All our actions must be gilded with meekness: here's why
There is no area of life which meekness cannot help.
There is no area of life which meekness cannot help.
Editor’s Notes
In this part, Fr Coleridge tells us…
How true meekness is forged not by weakness, but by long warfare against self.
That some of the gentlest saints were naturally fiery, strong-willed, and difficult to govern – and yet they overcame it all
Why meekness becomes the source of courage, obedience, firmness, and charity.
He shows us that Christian meekness is not softness of temperament, but a victorious mastery of self wrought by grace, discipline, and reverence for God.
For more information on this mini-series, see Part I.
The Beatitude of Meekness
The Preaching of the Beatitudes
Chapter IX
St. Matt. v. 3-10; Story of the Gospels, § 31
Burns and Oates, London, 1876.
(Read on All Saints)
Meek saints often naturally wanting in meekness
It has been the case with many of the saints of God who have been famous for the virtue which is ennobled in this Beatitude, that their natural dispositions have been strikingly contrary to the false or imperfect meekness of which we are speaking.
Instead of being naturally apathetic, they have been quick and fiery, more inclined to harshness than to gentleness, aggressive rather than yielding, men of strong will, independent character, decided judgment, to whom docility, obedience, submission, silence when thwarted or opposed, have been qualities of particular difficulty.
Yet these are the men in which the virtue of meekness has been so conspicuous, that persons who have not known their natural character have thought them apathetic and phlegmatic. Injuries and contumely seem to have no effect upon them.
But it is in truth the work of a special and long-cultivated grace which keeps them from breaking out into anger, or even from feeling its movements in their soul.
It has been the work of prayer and long self-discipline, fostered by consideration of the wonderful gentleness of God in dealing with His enemies, of the example of our Lord’s meekness in His Passion, and of the many benefits which imitation of Him in this respect secures for the soul, and by practice of the acts of this and the kindred virtues, with the powerful assistance of grace, that has made them so tranquil, serene, and unruffled, not only externally, but also in the very depths of their heart, and enabled them to go on still further than mere calm endurance, to speak sweetly and lovingly to those who insult them, to turn to them the other cheek, to do them kindnesses and pray for them, and to forget their conduct entirely, except so far as it is a reason for showing them a special charity.
Courage of the truly meek
These are the acts of true meekness, which is therefore the virtue of a manly, brave, and enduring character, requiring the greatest courage and self-control, and often rising to a height at which natural courage fails entirely, as, for instance, in the refusal of opportunities of revenge and in the gentle bearing of an insult at which the blood naturally boils. Heroic acts of this virtue under such trying circumstances have often been rewarded by God with great gifts of grace, high vocations, or splendid miracles.
It is far harder to bear shame and ridicule, and to disregard the false maxims of the world in obedience to the principles of the Gospel, than to endure great sufferings and pain, and to risk life itself in defence of what is considered honour.
Meekness and firmness
It is also to be remembered as to the virtue of meekness, that it is not only quite consistent with the most heroic firmness and constancy in what is good, but it is also an essential condition of true Christian firmness.
Those in whom force of character is merely a natural quality, are likely to be strong and even overbearing in matters which are of little importance, and yet to fail and yield deplorably when principles are at stake. On the other hand, Christian strength of character, so to call it, is founded upon the most absolute meekness and lowliness of heart, which yields in all that is not of importance out of reverence to God, and then, when the trial of principle comes, and some holy truth of faith or rule of the Church has to be maintained against clamour and obloquy and intimidation of every sort, it stands firm as a rock, out of the very same reverence to God which has been the cause of its gentleness on other points.
Thus the most heroic of God’s servants in the Old Testament, such as Moses and David, are noted in sacred Scripture for their remarkable meekness, and the great victories of the Christian martyrs, simple children, or women or men whose lives have never been ruffled by any storm of passion, have been the victories of meekness.
The same gentle submissiveness and pliancy of character runs through the whole generation of the saints, and lies at the foundation of their indomitable fortitude and irresistible courage.
Meekness and obedience
It is the will of God that obedience should be the law of His Kingdom both in heaven and on earth, the law of the human society which He has ordained, as well as that of the supernatural system of which the members of the human society are members by grace. Obedience and subordination, the guidance of inferiors by superiors, who are in their turn illuminated from above, is the law of the heavenly hierarchies, as well as of the Church and men here below.
But obedience and authority equally require meekness in those on whom they are respectively imposed. The ruler, natural and supernatural, lay and ecclesiastic, religious or secular, the sovereign, the husband, the parent, the master in whatever society, spiritual, social, domestic, or voluntary, must rule in meekness and gentleness, as having in himself no claim to authority and so to obedience, but only as having received it as his commission from God for which he must give an account.
And on the other hand, the subject and inferior in all the various forms of society of which we have been speaking requires meekness, docility, control over his self-will and natural love of independence, readiness to put aside his own judgment and distrust his own forces and his own lights, in order that his obedience may have the blessing of God and become prosperous and fruitful.
This holds good in every department of the action of intelligent creatures, in the region of faith and speculation, in the spiritual life, as in intellectual pursuits, in the administration of the Church or of religious communities as well as in the government of the home or of the State. And thus meekness becomes the bond which knits together the whole of the various societies of which God is the author.
Pride, independence, self-will, self-confidence, are as destructive of peace and happiness and prosperity as uncontrolled anger or unrestrained lust.
Meekness and charity
It is plain that a virtue of this universal importance and operation can be no natural gift, and can be founded upon nothing short of that knowledge of God’s supreme dignity and that entire sacrifice of self-will before it to which it has been traced.
This is confirmed in a marvellous manner by what has been observed by some holy writers, that when St. Paul comes to describe charity itself he uses hardly any other colours than those which paint meekness:
‘Charity is patient, is kind, it envieth not, it doth not deal perversely, it is not puffed up, it is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.’1
Almost all these points on which the Apostle insists are characteristic of charity exercising itself in the acts of meekness.
It is meekness that gives patience under adversity, that is the parent of the kindliness and benignity which never repays an injury.
It is meekness that excludes envy at the happiness of another, and that secures against remorse of conscience, because it does no evil.
It is meekness that is not puffed up, because it acknowledges its own unworthiness of all honour, that seeks no pre-eminence because it has no ambition, and escapes the narrowing influence of cupidity, because it seeks not its own.
It is not provoked to anger, because it counts nothing as an injury, it is no prey to evil suspicions, because it thinketh no evil, it has no joy in the misfortunes of others, because it rejoiceth not in iniquity, it is free from delusion and error, because it rejoices in the truth.
It bears up bravely under trial and persecution, because it beareth all things, it hopeth all things from God, and so is safe against despair, it endureth all things, and so can never be broken down.
The Beatitude of Meekness
From:
The Preaching of the Beatitudes
Further Reading:
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1 Cor. xiii. 4-7.