It’s been said that God is more concerned about our character than he is our comfort. God knows how to engineer circumstances to develop our inner person. Among the virtues Jesus desires to develop within us are meekness and humility. He says, “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.” Today I would like to focus on meekness.
Meekness is a misunderstood and thus an unattractive virtue. Jesus taught, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth,” but today’s culture proclaims, “Blessed are the strong for they shall conquer the world.” Meekness is considered weakness.
What is meekness? Is it passive submission or cowardice? Does it mean being indecisive, a pushover, or being taken advantage of? Meekness is not weakness but strength. Meekness is “strength under control.”
Meekness keeps us from acting impulsively, acting and saying things that we later regret. It is the virtue that keeps us from lashing out; inflicting injury when we have been injured. [Throw a stone at me and I will throw a boulder at you!] Meekness keeps anger in check. It is gentleness amid provocations. It maintains peace.
From the world of agriculture, Jesus takes the image of the yoke, the wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two oxen so that they can plow fields evenly. In other words, the yoke helps the farmer tame and steer the oxen in the right direction. The yoke the Lord would place on our shoulders is meekness. Jesus says, “Learn from me!”
Throughout, the gospels show us how Jesus embodied this virtue. Jesus was patient with the defects of his disciples, and indulgent when they failed to grasp his teaching. Our Lord’s meekness is revealed most clearly during his Passion where there is no wrath, there are no threats. Jesus is in control, freely fulfilling his Father’s will.
St. Paul tells us that as we pass through the world, we must spread the “fragrance of Christ.” Meekness is a vital ingredient to that fragrance.
In 1988, I attended the Erasmus Lecture in Manhattan delivered by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. A few minutes into the talk on Scripture, people in the audience began standing up and shouting various insults and obscenities at the future Pope Benedict XVI. It went on for a long time. Throughout it all, Cardinal Ratzinger remained silently and calmly at the podium. After the agitators were escorted out of the church, the Cardinal said, “They came to say what they wanted to say, I will now continue with what I came to say.” Amid hostility, the meek future Pope brought the fragrance of Christ.
What of us? How do we react to those occasional “relational collisions” when we feel the need to lash out, to return injury for injury? Fr. Salvatore Canals wrote, “Those who do not know the meekness of Christ leave behind them a cloud of discontent, a wake of animosity and bitterness, a trail of wounds which do not heal, a chorus of laments and a string of hearts closed—for a while at least—to the action of grace.” [Jesus as Friend, p.40]
Meekness turns potential brick walls into open hearts and rocky ground into fertile soil. We are not angels, to be sure, but let us learn from our Divine Teacher, who was meek and humble of heart.