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Part 3 of a special eight part series, A New Look at the Beatitudes, using The New Testament: An Expanded Translation, by Kenneth Wuest.

“Spiritually prosperous are those who are meek because they themselves shall inherit the earth.”
–Matthew 5:5

This has either been used to persuade people to shut up, lie down, and be run over, or it has been a point of rebellion by those who consider passivity unintelligent and harmful. But if we look at the Greek text we will see the actual idea in Jesus’s mind.

Praus means mild and gentle. This does not mean insipid, banal, bland, vapid, feeble, and timid–all “virtues” of the ineffectual and those who would render others ineffectual. Jesus does not want us to become squeaking mice.

Mildness and gentleness are symptoms of the truly peaceful, those who are at rest in God–and confident. Simplicity is implied here as well. Those who are truly strong are the mild and the gentle. Mildness is not characterlessness, either. It is really difficult to explain what is meant by this beatitude, but if you have ever met a truly enlightened person you know what is meant.

The saints I have met were varied in their personalities and “style,” yet they were all mild and gentle people. This is partially because all saints are perfect in ahimsa–non-injury. They are incapable of harming another. Not because they cannot in a mechanical sense, but because they are above such a thing. Saints can speak plainly–and often do–but never with an “edge” to them. Forgive me, I am talking around the subject, mostly because as I am writing this I am seeing in my mind the radiant and merciful faces of Sri Ma Anandamayi, Swami Sivananda, Sri Maitri Devi, and others that I met in India. They were firm and true, yet they were amazingly mild, gentle, and kind. They would not lie or dissemble, but they were always firm and rational, devoid of any sting or bitterness.

“We should blunt our sharp points,” says the Tao Teh King; and we should. And if we do, we “shall inherit the earth.”

Inherit the earth

Kleronomeo means to be an heir or to inherit. This implies that we are being freely given something through our merit: our meekness. Kleronomeo comes from kleronomos, which means to share in something, to actually possess it. So this is not a figurative matter, but something very literal. And what do the meek inherit? Ge, the earth. Not the “world” of human society and social constructs, but the very earth itself, the world of God’s making as opposed to the world of man’s fevered construction. The land itself will accrue to the meek. How many tyrants and empires have ground the meek into the earth only to vanish and become either forgotten or empty names in historical accounts. But the meek continue and abide upon the earth. The patient and the endurant eventually possess the land.

This is an external truth, and also a spiritual one. Those who remain sober, calm, and clear-sighted in their spiritual endeavors, without overblown ideas about their spiritual greatness or what glory they shall obtain, are those that shall attain everything. They shall master both the “earth” and the “heaven” parts of themselves. They shall be kingdoms, reflections of the heavenly kingdom to which they are called. Meekness (mildness and gentleness), then, is the way rather than a martial, brash attitude. Many people turn spiritual life into another craze or passion and burn themselves out in the process. Again, we see the value of the tortoise and the hare story. “In your patience possess ye your souls,” (Luke 21:19) counseled Jesus.

Next: Part 4 of A New Look at the Beatitudes – When Craving is a Good Thing.

Previous posts in this series:
• What Did Jesus Really Say in the Sermon on the Mount?
• The Kingdom of Heaven According to Jesus

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