ON MEEKNESS, PIETY AND RECONCILIATION

ON MEEKNESS, PIEY AND RECONCILIATION ON MEEKNESS, PIEV AND RECONCILIATION JOHN P. HITTINGER We have much to learn from Saint John Paul II concerning the evange­ lization of the modern world. At the end of his Apostolic Exhortation Rec­ onciliation and Penance he invokes the Sermon on the Mount and explains how the Church's mission of penance and reconciliation emerges out of the Beatitudes.7 Much like Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, Saint Meekness is one of the most derided of the Christian virtues, often taken to mean weakness and indiference to injustice as well as a lack of action.! Machiavelli2 and Nietzsche3 are the most eminent examples of the identi­ fication of meekness with the alleged weakness and "effeminacy" of the with Dominum et Viviicantem, provides a very important context for under­ Christian teaching. It is not in the scope of our paper to engage the modern quately understand the teaching concerning meekness itself, as interpreted reason why St Augustine and Thomas Aquinas associate the gift of piety by the Common Doctor, in order to formulate a proper response. St Thomas understands the beatitudes to be a refutation of common opinions concerning human happiness and a progressive unfolding of true beatitude.5 I follow the work of Father Pinckaers in seeing the importance and pivotal role of the beatitudes in the thought of Aquinas. As a philoso­ pher approaching these texts, I appreciate his remark that a serious consid­ eration of St. Thomas's teaching on beatitude and the Beatitudes must go beyond "the philosophical fa:ade" and lay bare "the evangelical foundation and spiritual content of his teaching".6 ! W illiam Barclay rightly observes that "In our modern English idiom the word 'meek' is hardly one of the honorable words of life. Nowadays it carries with it an idea of spinelessness, and subservience, and mean-spiritedness. It paints the picture of a sub­ missive and ineffective creature". The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1 revised (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 2001), p. 96. 2 Through Christianity, and specifically by Catholicism, "the world has been made efeminate and Heaven disarmed". (Machiavelli, Discourse II.2). See Harvey Mansield, Machiavellis New Modes and Ord�rs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), pp. 194-196,237,304; and Machiavellis Virtues (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 31, 73. 3 From The Anti-Christ: "What is good? ll that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man. What is bad? ll that proceeds from weakness. W hat is happiness? - The feeling that power increases - that a resistance is overcome". Aphorism 2. 4 Pope Benedict discusses Nietzsche inJesus cf Nazareth: From the Baptism in theJordan to the Trantguation (San Francisco,Ignatius Press,2008). He refers to the important work by Henri de Lubac, The Dama cfAtheistic Humanism (New York: Meridian Books,1963). 5 "Yet it should be known that all complete happiness is included in those words: for all men seek happiness, but they differ in judging about happiness; and therefore, some I - - 1 spirituality of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ".8 This document, along standing the beatitudes as a program for evangelization of the modern world, especially his profound and original exploration of the "mystery of thinkers and their interpretation of Christianity.4 But we do need to ade' 108 John Paul II refers to the beatitudes as "the original and transcendent syn­ thesis of the Christian ethic, and more accurately and profoundly of the The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Progamme for All Time and for Every Culture piety". The insights of Saint John Paul II assist greatly in understanding the with the beatitude of meekness. seek this and some that. ... AII' those opinions are false, although not in the same way. Hence, the Lord rejects all of them". Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 1-12, English-Latin edition (Wyoming: Aquinas Institute, 2013), libe' 5, lectio 2 (Reportatio Petri de Andria). "According to Aquinas, the Beatitudes give us the Lord's response to our chief desire, our longing for beatitude.This is the quesion the philoso­ phers tried to answer in their search for wisdom. For St. Thomas, the Lord presents him­ self as a teacher of wisdom, the Doctor par excellence, who communicates to us the knowledge of God concerning true beatitude. Christ's answer is progressive. It discards one after another the four principle human responses, made chicly by the philosophers, and rises by degrees to true beatitude". Servais Pinckaers,"Aquinas's Pursuit of Beaitude: From the Commentary on the Sentences to the Summa Theologiae", in The Pinckaers reader: Renewing Thomistic Moral Theor, edited by John Bernann and Craig Steven Titus (Wash­ ington, D.C.:The Catholic University of America Press, 2005), pp. 104-105. 6 This teaching is "one of the most beautiful ruits of his theological wisdom". Servais Pinckaers,"Aquinas's Pursuit of Beatitude: From the Commentary on the Sentences to the Summa Theologiae" and "Beatitude and the Beatitudes in Aquinas's Summa Theologiae". Also useful is The Divine Pity:A Study in the Social Implications of the Beatitudes, by Gerald Vann,OP (London: Sheed and Ward, 1946). 