Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate tomorrow upon the advantages of meekness, and we shall see that, possessed of this virtue, we can do everything: 1st, in regard to the heart of God; 2nd, in regard to that of our neighbor; 3rd, in regard to our own. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to repress, even when we are alone, the very least movements of impatience, of haste, and of discontent which try to rise within us; 2nd, to behave towards every one with kindness, and to speak kindly to all. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of Our Lord: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls" (Matt. xi. 29).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore the infinite goodness of God, so greatly celebrated in the Holy Scriptures: "Thou, O God, art sweet and mild, and plenteous in mercy" (Ps. lxxxv. 5). Thou callest Thyself Father, Shepherd, Lamb, names which express nothing but sweetness. I admire, O my God, I praise, I bless, I love Thy infinite sweetness, and I ask of Thee a share in it.
FIRST POINT
With Meekness we can do Everything in Regard to the Heart of God.
Meekness is the cherished virtue of God, and that which He beholds with the most complaisance in a soul; by its means our prayers are always favorably received before His throne (Jud. ix. 16). He abases the proud sinner down to the ground, but He sustains meek souls (Ps. cxlvi. 6); He gives them His grace (Prov. iii. 34); He raises and saves them (Ps. cxlix. 4). Moses was listened to by God because of his meekness (Num. xii. 3), and through it he also obtained the grace of holiness (Ecclus. xlv. 4). The whole of the Jewish people, desiring to obtain from God the cessation of His anger, begged it of Him because of the meekness of David (Ps. cxxxi. 1). A meek heart recalls to God the image of His Son, who was meekness itself; and, if Raguel melted into tears on perceiving in Tobias the image of his old and virtuous friend (Tob. vii. 2), could God help loving and kindly receiving the suppliant who bears impressed upon his soul the most striking characteristic of Jesus Christ, namely, meekness? Therefore, the gospel assures us that the meekness with which we treat others will be the measure of the kindness with which God will treat us (Matt. vii. 2; Mark iv. 24); and is not this a very consoling truth?
SECOND POINT
With Meekness we can do all Things in Regard to our Neighbor.
We can do anything with the heart of a man if we treat him with meekness. The apostles converted the world because they made proof of admirable meekness on all occasions and in regard to every one (Titus iii. 2). Meekness dissipates prejudices, does away with repugnances; it commands by praying, it corrects by conjuring; dissimulating the want of consideration and the outrages inflicted by others, it causes them to be repaired by a superabundance of attention and of zeal, which its charms call forth. It makes itself loved by all, even by the worst men, because, instead of bruising the bent reed or quenching the flax which still burns, it receives every one with kindness, speaks tenderly, visits with charity and pities those who suffer. If it has advice to give, reproaches to make, it does all in so kind and amiable a manner, with so visibly loving a heart, that it is felt that it is solely affection, the desire for good, by which it is inspired, and then resistance is but seldom made to it. It redresses errors without wounding him who has made the mistake, it cures the heart without making it suffer; sometimes, even, it persuades by silence in the same way as it charms by speaking. Hence the words spoken by a holy Father, that nothing is difficult to meek men, any more than to those who are humble. There is that in meekness to gain hearts which there is in Providence to rule the world. Providence never abandons anything; it does not allow even a hair to fall from our head without its permission, but it rules everything by such gentle action that we hardly feel it. It leads the march of events by a gradation which is so insensible that it generally escapes our observation, and its strength is in its very meekness. It is thus that meekness governs so powerfully the human heart that it leads it where it will, and that in so sweet a manner that the empire which it exercises is hardly felt at all.
THIRD POINT
With Meekness we can do Everything in Regard to our own Heart.
As long as we maintain our soul in a state of meekness and calmness, we are masters of our passions, and we govern them easily, because then we observe without any difficulty all their movements, and because the powers of our soul not being distracted about other things, we can direct them against the passions. Impatience, that ebullition of weakness angry with its powerlessness, drags us along of itself; but meekness, which is the calmness of strength, renders easy to us the perfection of patience, of charity, of humility, of abandonment to the divine will, of confidence in God, of all the virtues. He who possesses himself always will soon be perfect.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.