Beatitudes

Third Beatitude

Blessed are the meeks because they will inherit the earth

What is this land that will inherit the meeks? And who are the meeks? Everything that is made manifest to us through the senses is totally relevant to the material and tangible world. Consequently, it is asserted that the Kingdom of Heaven, the perfect world of perfect creatures, is superior to it, if only because of the elevation of the place; yet this is still inferior to the capacity of the intellect, which is impossible to put into practice through reasoning, as long as the intellect fails to extricate itself and emancipate itself from what it perceives through the senses. Man, obscured in the spirit, is therefore not able to understand what God promises him. Therefore Jesus, the God who becomes man, has come down to us because it would have been impossible for us to rise up to him. He hands us the divine mysteries with words and expressions known to us, making use of those comparisons that the custom of life on earth allows us to understand.

It would not have been possible, in fact, that with the proper names and definitions the goods that transcend human sensation and knowledge were revealed to men. The Apostle says: "What an eye did not see, nor ear heard, nor ever could man's heart say, these things have prepared God for those who love him" (1 Cor 2: 9). Therefore, if you have entered heavenly hope, search for the land that is a legacy prepared by God but not for all, but only for those who will be judged worthy, as they will have shown that they love God through the meekness of their lives. David, was meek and patient, showed that he had sensed this promised land by inspiration of the Spirit, when he affirmed: "I am sure to contemplate the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living".
[Ps 27,13]

The prophet has not called the land of the living this, in which we carry out our daily existence and which produces everything that is mortal, disrupts everything that is generated from it. He knew that "the land of the living" is one in which death has no access, in which the way of sinners is not beaten, in which there is no shadow of vice, on which the sower of weeds does not trace the furrow with the plow of wickedness; it is the earth that produces neither pains nor thorns; in it the water of rest flows, green expanses of peace and serenity open up. If our intellect, freed from the corruption of the senses, contemplates the sublime land that extends above the heavens, in which the City of the King is located, of which glorious things are told, as the prophet says, we should not be surprised to find it quoted and promise in the sequential order of the Beatitudes. It would not be convenient if this were the land of blessings offered here to the hope of those who, as the Apostle Paul says, will be raptured in the clouds to meet, in the air, the Lord, so as to remain with him forever. So what need do we still have of the earth below, we who can hope for eternal conjunction with our Creator? In fact "then we, the living, the survivors, together with them we will be raptured on the clouds in the sky to the Lord. Thus we will always be with the Lord".
[1 Thess 4:17]

But how can we become meek to deserve this promise, that land which is fruitful of beautiful fruits, on which the leaves of the tree of life sway, which is irrigated by the sources of spiritual graces, on which the true vine germinates, whose farmer, we hear, is the Father of the Lord? Being mild does not mean being placid or slow in reactions. The carnal man by nature is easily prone to vice, the dangerous choices are taken lightly and without too much hesitation. Meekness consists in keeping watch over the impulses of human nature for as long as we are allowed on this earth. The stillness and calmness towards vices thus become action and movement towards what is superior.

The passions concern material things and each of them has a fast and irrepressible impulse to the fullness of pleasure. For this reason the Lord does not call blessed those who live gathered in themselves, strangers to the passions, but those who, while living in the world, make meekness a virtue that makes them worthy of that promised Beatitude. He does not prescribe impassivity to human nature. The law is proportionate to the corresponding power and according to nature. This is why the invitation to this Beatitude does not exhort us to be without passions, but exhorts us to measure and meekness, which can be achieved through virtue. He does not say that those who desired in some circumstance are condemned, but those who let themselves be attracted by passion with premeditation. Do not let yourself be carried away by the impetus of passion like in a torrent, but remain standing courageously in front of it and rejecting overwhelming passion with pure reasoning, this is the work of virtue!

Blessed are those who do not fall attracted by the passionate movements of the soul, but are kept calm by reason; in them, the reasoning of the incorrupt intellect, holding back the impulses, does not let the soul be dragged into disorder.

Jesus prescribes us the meekness after humility, the one is the foundation of the other and both are the result of a firm choice and a tenacious will. If you eliminate the pride of conduct, the passion of anger has no chance of being born. Truthfulness and dishonor are the cause of such weakness in the wrathful, while disgrace has no hold on those who have educated themselves in humility.

Do not confuse meekness with a calm character or with good-naturedness. Jesus says: "learn from me that I am meek and humble of heart". Meekness is the attitude with which you place yourself before God, that is, letting God do His will on you; the example par excellence of meekness is Mary: "Let it be done to me what you said, I am the servant of the Lord". This is the meekness that God wants of us to leave His land to us. Meekness leads you to bliss, to enjoying in your life, in fact, the fullness of God. This bliss has a very profound sense, because it implies a relationship with God of loving obedience, otherwise you will not be able to enjoy His fullness.

Meekness is therefore love, just as poverty of spirit is. If we are such, we will inherit the land of living, because meekness is charity and humility, and hatred and pride will win: the world of eternal living will be ours, that is God, as we will recognize God as the absolute Master of Creation, which should be given praise and blessing and made everything that is His: "In Him He chose us before the creation of the world to be holy and immaculate before Him in charity, predestining us to be for him adoptive sons through Jesus Christ, according to the plan of love of his will, to the praise of the splendor of his grace, of which He has rewarded us in the beloved Son [...]. In him we were also made heirs, predestined - according to the project of him who works all according to his will - to be praise of his glory, we, who even before we have hoped in Christ. In you too, after hearing the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and having believed in it, you have received the seal of the Holy Spirit that had been promised, which is a deposit of our inheritance, awaiting complete redemption of those whom God has acquired to the praise of his glory".
(Eph 1,3-14).