7 "This exhortation is completely permeated by words which Peter had heard from Jesus himself and by ideas which formed part of his 'good news': the new commandment of love of neighbor; the yearning for and commitment to unity ; the beatitudes of mercy and patience in persecution for the sake of justice; the repaying of evil with good; the forgiveness of offenses; the love of enemies . ... I entrust to the Father, rich in mercy, I entrust to the Son of God, made man as our redeemer and reconciler, I entrust to the Holy Spirit, source of unity and peace,this call of mine,as father and pastor,to penance and reconciliation. May the most holy and adorable Trinity cause to spring up in the church and in the world the smal seed which at this hour I plant in the generous soil of many human hearts" §35. 8 Conclusion to his 1984 Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliation and Penance §35. The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Programme for All Time and for Every Culture 109 JOHN P. HITTINGER Our paper will have three parts.We shall explore, irst, the nature of meek­ ness, the "unnamed virtue", and the challenges of the beatitude; and second, the gift of piety as correlated with meekness; and third, the mystery of piety and reconciliation according to Saint John Paul II. By exploring the relation­ ship between meekness and piety, as it is illuminated by the Angelic Doctor and John Paul II, we will conclude that Meekness, the forgoing of anger and the sweetness of spirit towards others, is an act of the Christian that demon­ strates the love of God, and a readiness to be reconciled with his brothers. In this way, it is no weakness or failing on the part of the religious to act for jus­ tice. To the contrary, it is a supernatural achievement, a movement of the Holy Spirit, by which the wayfaring Christian acts for his proper end in witness to truth and in service to others during his temporal life. On Meekness, the unnamed virtue, and Meekness the Beatitude Meekness, upon closer inspection, turns out to be a very peculiar virtue, and the philosophical account of it betrays inner tensions in its meaning. Meekness as a beatitude, pushes these tensions to a breaking point, but a proper understanding of true beatitude brings us back to a coherent account of its importance and role in human life and Christian witness. Ulrich Luz comments that "the understanding of the beatitude of the QaEi� is made extraordinarily dificult by the semantic open-endedness of the word".9 In the Summa, St Thomas explains that meekness is comple� in its meaning insofar as the term could refer to a virtue, a beatitude as well as a fruit of the spirit.lo He would have us irst take a good look at the philo­ sophical meaning of a term. I I The distinctive Christian meaning, the beat1. 9 lrich Luz,Matthew 1-7:A Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press,1992). The meek as the "anawim" or poor ofI saiah 61:1 plays a great role in a proper exegesis. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI explains this with great insight inJesus jNazareth.I do not attempt to make a proper exegesis of the biblical text according to modern methods. But rather I shall approach the text of Aquinas as a philosopher.I will assume the parameters that he imposes on the text,such as the reduction to seven beatitudes,with the correlation of each with a virtue and a gift of the Holy Spirit,as derived rom St. Augustine's Commen­ tary on the Sermon on the Mount. And we shall work with his approach to meekness primarily as a quality of soul pertaining to anger as through the Greek terminology. Betz suggests that the Greek meaning of the word should be fundamental in our exegesis. See Hans Dieter Betz, The Sermon on the Mount (Minneapolis: Fortress Press,1995),pp. 124-128. 10 The beatitudes are acts of virtue: while the fruits are delights in virtuous acts. Wherefore nothing hinders Ileekness being reckoned both virtue, and beatitude and fruit.II -II q. 157,a. 1,ad 3. II Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics by Thomas Aquinas translated by C. 1. Litzinger,o.. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company,1964,2 volumes. 110 The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisatian Programme for All Time and for Every Culture ON MEEKNESS, PIEY AND RECONCILIATION itude and the fruit of the Holy Spirit, both supernatural, will come by way of overlap and contrast with the philosophical meaning. It will be yet an­ other case of grace presupposing nature, and perfecting it. The term meek (praus Qao�), is to be found in the writings of the Greek thinkers, often designating the tame and gentle as opposed to the wild and dangerous, applying to animals as much as to human beings.1 2 In the Histoy Animals Aristotle describes the ox as "good-tempered (praus), sluggish, and little prone to ferocity". Aristotle, of course, argues that human character, a habitual way of acting, is derived rom knowledge and consistent choice.The natural temperaments of meekness or ferocity do not constitute human virtue, insofar as knowledge, choice and consistency must be factors.13 Meekness pertains to the irascible appetite, or anger. Anger assists one in achieving a dificult or arduous good, and to combat evils and