‘Blessed are the Meek, they shall inherit the Earth’ (Matt5:5)
‘Learn from me’ Jesus says, ‘I am meek and humble of heart and you shall find rest for your souls’. This is one of the deepest Beatitudes for me, full of opposites fighting for our attention and support. How can the Meek inherit the Earth? Why should they? Who are they anyway? What have they ever done?
Meekness, in this context, refers to quietness of spirit, gentleness, patience, prayerfulness, stillness. It calls us to tap into these qualities, which we all have in us. The Beatitudes are a call to reignite the virtues that we already posess but may choose to ignore or may be buried under the rubble of life.
Jesus calls us to more, to break free of the bonds of purely earthly thought so we may go beyond the glass ceiling of: who we limit ourselves to be, who the world says we should be or how we think we have to be. When we are still, humble, patient, gentle, even in the midst of all that goes on around us, then we are meek. St Agustine tells us how when he says ‘My heart will not rest, Lord, until it rests in You’.