Happy Are the Meek

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

We are told in the Psalms, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord” (Ps 27:4). And in another Psalm, it says, “let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us” (Ps 90:17).

God is the source of all meekness; Meekness is a divine quality. St. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews calls God a consuming fire (Heb 12:29). And so, it is also an aspect of infinite meekness.

In various places, the Psalms speak of it. “Praise the Lord for He is good. Sing to His name for He is gracious” (Ps 135:3). And in another Psalm, “Great is your mercy, O Lord” (Ps 119:156). Scripture invites us to experience it: “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps 34:8).

God has a tenderness - a sensitivity - surpassing anything we could imagine, but sometimes experienced by the saints and the mystics. St. John of the Cross speaks of the extreme tenderness of the touch of the Word of God. “O sweet cautery, O delightful wound, O gentle hand, O delicate touch that tastes of eternal life and pays every debt” (St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love).

Meekness is also a characteristic attribute of the Holy Spirit’s action. The Spirit is both forceful and meek. St. Paul to the Galatians includes meekness among the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23).

The Heart of Jesus is full of this quality. Our Lord speaks of meekness associated with humility as the principal quality of His Soul in that very beautiful passage of St. Matthew.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Mt 11:28-30).

Crowds gathered around Our Lord, not only because of the healings He performed, but also because of His meekness, which touched and opened hearts. Among some of the Pharisees and doctors of the law, especially among the Sadducees, there was a lot of arrogance and hardness towards the poor and sinners, along with a great contempt for uneducated people. But with Jesus, it was just the opposite. He welcomed these people with a welcome that was full of goodness. Sometimes in Scripture, we see these lowly people delighted when Our Lord silences the know-it-alls. Here was the payback for the harsh judgment and disdain the clever ones had heaped upon them.

The New Testament often refers to the meekness of Christ. “I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor 10). And this quality has its supreme expression in the Passion of Christ. He allows Himself to be led to the sacrifice like a lamb who does not open His mouth. We’re told in St. Peter, “when He was reviled, did not revile in turn. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but trusted to Him who judges justly” (1 Pt 2:23).

Every Christian is invited to imitate the meekness of Christ, so often associated with humility and patience. St. Paul says, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience” (Col 3:12). And to the Ephesians, “With all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love” (Eph 4:2).

This meekness is especially asked of leaders in the Church in his letter to Timothy (1 Tim 3), because they have immense responsibility of being likenesses to Christ the Good Shepherd. Nothing is more opposed to pastoral charity, which the leaders of the Church must exhibit, than hardness, intransigence, and anger.

Meekness can be practiced only by letting ourselves be filled with it by God. Contact with God, in prayer in particular, enables us little by little to discover the infinite meekness of God, and thereby be clothed in that meekness, which progressively eliminates all manner of hardness and bitterness of heart. Only intimate contact with the Heart of Christ can heal the hardness of the human heart. This is what putting on the Lord Jesus Christ of which St. Paul speaks very clearly (Rom. 13:14) is all about.

“A soul that is hard because of its self-love grows harder. O good Jesus, if You do not soften it, it will ever continue in its natural hardness” (St. John of The Cross, Sayings of Light and Love). The human heart can only be truly meek by letting itself be calmed by God, and freed from agitation, fear, and worry.

Humility, meekness, and peace are fruits of the Spirit that go together. Only the poor and humble heart can embrace divine peace and be a peacemaker for others. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (Mt 5:9).

The meekness of which the Gospel speaks is not wimpishness, or weakness, or cowardice. On the contrary, it requires great interior strength to resist anger and passion, to refrain from violent reactions. Not allowing oneself to be contaminated by violence requires great courage. St. Joan of Arc knew how to take up arms to deliver her country because that was necessary. But her heart was never touched by hate. She cared for the wounded English with love.

The third beatitude is a quotation from Psalm 37: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over Him who prospers in His way, over the man who carries out evil, devices!

Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil. For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall possess the land.

Yet a little while and the wicked will be no more. Though you look well at His place, He will not be there. But the meek shall possess the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity” (Ps 37:7-11).

This Psalm raises the perennial question that’s often found in the Old Testament: Why is there so much injustice in the world? Why do evildoers so often prosper while the just suffer?

The Psalm invites those who encounter such situations not to be eaten up by anger and bitterness, which are only hurtful to themselves. The triumph of evil is only temporary. Remain calm and confident. Place all your hope in the Lord. Evil will disappear. The meek will inherit the earth and will delight in great peace. Later in that same Psalm, you again find the promise that the just will possess the earth, as will those who hope in the Lord.