obstacles. In the Rhetoric, Aristotle defines anger as "a desire, accompanied by pain, for apparent retribution, aroused by an apparent slighting against oneself or those connected to oneself, the slighting being undeserved" (Rhetoric 11.2): In this passage we can appreciate how anger is permeated by a social and political context, and therefore distinctively human. Anger is more than an impulse emerging out of sensible appetite, as it is for the animal, but as a response to perceived slight, a reason informed response, as well a deeply acculturated dimension of the human being.14 We discover the nature of meekness, then, by looking both to the animal kingdom in the contrast be­ tween the wild and gentle, that is, as domestication renders an animal gentle (mansuetudo, accustomed to the hand) and also to the political world of competition and cooperation. The second field of tension in our account of meekness is discovered within the very naming of meekness as a mean state between an excess and deiciency. Aristotle claims that the virtuous mean is unnamed, but the term meekness, or gentleness derives from the side of the defect; we name the excess or vice by the passion itself, anger or irascibility. But the virtue is not 12 See Aristotle,"Moreover,some creatures are tame and some are wild: some are at lltimes tame,as man and the mule; others are at all times savage,as the leopard and the wol; and some creatures can be rapidly tamed,as the elephant. ... Some are good- tem­ pered,sluggish,and little prone to ferocity,as the ox; others are quick tempered,ferocious and unteachable,as the wild boar". History jAnimals, 1.1 488b22, also Xenophon, Cy­ ropaedia, 2.1.29 and Anabasis 1.4.9; Euripides, Bacchae 436; Plato Republic, 566e,375c. 13 See critique of ferocity as a quality similar to courage in Nicomachean Ethics, Book III c. 8 1116b23ff. 14 Plato's account of the spirited part of the soul,in its distinction rom appetite and reason,is a helpful account of the soul. The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisatian Programme for All Time and for Evey Culture 111 ON MEEKNESS, PIEY AND RECONCILIATION JOHN P. HITIINGER a defect; and anger is not a vice in and of itsel. In the Ethics, Aristotle ob­ serves that "to be angry with the right person at the right time, and for the denial of human nature. Third, the lack of anger is connected to sloth and a failure to rise to the performance of justice, warding off injury. For these right purpose and in the right way - that is not within everyone's power reasons, lack of anger is blameworthy. the other. So we learn about the mean as we pull in from the extremes. It appetite. The agent must fall neither to defect, such as apathy and failure to and that is not easy" (Bk III). Most people tend to verge to one extreme or Meekness, as a rational, acquired virtue, is the regulation of the irascible is a matter for judgment to determine how far one can go towards the de­ act, or to the excess, in retaliation or indulgence of anger. Both excess and excess. The tendency towards defect is praised when mildness facilitates so­ serve to highlight the paradox of the beatitudes. Thomas explain forthrightly fect and not give up virtuous mean, or how far one may verge towards the cial community, and the tendency towards excess is praised as a sign of man­ defect are blameworthy. This understanding of the virtue of meekness will the distinctive quality of the beatitude when he says that a man is withdrawn liness and a capacity for rule. Yet the excess is more opposed to the virtue from the irascible passions "by a virtue, so that they are kept within the vengeance after injury, so it must be formed and controlled. In the Summa more excellent manner, a man, according to God's will, is altogether undis­ because it is harder to observe restraint as we are more inclined to seek bounds appointed by the ruling of reason", and only by a gift when "in a theologiae (II-II q. 157) St Thomas considers both clemency and meekness turbed by them" (I-II as forms of temperance. Meekness is considered a form of temperance in­ 69.3). He repeats this notion in the Commentary on the Gospel ofMatthew, namely that there are two modes of restraint of anger. sofar as the mode of the principal virtue is the exercise of restraint and There is the absence of anger and there is the restraint of anger. But "he anger, thereby removing an impediment from clemency or justice. Those according to Ambrose. It is beyond human power. 16 are cruel and savage. Meekness is also a form of restraint when anger may the Beatitudes, as a lack of anger, not amount to a defect, a vice of apathy, meekness is a restraint of anger. Its function is to diminish, abate or restrain who lack the capacity of restraint often lack the "affectum humanum" and impede the judgment of truth. Thomas follows Aristotle in a consideration of defect and excess in order to glean the manner of the virtuous mean. The lack of anger may signiY an apathetic person having no feeling or not perceiving pain; the agent fails to stand up to defend himself and endures all manner of insult. On the side of excess of anger are the hot tempered, the sullen, and the ill tempered.15 who is meek does not grow angry". The absence of anger is very dificult On the schema of the natural virtues does the meekness called