By Kristen M. Soley
The Second Beatitude - Blessed are the meek: for they
shall possess the land. (Verse 4)
Merriam-Webster
defines meek as, “enduring injury with patience and without resentment.” In the Bible, it translates Latin mansuetus
or "submissive". 1
Again, Reverend
Ahern, in the book Eight Happy Men, clarifies the meaning of meekness:
The gift of the Holy Ghost called piety is a quality of happiness enabling a man to control his love of himself. Christ’s whole plan for man’s happiness is for man to change the direction of his most Godlike quality, love, from self to love of God through love and service of his neighbor.
Meekness and humility, though related, must not be confused. Humility is one’s attitude under duress toward one’s neighbor. Meekness is the safety catch on the trigger of self-conceit or self-opinion. In a word, in life’s situations humility watches over one’s attitude toward his neighbor; meekness takes care of self. Meekness, then, is gentle, not provoked, indulgent of others, but always watchful over self-opinion. Then, no matter what is said, done, or thought by others, meekness controls the personal reaction, anger, etc., and arouses the power of the soul only when a principle of God is attacked. 2
St. Thomas teaches, “Meekness
then moderates the passion of anger
according to the dictates of reason,
and calms the desire for revenge.
It restrains one from wanting to Inflict Injury for Injury.
It enables one, relying on the Father's
Will, to remain Tranquil
in the face of Wrongs done
him/her.” Saint Paul stressed
the need of this Virtue in his
Letter to the Thessalonians: "See that none of you repays Evil for Evil,
but always seeks to do Good to one another and to all" (1Thessalonians 5:15).” 5
Living out
meekness, St. Catherine Laboure was a young and devout nun. She was humble, gentle, and devout. She was granted beautiful visions from our
Blessed Mother in which Our Lady asked
St. Catherine “to make a medal to promote devotions to the heart of
Jesus and his mother.“ 12 After time had passed, the medal was
created and distributed. From the medal,
many miracles of faith and healing occurred. “Within a few years, the
miraculous medal had spread all over the country and it is still being used as
an object of devotion and obedience in the faith all over the world to this
very day! Saint Catherine led a quiet and humble life of prayers as a Daughter
of Charity, caring for the aged and the infirm, and she died at 70 years old in
her convent, with no public recognition for herself. Many in the convent did
not even know it was Catherine to whom the medal had been revealed. But even from the silent walls of the Rue du
Bac Convent, she had managed to spread the love of Christ around her.” 12
To be meek, in the vocation of wife and mother, is then
temper our love of self, for the betterment of our neighbor, most often our
husband and children. Being meek enough
to take loving reproof, even outright criticism without the response of anger
or retaliation, rather with humble acceptance.
“Be silent when your speech will make another unhappy. Remember, all men search for happiness, or
beatitude.” 2 The only time we are to
act counter to this is if a principle of God is attacked.
“Be tolerant, for you are a magnet attracting those around
you. Act with no hypocrisy or
artificiality; mingle the love of your souls with the lives of others. This is controlled love of self’; this is the
happiness found in meekness.” 2
Sources –
1.
Newadvent.org
2.
Eight
Happy People, Reverend John J. Ahern
3.
Etymonline.com
6.
Happy are
you Poor, Dubay
7.
Volume 6,
Direction for Our Times – Anne the Lay Apostle
8.
Courageous
Virtue, Stacy Mitch (A Bible Study on Moral Excellence For Women)
9.
Catholic.org
11.
The Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord
Jesus Christ – Luisa Piccaretta
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