We could sum up the Psalm’s invitation by saying, however bad the situation you encounter may be, don’t become agitated and angry, because that will just make things worse. Continue to be humble and meek, calm and peaceable. Persevere in doing good, and place your hope in God. In this way, you will triumph. The earth will be given to you in return.

It is not that we do not have the right and duty to react strongly against injustice, but we must do so without letting our hearts be invaded by bad feelings, irritation, resentment, or loss of hope. That can ultimately make us too unjust; accomplices of that which we would resist.

We can distinguish various aspects of meekness by looking at its opposites. Meekness considered as the opposite of hardness is kindness, tenderness, benevolence. It is close to the beatitude of the merciful. Meekness is also the opposite of bitterness, remaining peaceful and confident, rather than being consumed by rancor when faced with injustice or painful situations. And so, in this way, it is similar to the beatitude of the pure of heart and the peacemakers.

Meekness is also the opposite of rigid rigidity. It is the flexibility of the person who embraces things as they are, not reacting against the reality of things and events. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall be not be bent out of shape. People like this let themselves be guided. They are not stiff-necked, but are open to being taught and guided. The Psalm says “He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way” (Ps 25:9). And so meekness in this way is related to poverty of spirit.

Happy are the meek for they shall possess the earth (Mt 5:5). But what does ‘possess the earth’ really mean? In one sense, it promises entry into the promised land, the kingdom of Heaven. All the beatitudes offer entry to God’s kingdom, the land of milk and honey, a land of abundance where all God’s promises will be fully realized and all our desires will be satisfied. For this kingdom is Christ Himself, true land of the living (St. Augustine, Expositions on The Psalms).

The use of land to describe the kingdom recalls the promised land, often described as land of rest, where we shall find repose and peace after the struggle of our long exodus. In Deuteronomy we are told, “The Lord gives rest to your brother to your brethren as to you. And they also occupy the land which the Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then you shall return every man to his possession which I have given you” (Dt 3:20). Another way of understanding the possession of the earth, which is a reminder that to possess in this case is not a right, but a free gift from God, is that meekness is a conqueror of hearts.

Humility and meekness are capable of taming hearts repelled by hardness and pride. In Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, he writes, “At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of men’s sin, and wonders whether one should use force or humble love. Always decide to use humble love. If you resolve on that once and for all, you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things. There’s nothing else like it.”

A third way of interpreting possession of the earth is that for someone who lives the beatitudes, a man of humble heart, poor and meek, all is well in the end. Every circumstance, fortunate or unfortunate, every success and failure adds its bits to making him grow.

Practicing the beatitudes is a way to immense freedom. The poor person becomes a sovereign and tastes the sovereign liberty of the children of God. St. Faustina says, “Everything that exists on earth is at my service, friends, enemies, success, adversity, all things, witting or not, must serve me. I do not think of them at all. I strive to be faithful to God and to love Him to the point of complete forgetfulness of self. And He Himself looks after me and fights against my enemies.”

In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul also expresses this truth: “For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the present, or the future, all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor 3:21-23).

St. John of the Cross speaks of the Christian Kingship that Baptism confers:

“Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth. Mine are the nations, the just are mine, and mine are the sinners. The angels are mine, and the mother of God, and all things are mine, and God Himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and all for me.

What do you ask then and seek, my soul? Yours is all of this and all is for you. Do not engage yourself in something less, nor pay heed to the crumbs that fall from your Father’s table. Go forth and exalt in your glory, hide yourself in it and rejoice, and you will obtain the supplications of your heart.”

After the beatitudes, Our Lord extends the paradoxical invitation of the sermon on the Mount. Although difficult to interpret, it gives a practical example of meekness:

You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if anyone would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you (Mt 5:38-42).

How are we to understand these words, we could ask, which seem so unrealistic in a world where we must often do battle? On a superficial level, the meaning is clear enough, but by no means easy to practice. We must not respond to evil with evil. Revenge causes evils to multiply and spread, while we become their accomplices. Only forgiveness halts the cycle of evil.

However, it seems that Our Lord has something else in mind.

It is not that He asks us to practice literally what He says, turning the other cheek, not claim our rights and so on. It is something legitimate to defend ourselves and especially to defend the weak against aggression and violence. It is sometimes necessary to claim someone’s rights, taking a legal action against an employer who doesn’t pay me for what I’ve earned, for example.

But also in other situations, the Holy Spirit invites us not to defend ourselves, not to protect ourselves, not to make any claims, to give more than what simple justice requires in order to give oneself entirely to God.

And why is this sometimes necessary?

Because to escape entrapment in our fears and defense mechanisms, in our avarice and calculations, we must sometimes put these things aside for the sake of being truly free.

