The Catholic Sun :: Phoenix Diocesan Newspaper

“Meek and mild” — that is how the Blessed Virgin Mary is described in a popular hymn. It is also the way that Jesus describes Himself and what He asks of us (Mt 11:29), “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.” Not surprisingly, then, Jesus includes meekness among those special blessings that He extols in the Beatitudes. The third Beatitude proclaims (Mt 5:5): “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.”

The meekness of Jesus

His enemies mistook Jesus’ meekness for weakness. When He was insulted, He did not return insults. When He was scourged, He suffered patiently, as quiet as a lamb being sheared. When He was unjustly condemned to death, He submitted without protest, for He knew this was happening according to His Father’s will. This was how He would redeem the world.

It was not out of weakness that Jesus suffered, it was out of love; it was for the sake of redemptive love. By His wounds we are healed. The Good Shepherd became the Lamb of Sacrifice. The Great High Priest became the Saving Victim. The one who knew no sin took our sins upon Himself and nailed them to the Cross, thereby bringing an end to them.

Is such self-emptying love an act of one without any power, or is it not an expression of mercy? Jesus never returned evil for evil; instead He overcame evil with good. That is the power of mercy. It is being meek in filial submission to the plan of God.

At first, it may seem that Jesus was submissive to earthly powers, that He obeyed human commands. But, in fact, He was submissive always to the will of His Father, and submissive to earthly powers only insofar as their commands coincided with the Father’s plan. Jesus became obedient unto death, not with an indiscriminate obedience but with a singular one, directed exclusively to His heavenly Father.

Do not fret

Psalm 37 captures incisively the wisdom of the third Beatitude. This rather lengthy psalm catalogues the various attitudes and incidences that challenge our efforts to be gentle and to be calm in the face of turmoil. It teaches us to be confident in the goodness of God. It also urges us repeatedly: “Do not fret… do not fret… do not fret.”

Temptations against meekness are many, the psalmist repeatedly admits. The wicked seem to triumph; the ruthless seem to prevail, while the poor and the lowly seem to become ever poorer and further downtrodden. But the Lord urges us throughout Psalm 37 to trust that His providential hand is at work and that it will succeed at the proper time. For example, the psalmist says: “Be still before the Lord and wait in patience; do not fret at the man who prospers… Calm your anger and forget your rage; do not fret, it only leads to evil. For those who do evil shall perish; the patient shall inherit the land.”

The meek are blest with the grace to keep believing in God, no matter what momentarily may unfold. They have the wisdom to offer a continual sacrifice of praise, come what may. And so, the psalmist exhorts, “If you trust in the Lord and do good, then you will live in the land and be secure. If you find your delight in the Lord, He will grant your heart’s desire.”

Curbing our anger

St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the third Beatitude teaches us how to deal with anger. He wrote: “Meekness moderates anger by subjecting it to right reason… Anger is, on account of its impetuousness, a very great obstacle to one’s free judgment of truth; so meekness, which mitigates anger, makes one self-possessed.”

The meek cultivate and preserve an inner stillness, despite all the bustle of the world around them. They do this, not by abandoning the world and not by disengaging from social activities and personal relationships, but by making attentiveness to God’s voice the first priority of every day. They cultivate a habit of living in the presence of God even outside times of formal prayer.

As the human passion we call anger is stirred up, God gives us the grace to be meek, that is the ability to acknowledge our anger, to judge whether it is justifiable or not, to channel it into actions that serve God’s will, or to surrender it humbly to God. No small effort is required in this process, nor does success come without repeated effort and the help of divine grace. But, as the angel reminded the Virgin Mary (Lk 1:37), “nothing will be impossible for God.”

God’s love will prevail

The meek rely on God in good times and in bad. Thus, they are able to face failure and even ridicule with peace, because they firmly believe in the love of God. They have learned the wisdom of St. Thérèse of Lisieux who said: “Jesus does not demand great deeds. All He wants is self-surrender and gratitude.”

To be meek and humble of heart, as are Jesus and Mary, we need to trust that, in the end, the love of God will prevail. In the long run, it never fails. It may seem to fail and may seem to be impossibly weak and even powerless in comparison to the evil that exerts itself. But, in fact, the meek “shall inherit land.”