Meekness is the most universally loved and appreciated of all human qualities. A gentle, kindhearted man is easily known then loved. Everyone feels drawn to him and desires his friendship. What a marvellous attraction, then, must the sweet Heart of Jesus have for men! We read in the Gospels that as many as four-thousand once followed him for three days without having any food. So great was the charm which his gentleness and meekness exuded around him.
Does our meekness come close to that of our Lord? Let us judge it by its fruits. Do we enjoy the sympathy and confidence of our colleagues? Do they seek our company gladly, especially in times of trouble? Or are they aloof from us, afraid of being contradicted?
Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, p327
The Heart of Jesus and the meekness of His actions
During his whole life he received the hatred, calumnies, and insults of the doctors and rulers of the Jews. They told him to his face, before all the people, he worked miracles by the power of Beelzebub, prince of devils. And yet he remained meek to the very end. He may indeed justly say to us, “Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:28-30).
To be gentle and patient is easy when all goes well and everyone is kind and considerate. There is no merit in it here. But to be really meek and humble of heart is to be able to bear wrongs patiently, and to render good for evil, after the example of Jesus Christ.
Let us earnestly strive to do this so that the words of our Lord may be applied to us: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.” (Mt 5:15)
Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp328-9
Meekness of the Heart of Jesus -- ‘Manifested in the sacrifice of His life’
Jesus is innocence itself. He had no sins to expiate. Therefore, he had a full right to enjoy all pleasures of this life. Nevertheless, he made a generous sacrifice of them, passing his whole life subject to most severe sufferings both of body and soul, as no one had ever endured.
The most generous sacrifice one man can make for another is, in our Lord’s words, the sacrifice of his life: to die to save another from death. This, then, is what Jesus has done for each one of us. We can all say with St Paul, ‘He loved me, and delivered himself for me’.
Is this great proof of the love of Jesus ever present in our minds? Does it excite us to gratitude? Does this gratitude appear in works, in a readiness to make sacrifices? Or do we unwittingly evade such chances?
Our hearts are far from the adorable Heart of Jesus.
Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp330-31
The Virgin’s Heart of the ‘Fiat’
The biblical Alliance is never absolute, an accord between two of the same degree. The distance between Jesus and Mary is infinite. On one side there is God, the Eternal, the totally Other; on the other side, a weak human, fragile, mortal. Only love is essential in the Alliance: infinite, merciful and free gift of God, humble, welcoming, grateful of Man.
Alliance is never a private matter. It has a common value. It concerns the whole people. The interlocutor of God, even when he is a single man, cannot act individually, but in the name of all the people.
In the Alliance of Incarnation, the human being ‘making the contract’ is Mary of Nazareth, the Daughter of Zion, personification of the faithful Israel to the Law of the Lord. In the Virgin’s Heart are concentrated Israel’s hopes and expectations. In her words and deeds is expressed the purest spirituality of the chosen people.
The theological tradition of the Church proposed that the ‘representative task’ of Mary of Nazareth is not limited to Israel, but is extending, according to the affirmation of St Thomas Aquinas, to the whole humanity.
The ‘Fiat’ which sprung out from the Virgin’s Heart is the expression of the faithful service of what Israel, the servant, does to Yahweh the Lord. The nuptial assent of the Bride and free word that a daughter of Adam pronounces in the name of the whole human race. Love, mercy and alliance characterize Mary’s Heart.
The Heart that pronounces the salvific ‘Fiat’ is, first of all, an Immaculate Heart, which refers undoubtedly to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Heart that will pronounce the salvific ‘Fiat’ and welcome the Saviour did not know the mystery of original sin, but rather since the first heartbeat, it was full of grace.
In Mary, the ‘corporeal virginity’ and the ‘virginity of the heart’ are perfectly integrated and harmonized. In her the ‘virginity of the heart’ precedes and determines the ‘virginity of the flesh’ -- an effect of an action coming from the Holy Spirit in Mary.
The Heart of the Son and the Heart of the Virgin are united in the splendor of virginity, ie, in the pure and complete faithfulness to the Truth: Christ as the Truth itself and Mary as she who was flooded with the light of Truth.
Ref: I Calabuig in “Alliance of the Two Hearts”, pp123-6
• Memorial: St Josemaria Escrivá -- Founder of ‘Opus Dei’ “a way of sanctification in daily work and in the fulfillment of the ordinary duties of a Christian”. (cf Prayer Card)
• Our Lady of Malabar / Meliapour / Meliapore. India. 1542. The Apostle Thomas was said to have preached in India, and founded the Church of the Syrian Malabar Christians. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Our Lady of Meliapore in the East Indies where St Francis Xavier often retired to pray. — See his Life. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Our Lady of Meliapore, East Indies (1542). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html); (www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (http://mariedenazareth.com)
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