Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5:5

Notwithstanding the ugly lessons of the world where the clenched fist and jack boot seem to dominate, the Lord offers the fifth beatitude: “blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.” The Lord awards the victory over evil in this world, to the meek; not to the arrogant and the powerful who use vile means to achieve their aims, but to those who “resist evil;” to those who “do good to those who hate them and pray for those who persecute them.”

Jesus is the perfect model of meekness. He says to His followers: “learn from me for I am meek and lowly of heart.” When His enemies picked up stones to throw at Him, He did not throw any back. When His own townsfolk tried to throw Him over a hill, he slipped away from them, unharmed. When He was betrayed by one of His disciples with a kiss, He reacted with love. When a soldier slapped Him on the face, he did not reciprocate in kind. When He hung dying on the cross, He prayed for His executioners: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Meekness: the ability to endure injury with integrity of spirit, takes far more courage than the malfeasance of those who respond to injury with violence. Thus it is the meek who will inherit the land; it is the meek who will survive the “slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune;” and it is the meek who will renew the face of the earth with goodness rather than violence.

The cynic might say: it is the powerful who will inherit the land, not the meek. Sure, the powerful can inherit the land, but what kind of land will they inherit? A land corrupted by evil and selfish ambition! The meek, on the other hand, are wiser for they will inherit the land in this life and in the next by doing God’s will, not man’s.

The promise of the Lord to the meek that they will inherit the land, can be interpreted in two ways. It can represent the Promised Land that awaits the meek in heaven; and it can represent, on earth, the hearts of those who are transformed by Jesus who is “meek and lowly of heart.”

Some of the finest achievements of modern democracy- the defense of the rights of the oppressed; the defense of all life that is threatened; the renewal and protection of our environment; are a direct product of Jesus’ revolutionary teaching that states:
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land.”

Fr. Hugh Duffy

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