for by or simply impossible because above human capacity ? Is the absence of anger not blameworthy according to reason? Is this not why the modern activists and political philosophers condemn it? This would be a hasty conclusion, since there are openings to consider the goodness of the lack of anger rom the side of reason, as we have seen. Anger should serve reason and not form or rather deform rational judgment; pleasure in retaliation should not be Thomas concludes that the virtuous man is "not disturbed internally in the the reason for action. But a more profound reason for seeing that anger choice, for reason determines the objects of anger and the length of time ing of both Aristotle taken up by Thomas Aquinas that the true essence of judgment of reason by anger" and second, "he is not led by anger in external within which anger should react". As for the defect, Thomas explains that could have a point to which it should not be engaged would be the teach­ courage lies more in in endurance than attack (II-II 123.6). Thus it could the Stoic conception, apathy, is not a correct account of meekness. Absence of anger is truly a moral defect and would indicate a lack of wisdom. It is failure to understand good and evil. Further, anger assists the agent in acting promptly and vigorously, flowing from a judgment of reason considering injustice and the oeed for vindication. Therefore to deny anger its place is tantamount to denying the purpose of sensitive appetite and therefore a 15 The hot tempered are quick to anger but also our quick to subside in their anger; the sullen do not express their anger and carry a grudge; the ll tempered are perma­ nently dispose to harm and punish others. 112 / The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Progamme for All Time and for Every Culture 16 But lest anyone suppose that poverty is suicient for happiness,he shows that it is not; indeed, meekness, which puts a restraint on anger is required, as temperance does to pleasures. For one is meek who is not irritated. But this could be done by a virtue,so that one does not become angry without just cause; however, even if you have i just cause and are not vexed.it is strictly.beyond human power.Therefore he says,Blessed are the meek. For a struggle arises on account of an abundance of external goods; therefore, there would never be conflict, if man were not afected by riches. Hence those who are not meek are not poor in spirit. That is why he says immediately,Blessed are the meek. Note that this consists in two things:first, that a man not become angry; secondly, that if he be­ comes angry, he tempers the anger". The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Progamme for All Time and for Every Culture 113 JOHN P. HITINGER ON MEEKNESS, PIEY AND RECON'CILIATION be perfectly reasonable to abate ones anger if aggressive action would not principal motive for meekness is reverence for God, which belongs to piety " durance in the face of evil, we may begin to see the outline of our Thomas' Heavenly Father and for all that pertains to Him as Father, namely the tion of the meaning of nieekness lies in its connection to the gift of piety. ther is perfect; he sends the sun to shine on the good and the evil, the rain ment that "this second beatitude is related to the gift of piety, because those to walk the second mile - we act meekly in the higher sense, and we possess have the desired efect of prevailing in combat.17 In the teaching on en­ teaching on the beatitudes and the gifts of the Spirit. The key to the ques­ In Thomas' Commentary on Matthew we read the brief but profound state­ get angry, properly speaking, who are not contented with the divine or­ dering of things (qui non sunt contenti divina ordinatione)". Human beings are often angry because they are confused and discouraged by the presence of evil in the world, the limitations of human power, and the insecurity of our happiness on this earth. Human beings need to be instructed on the true nature and source of Beatitude. 2. The Correlation of the Git of Piety and Meekness Meekness as a lack of anger appears to be either impossible, or a vice of (I-II 69 3, ad 3).19 The motivation of meekness is the respect for God as the brotherhood of all mankind.We are called to be perfect as our heavenly Fa­ to fall on the just and unjust.To love our enemy, to the turn the other cheek, such a way of acting only imperfectly. Thomas explains in II-II 121.1: "among those things to which the Holy Spirit inspires us is that we have a special filial attitude towards God (Rom. 8:15)". The virtue of piety, as a natural virtue, honors parents and country; the virtue of natural religion, honors God as creator, but the gift of piety leads us to love God as Father (II-II 121, a. 1 ad. 2), And because piety extends the honor to those who pertain to the father or patria, the Gift of Piety offers "honor and service not only to God but also to all men on the basis of their relationship to God".2°We should love others human being as God the Father loves human apathy. Is there a higher sense of meekness as a lack of anger, which is not beings. He loves them in their sinfulness and with great patience. So too shows us the way to understand, as well as to live, the higher form of meek­ his special care and mercy. St. Thomas thinks that