meek and humble a man with insults, will not return to their senses. Such, throughout, was the conduct of the Son of God, especially in His Passion. ‘ When he was reviled he did not revile; when he suffered, he threatened not.' [1] And again, to the man who gave Him a blow, ‘If I have spoken evil, give testimony of the evil; but if well, why strikest thou me? ’ [2]
To Him, truly, it belongs to say, ‘ Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.' [3] He is rightly compared to a lamb, the meekest of all animals, which not only allows itself to be ‘sheared,’ but was ‘led as a sheep to the slaughter,’ without opening its mouth. [4]
‘ Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.’ The land promised to Abraham is called 'a land flowing with milk and honey.' [5] Everything sweet abounds there; it is the type of Heaven and of the Church. What makes us harsh is the pouring forth upon others of our own inward venom and bitterness. When we have a spirit calmed by possession of the only real good and by the joy of a pure conscience, as there is then nothing bitter within our hearts,
