something that cannot be equated with the world’s standards of dancing. I believe that genuine happiness can be compared to baltering. It does not require a skill, nor the world’s definition of dancing. Reaching out a helping hand to a person in need is baltering, because one does not need “long hours of practice” nor “working hard” to do this act, but it is something simultaneous… it is something that comes from the heart. When you help, when you practice humility amidst all the knowledge that the world has given you, when you are poor in spirit, you balter. 

According to the Catholic Social Teaching on Poverty under the document Economic Justice (U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1986, no. 16), “Jesus takes the side of those most in need. As followers of Christ, we must take the challenge on the fundamental option of the poor—to speak for the voiceless, to defend the defenseless, and to assess lifestyles.” To be able to do this all, one must first practice humility. One must practice being poor in spirit in the midst of all luxuries that the world offer, as this must come first before all the beatitudes. The reason is simple: service without humility is pointless, as humility without service is a ship without a destination. The beatitudes consist of two parts: the condition and the result, but these fragments should not be taken separately-- they should be treated as a one whole blessing. It’s like drinking a medicine: at first, the medicine itself won’t taste good. It tastes so bad that you would want to spit it out the moment it reaches your tongue. It doesn’t take effect until after a certain period of time… where you would eventually feel better and alive again. The after effect of the beatitudes takes part and is fully-realized in the kingdom of heaven. However, in this lifetime, practicing humility and poor in spirit would taste as bad as your first medicine, but when you get used to it, in the long run, you would realize that that medication is slowly bringing you to the meaning of genuine happiness. 

Being poor in spirit means finding yourself by losing yourself in the service of others (Mahatma Gandhi). It is hard to get out of your comfort zone, because comfort zone feels good… but nothing ever grows there. Saint Dominic de Guzman is the perfect example, as he started out in humility, from wearing simple clothes, to selling the things he does not need in order to help those who are helpless. He got out of this own comfort zone, shared, and served until it hurts because it is in that pain that he felt happy. Imagine, the Order of Preachers have been built because of this first step: humility. Saint Dominic practiced baltering—for he went out of the world’s standards, did the otherwise, and enjoyed what he was doing. 

Being poor in spirit means learning how to weep. “If you do not learn how to cry, then you cannot be good Christians.” This is Pope Francis’ message to the youth on his visit to UST. Furthermore, he also questioned whether the youth has learned how to weep for the street children, for the homeless, for the people with drug problems, for the abused women and children. Unfortunately, there are others who only cry fothemselves, for other things, for not having the worldly things they want but not need. Learning how to weep means understanding what the least of us have felt. It is feeling terrible for the misled society. It is feeling sad that in every food you throw away, you feel that you have stolen it from the poor. It is showing compassion. It is baltering. As to what the Pope said, “Be courageous; do not be afraid to cry.” 

Being poor in spirit means giving voice to the voiceless. Upon Pope Francis’ visit to the Archbishop of Canterbury (June 14, 2013), he stated this: “Among our tasks as witnesses to the love of Christ is hearing the cry of the poor.” Humility is essential in listening to their cries as in humility, you level your heart to theirs. Humility is baltering, as you do not need the systematic knowledge nor worldly things to be humble. This is baltering at its finest—forgetting what the world has taught you and giving up the worldly things you want but do not need. You would not be able to grasp and listen to their needs and take action without humility, otherwise, it will only be hearing and not listening. 

I believe that being poor in spirit is baltering: it is giving your newly-bought Jollibee French Fries to the street children outside the fast food chain, it is having a conversation with the old homeless woman along the overpass in Espana Blvd., it is offering a shoulder to cry on to a heart-broken friend, it is being a bridge between two people who built walls, it is learning how to forgive a person who habitually chooses doing the wrong deeds, and it is being nice and offering your other cheek to those who spanked you. All of these are done with humility. As to what Friedrich Nietzsche said, “…and those who were dancing were seen as insane by the others who could not hear the music.” Answer this in your heart: Are you willing to practice humility, baltering and choose to listen to the music played by the least of us? Or will you just hear them and choose to dance to the world’s beat and standards instead?