The Holy Spirit sometimes calls upon us to transcend the logic of fairness and simple justice, and rise to a level of interior spiritual combat at which we fight ourselves instead of fighting others.

In this way, evil is defeated at its root and not simply in its manifestations. Evil is defeated by submitting to it, as Jesus did, in the knowledge that it is better to submit to evil than to commit it. And abundant love is the correct response to abundant evil.

Sometimes we have to accept certain injustices, lest we become unjust and always demand that we be given what we consider our due. It is not a general rule for every situation, but a particular call in some circumstances, and a call that every disciple of Christ must heed at certain points in his or her life.

Human justice cannot resolve all the world’s problems. Only the madness of charity will get to the bottom of evil. Sometimes, we must simply insist on justice for love of Christ and our neighbor, for our own conversion, for love of peace. This may mean accepting it when we are misunderstood, judged, or hurt, silently giving ourselves over to God who alone judges with justice.

And thus, we are freed from our calculations and our human defenses, so that we enter into the poverty that empowers us to place ourselves entirely in God’s hands. At such times, we are called to suffer injustice as a way of being in communion with Christ in His Passion. Only an excessive love can save the world. And here, we are already in the territory of the beatitude of those who accept persecution.

We cannot speak of meekness without saying a word about anger, because controlling anger is essential to the practice of meekness.

Our Lord puts it bluntly: You have heard that it was said to the men of old, you shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment (Mt 5:21-22).

To feel anger is normal. It is one of the most common emotions, but we cannot simply give into it, because anger can become a sin, one of the seven deadly sins that may lead to many others. In giving in to anger, it becomes destructive for others and for ourselves.

But there is such a thing as holy anger. The Gospels sometimes show Our Lord as angry. But this is never on His own behalf, but on the behalf of the little ones, or fundamental spiritual realities like that of the holiness of the temple. God’s anger is always directed against what is bad for us. He is not angry for Himself, but to protect people against themselves.

But we shouldn’t imagine our anger is always a holy anger. Fast temper can be fast pride. Often, we become angry under the pretext of defending something essential, when we are actually only acting out of self-love or to protect our interests.

At its most basic level, anger is the reaction of the animal defending its territory because it is necessary to its survival. But it is also the normal reaction to injustice, expressing the need for justice and truth essential to life.

But anger can also become negative, lashing out violently at another, or masking an egotistical interest. If consumed by anger, we can do a lot of harm to others and to ourselves. An angry heart loses its peace, its lucidity, and its freedom. Anger brings its progress in love to a halt.

Losing one’s temper may be excusable, as St. Paul says, but the sun must not go down on our anger. But do not be angry, but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil (Eph 4:26-27). Sometimes we can’t help throwing a tantrum, but it is very necessary that we would go to sleep in peace. There is a duty to react against injustices, but a larger duty to maintain interior peace.

How do we manage our angry reactions, we could ask ourselves? Well, first of all, we need to take note of the fact that we’re angry, know how to express it to ourselves, identify it, identify its causes. Sometimes we need to speak with someone who can help us to manage it. Anger that is unadmitted, unexpressed, and suppressed is destructive.

Then we need to ask ourselves the question, just what good am I trying to defend with this anger? Is this a real, objective good? Or only something I’ve turned into a good to be defended at all costs, and it’s really nothing of the kind?

Some people get angry at the breaking of any little rule of their particular group, but under the pretext of defending the rule, they’re defending their psychological need for security, as if were the rule not respected, the whole world would collapse. Rules are useful, but it is God’s mercy and not rules that saves the world.

The good defended by our anger is often nothing vital, and sometimes illusory, in which case it is hardly worth making a fuss about.

If the good our anger is defending is objective and real, we need to ask a second question. Is it my responsibility to defend it? Sometimes we can get annoyed ourselves over causes whose defense isn’t up to us, but someone else.

It is not our duty to save the whole world, to correct all problems. Discerning what is and isn’t our responsibility can be hard, but necessary. There are some things we need to stop worrying about and leave to someone else, or maybe even to God.

And if I’m angry in defense of a real good for which I’m really responsible, there’s another question we have to consider: What is the least violent, least destructive way of defending this good? What realistic means to defend it do I have available? The answer is necessary in deciding what to do.

Testing our anger by submitting it honestly to these questions in the light of God and with trust, we’ll be able to handle our anger more rationally, directing the energy it generates to accomplish good and not do evil. Someone else’s advice might be needed in doing this, because our strong feelings or the hurt we may have suffered can make it difficult.

Meekness towards oneself is thus a necessary step in attaining meekness towards others.

