18TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Please, not this! Pray, heal her! 

Isn’t it remarkable how Moses reacted to the envy of his sister, Miriam, and his brother, Aaron? They had used his marriage to a Cushite woman against him as a pretext for their own ambitions. But instead of taking pleasure in God’s punishment of Miriam, Moses interceded to the Lord on her behalf. How was he able to do this? He was “the meekest man on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3).

Meekness is often confused with weakness or submission, but that’s not really the case. St. Basil defined meekness as “patiently enduring the evils” of life. St. Alphonsus Liguori said it involved overcoming “hatred by love,” and offering a “soft answer” so as to extinguish the “fire of wrath.” When we are meek, we bear insults without responding in kind, and we have a disposition to forgive the offenses done to us.

This is what meekness looked like in Moses: he patiently endured the evil done against him and overcame his siblings’ envy with love and mercy. Surely such a response didn’t come easy for Moses. This was his very own sister and brother saying these harsh things about him—and after all they had been through together! Yet Moses chose to forgive them.

Each of us can probably think of a person who has offended us or who rubs us the wrong way. These are the folks whom the Lord invites us to respond to with meekness. This does not mean we submit passively to poor treatment. Instead, it requires strength—the strength of the Holy Spirit. It’s a strength that grows over time as we stay close to the Lord and become so secure in his love that we don’t feel the need to strike back. Perhaps that was the reason why Moses was able to respond as he did—and why he was called the meekest man on earth.

Of course, we won’t get it right every time. But if we ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to grow in meekness, we will eventually learn to respond to other people just as Jesus did: with patience, forbearance, and mercy.

“Jesus, help me to be meek, as you are.”

Psalm 51:3-7, 12-13
Matthew 14:22-36
Numbers 12:1-13

WORD AMONG US