Blessed are the meek... or the passive?

Editorial Staff

Recently my beloved grandmother passed away. She always said that we must be patient even when facing injustice and bad behaviour. She would repeat to me, like a litany, theses phrases from the Gospel: “Learn from me as I am meek and humble of heart”, “Charity is patient, is kind, is not provoked to anger, Charity endures all”. But are not theses phrases an invitation to Christians to be passive?

G.F.

Certainly our Lord does not ask us to be passive or submitted but He asks us to be meek and humble in spirit. This means saying even the most awkward things without harshness. Pope Francis has recently invited us to not confuse crisis with conflict. Generally crisis is fruitful for personal and social enhancement. On the contrary conflict always tries to find ‘guilty’ parties to scorn and stigmatize, and ‘righteous’ parties to defend and can lead to destroying confidence and charity. I can imagine your grandmother was not a passive woman but that she was able to adopt a strong position supported by the strength of the Gospel, with ethical rigour but without hardness and bitterness. It is a very challenging path but one worth while.