The Psalm and the Beatitude of the Meek
Our Lord refers to a specific Psalm, when he says 'Blessed are the meek.' What does it tell us about this virtue?
Our Lord refers to a specific Psalm, when he says ‘Blessed are the meek.’ What does it tell us about this virtue?
Editor’s Notes
Continuing the mini-series on meekness with Fr Coleridge’s next chapter, our Jesuit priest explains the blessing which is attached to Our Lord’s beatitude.
In this part, Fr Coleridge tells us…
How our Lord rewards the meek with the very goods they renounce.
That true meekness rests on faith, patience, and surrender to God’s providence.
Why Christ quotes David’s Psalm to reveal the triumph of the meek.
He shows us that the meek do not seize the earth by force, but receive it from God as sons awaiting their inheritance.
For more information on this mini-series, see Part I.
The Meek possessing the Land
The Preaching of the Beatitudes
Chapter XIII
St. Matt. v. 4; Story of the Gospels, § 31
Burns and Oates, London, 1876.
Meekness mini-series contents:
Unexpectedness of our Lord’s blessings
The idea of meekness which is thus to be gained from considering its true foundation and exercise and character is certainly very different from that of the natural mildness and softness which are sometimes mistaken for it, but which differ from it altogether both in the root from which they spring and in the weakness which they exhibit under any severe pressure.
In the same way, the blessing which our Lord allots to the meek has at first sight that same character of unexpectedness and paradox which marks also the reward of the poor in spirit, and, as we shall see, the other rewards also which are to follow in the rest of the Beatitudes.
The poor in spirit are rewarded by that to which they seem especially to give up their claim, that is, by wealth, but it is the wealth of the Kingdom of God, not the riches of the world. In the same way, the meek appear especially to renounce the world as far as it is a thing to be possessed as a matter of right, for it is the characteristic of meekness to yield its right to others, not to strive or contend, even for what is lawful, to give way in everything, and so to be a prey to the violence and aggressiveness of others.
Wordly possessions, high position, honour, consideration, and the like, are the ordinary objects of ambition and competition, and their loss is resented with anger, pride, passion, and the desire of revenge. All these passions have no place in the conduct of the meek, whose hearts are subdued and kept down by the vivid faith with which they see their own nothingness, and that they have no right or claim to anything as their own. They therefore neither seek all these objects of earthly desire, nor consider them their own when they have them, nor resist when they are taken from them.
It seems therefore a strange thing that our Lord should allot to them just that very reward which they seem to have renounced, or, at least, to have no taste for, when He says, ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess (inherit) the land’. The blessing which is here pronounced by our Lord has sometimes caused a difficulty, even to Catholic expositors, and, as is often the case, the very difficulty itself, when it is more clearly examined, yields its own fruit of instruction and doctrine.
The meek ‘inheriting the land’
It may be observed, in the first place, that there certainly seems to be a sort of antithesis intended in the expressions used by our Lord, as if the land which the meek are to inherit was put in contrast to the kingdom of heaven which is assigned to the poor in spirit, as well as to that surrender of all earthly considerations and yielding of their own interests which are characteristics of the meek.
It is almost as if our Lord had meant to say, if you are poor in spirit, you have already the kingdom of heaven, and if you are in addition meek you shall have the inheritance of the earth likewise. Again we must remember that the word which the Vulgate translates possidebunt, ‘shall possess,’ is, strictly speaking, to be rendered by the English word ‘inherit’—which implies that the meek shall receive the ‘land’ which is promised them not so much as a gift, or as an acquisition, or a conquest, but by right of inheritance from their Father to Whom it belongs.
The meek, then, are here declared to be those to whom the inheritance of the land shall fall.
Again it is important to remember that our Lord is here, and here alone in the whole chain of the Beatitudes, using the words of sacred Scripture and quoting one of the Psalms of David.
It is natural, therefore, to turn to the Psalm which is quoted for light to help us to understand our Lord’s meaning, as He could not but have intended to refer to the whole passage from which the words which He adopted were taken.
The Psalm quoted by our Lord
The Psalm in which the passage quoted by our Lord occurs may be said to have for its burthen the exhortation to meekness and patience under trial, especially the trial of what seems the unjust exaltation and prosperity of the wicked. It is that which begins: Noli æmulari in malignantibus1—‘Chafe not thyself because of evil doers’—and the phrase ‘inherit the land’ is repeated over and over again like the few notes of music in a long piece which recall and embody the ‘motive’ of the whole.
It is a Psalm that may embody the thoughts with which David encouraged himself to that patient expectation for the promise which had been made him, which was one of his great merits. He left his cause to God when he was persecuted and banished, and would never avenge himself or lift up his hand against Saul, whom he had more than once in his power. God had promised him the kingdom, he had been anointed by Samuel, but he would do nothing to take it to himself, meekly leaving to God to bring about the fulfilment of His promises in His own time.
In the Psalm before us, whether or not it belong to this period of David’s life, the thought of the quiet practice of good by waiting on the Lord, and refraining from all indulgence of the indignation and anger, which are naturally roused by injustice and the prosperity of the wicked, occurs over and over again.
‘Trust in the Lord and do good, and dwell in the land, and thou shalt be fed with its riches.’
‘Cease from anger, and leave rage, have no emulation to do evil—for evil doers shall be cut off, but they that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the land.’
‘For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be, and thou shalt seek his place, and shalt not find it. But the meek shall inherit the land, and shalt delight in abundance of peace.’
‘The Lord knoweth the days of the undefiled, and their inheritance shall be for ever. They shall not be confounded in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be filled.’
‘Such as bless Him shall inherit the land, but such as curse Him shall perish.’
‘The unjust shall be punished, and the seed of the wicked shall perish. But the just shall inherit the land, and shall dwell therein for ever more.’
‘Expect the Lord, and keep His way, and He will exalt thee to inherit the land, when the sinners shall perish, thou shalt see. I have seen the wicked highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus. And I passed by, and lo he was not, and I sought him, and his place was not found.’
We are thus able to gather up the general teaching of this beautiful Psalm, and to see how our Lord’s words may be understood as a promise that the meek shall have that blessing and protection from God’s Providence, which is so constantly mentioned in its successive verses.
Meekness mini-series contents:
From:
The Preaching of the Beatitudes
Further Reading:
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Psalm xxxvi (xxxvii).