The patient one is also the meek one. In meekness, we have received God’s love so deeply, that we securely possess our own identities. Meekness is not weakness or some type of emotional withdrawal. To be meek, is to have suffered the coming of God’s love so deeply in our hearts, that we finally know who we are. And so we are no longer motivated to act or to choose out of fear or anxiety. These latter are the hallmark of impatient men. Impatient men choose out of fear or anxiety because they choose to relieve their fear, to console and to diminish their fear. But in the meantime, acting out of fear negates the power of their acting, as it flows only from weakness, and not the strength of being in communion with God. This Advent, let us ask for the grace to be meek. The grace to receive his love so deeply, that we finally come to fully possess our identity and banish from our lives all actions that are born in fear or anxiety.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
We highly recommend – The Eucharist and the Hope of Conversion with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. Discerning Hearts Podcast
For more from Deacon James Keating check out his “Discerning Heart” page
