Lent - Week 03b
Meekness
(From Conversation with God, Fernandez Carvajal)Meekness does not go with being feeble or character less. On the contrary, it is founded on great spiritual strength. The very practice of this virtue calls for continuous acts of such strength. Just as, according to the Gospel, the poor are those who are truly rich, so the meek are those who are truly strong. Blessed are the meek because they, in this world's warfare, are protected against the devil and against earthly persecutors. They are like glassware so well packed into straw or hay that it is not broken when it is struck. Meekness is like a strong shield which blunts and shatters the sharp arrows of anger. The meek are like people dressed in garments of thick quilted cotton which protect them without harming anyone else. Anger in all its many forms is the material on which this virtue has to work. Meekness controls and directs it, so that it is aroused only when necessary and to the extent to which it is necessary.
"Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart." Comparing it to the majesty of God, who has made Himself a Baby in Bethlehem, we see our own life in its real proportions. And what could have seemed an enormous trial shrinks to its true insignificant size. As we contemplate the birth of Jesus we find that our prayer comes alive, our love becomes wider and deeper and our peace more unshakeable. Close to Him, we learn to consider the various happenings of our everyday life in His presence and so give them their true value, to be silent sometimes when we would have liked to speak, to smile, to be nice to everybody, to wait for the right moment in which to correct a fault. At the same time, we are ready to leap to the defense of truth and the interests of God and of other people with as much force as may be necessary. For there is no opposition between meekness, closely connected as it is with humility, and a righteous anger against injustice. Meekness is not a shelter for cowardice.
An anger which protects the rights of other people is righteous and holy; and most especially the sovereignty and holiness of God. We see the righteous anger of Jesus against the Pharisees and traders in the Temple. Our Lord found the Temple turned into a den of robbers, a place where there was no reverence, given over to business which had nothing to do with the true worship of God. Our Lord was terribly angry, and showed it by word and deed. The Evangelists have shown us few scenes as forceful as this one. And yet, together with His righteous anger with those who prostitute that holy place, Jesus shows us simultaneously his great compassion for the needy. And the blind and the lame came to him in the Temple and he healed them.
Meekness sets its face against those pointless displays of violence which at bottom are signs of weakness, such as impatience, irritation, bad temper and hatred. It is opposed to all useless waste of energy in unnecessary anger, which so often originates in little things that might have been passed over in silence or with a smile, and which never has any useful results. Those explosions of bad temper between husband and wife, which can gradually corrode true love, stem from a lack of this virtue. So does irritability, with its serious consequences for the bringing up of children. The same lack of meekness destroys our peace in prayer, because instead of talking to God we brood over our injuries. It is the absence of meekness which leads to that bad temper in conversation which makes even the most solid arguments powerless to convince.