St. John of the Cross says the meek are those who know how to suffer their neighbor and themselves.

With the grace of God, anger can disappear little by little from our lives, except for certain involuntary first reactions. And that’s a great benefit for us and for others.

Anger will still be a source of combative energy for justice and courage for truth, but no longer will it be a violent, negative passion, and everyone will be the better off for that.

In relation to anger with ourselves, usually no more justified or productive than anger against others, we could quote St. Francis de Sales, who says, “One important direction which summarizes gentleness is with respect to ourselves. Never growing irritated with oneself or one’s imperfections, for although it is but reasonable that we should be displeased or grieved at our own faults, yet we ought to guard against a bitter, angry or peevish feeling about them” (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life).

Many people may fall into the error of being angry because they have been angry, or they’re angry because they’ve given way to anger. And so they keep up a chronic state of irritation, which adds to the evil of what is past and prepares the way for a fresh fall on the next occasion.

All this anger and irritation against oneself can foster pride and spring entirely from self-love, which is disturbed and fretted by its own imperfection.

And so, if we have fallen in these areas, we are invited to lift up our heart in quietness, humbling ourselves before God because of our weakness, without marveling that we fell. There’s no cause to marvel because weakness is weak or infirmity infirm.

“Heartily lament”, said St. Francis de Sales, “That you should have offended God, and begin anew to cultivate the lacking grace with a very deep trust in His mercy and with a bold, brave heart” (Introduction to the Devout Life).

Acquiring evangelical meekness presupposes taking steps to ensure that our hearts do not harden.

Scripture often denounces the hardening of hearts. What causes that hardness?

Well, first of all, pride.

As humility leads to meekness, so does pride lead to the hardening of the heart. And this is especially so of the worst sort of pride, spiritual pride, which leads us to think ourselves better than others and to attribute to ourselves the good things we accomplish.

Pride in its various forms, the pride of knowing, of power, of intelligence, closes us off from others. The Pharisees had a lot of this pride in regard to the little people.

If our achievements or our degrees lead us to judge others, then perhaps we would be better off without them.

Another fundamental source of hardness, according to Scripture, is lack of faith and trust in God.

In the letter to the Hebrews, there’s a commentary on Psalm 95. It says, today if you hear my voice, harden not your hearts (Heb 4:7). The author of Hebrews clearly attributes this hardening to disbelief, a lack of trust in God and obedience to Him, which is an obstacle to entering into His rest. The rest which God has prepared for His people.

Lack of faith can rob us of our peace; it can imprison us in our fears and anxieties. And these can then harden us and sometimes even make our hearts violent. The virtues of trust and hope do the reverse, softening, opening, making available and welcoming others.

A society that loses its faith, whose people no longer trust in God, and where hope extends no further than the present life, is a society threatened by hardness. Where faith disappears, so do love and tenderness. Some of this may sound familiar in today’s society.

Another cause of the hardening of our heart, against which Our Lord strongly warns us, is the attachment to money and material wealth. Money can be a good servant but a bad master. A heart ruled by love of money grows very hard. The rich man in the parable in the Gospel feasts daily in sumptuous ways and wears marvelous clothes, unconcerned about the misery of Lazarus at his gate, who receives more compassion from the dogs who lick his wounds than from the rich man (Lk 16:19-21).

Attachment to money and avarice often come from fear of want and lack of confidence in Divine providence. And this can point to another cause of hardness which is fear.

Our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount cautions us against worrying about tomorrow, in the knowledge that a heart preoccupied with worry will inevitably grow hard.

Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day (Mt 6:34).

Failure to accept suffering can be another cause of hardening of the heart. The management of suffering is a difficult and complex question. But it can be said that some people become humble, meek, or understanding of others through the experience of suffering, while others can become bitter, disappointed, even assertive and aggressive, as if they now had a right to make others suffer.

If suffering is not to become an occasion of hardness, it needs to be accepted and entrusted to God. In this way, suffering will acquire meaning as an occasion for the action of the Holy Spirit. We do not have any right to isolate ourselves or harden our hearts because of our sufferings. We should open ourselves to God’s consolation, which is one of the subjects of the beatitudes.

And so the hardening of the heart can be a source of lack of faith and trust in God. It is one of the reasons why, after charity, the virtue that Our Lord speaks most about is faith.

Our Lady and St. Joseph were full of this virtue, with all the ups and downs and changes of plans and difficult situations that they had to encounter along their pilgrimage of faith. We see them accepting with humility, with gentleness, with love, the things that God wants for them.

And so, Mary, help us to grow in this virtue of meekness, to understand it, and to put it into practice in greater ways each day, so that we can be more like your beloved Son.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

NJF