the gift of piety would Stoic apathy or weak indiference to the human injustice? The gift of piety ness. Through the infused virtue of faith we come know the reality of God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. Through supernatural charity we are empowered to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. We are called to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, and he sends the sun to shine on the righteous and unrighteousness, the rain to fall on both as well. As we are we called to see all other human beings as creatures of God and under correlate well with the fourth Gustice) and fifth (mercy) beatitude) but con­ cedes that Augustine's correlation with the second (meekness) fits because meekness, or abatement of anger, removes obstacles to acts of piety, just as he explains it removes obstacles to clemency and justice (II-II 121, a. 2). Anger often clouds our vision of the just thing, and it inevitably covers the understand the relation of the natural perfection, and the supernatural per­ horizon of the mercy and forgiveness of the Father. itude. We possess meekness in the higher sense only imperfectly. Through above, "this second beatitude is related to the gift of piety, because those is an instinct of God, a movement by the Spirit, above human capacity. One dering of things (qui non sunt contenti divina ordinatione)". Reverence for God fection, we see the need for the gift of the spirit to live meekness as a beat­ the gifts one is disposed for "acts higher than virtues". The gift of the spirit St Thomas digs in deeper with his Commentary on Matthew. As quoted get angry, properly speaking, who are not contented with the divine or­ is moved by God (a Deo motus), not only by reason.18 It is by the "instinctu implies trust in God and a greater wisdom concerning the dispensation of why should be meek, in this higher form? Aquinas makes the connection Ethics with this:"after the Philosopher has finished the consideration of the divino" or prompting of God (I-II 68.1). We need to ask not only how can we be meek, but more importantly God the Father to bring good out of evil, and the triumph of love over sin. So we find that Thomas begins his commentar y on meekness in Aristotle's of piety and meekness on the basis of the motivation not to the matter of the act of meekness. "We may consider the motives of the beatitudes: and, in this way, some of them will have to be assigned diferently. Because the 17 See Josef Pieper, Four Cardinal Virtues (Notre Dame Press) pp. 126-133. 18 See Aristotle 1145a20. 114 The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Programme for All Time and for Every Culture 19 Alio modo possumus in his beatitudinibus considerare motiva ipsarum, et sic, quan­ tum ad aliqua eorum, oportet aliter attribuere. Praecipue enim ad mansuetudinem movet reverentia ad Deum; quae pertinet ad pietatem. 20 The commentator points out "the implication here is that Piety extends to all the aspects of justice considered in the whole treatise [on justice]". Gilby, Summa II-II reatise on Justice, p. 287. The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Pogramme for All Time and for Every Culture 115 ON MEEKNESS, PI EY AND RECONCILIATION JOHN P. HITIINGER virtues dealing with external goods, riches, and honors, he now considers meekness, which deals with the external evils which provoke people to anger". Anger impels us towards the arduous good, and is roused by the afections of a soul that through its desire is at rest in the stability of a per­ stands in the path to flourishing. In his Commentay on the Gospel fMatthew, refers to stability of life, a repose, freedom from strife through reconciliation that it is "satisfaction' of appetite". W hereas the first beatitlde, poverty of trast between the man of the world, and the man of the beatitudes as fol­ ond, concerning meekness, condens those who seek happiness in revenge destroy ing their enemies through conflicts and wars. Hence, to the meek threat of evil. Anger involves the loss of honor, but all manner of evil that he says that our Lord condemns the mistaken view concerning happiness, spirit, concerns the satisfaction of acquisition of external goods, so the sec­ or retaliation, that is, satisfaction of the irascible appetite which is a desire with God and others. Indeed, in the fourth article Thomas sets up the con­ lowing: "fierce and wild men seek to acquire security for themselves by our Lord promised the secure and peaceful possession of the land of the living (terra viventium), which signifies the solidity of eternal goods". The or war. The root problem is that they seek happiness outside of God; it is a ship to God. The world falsely thinks that security comes through power achieve this false good nature of true beatitude, repose in the eternal God. disorder aimed at honor as a source of happiness, and war is the means to (§412). Thus, meekness is connected to the poverty in spirit the detachment from riches and honor. He draws the parallel be­ tween the first two beatitudes this way - the poverty of spirit is a form of temperance, and the defeat of concupiscence; the second, is a form of gen­ tleness and the defeat of the irascible appetite. Anger pertains to vengeance, or competition leading to war: "Fighting is on account of riches (abundance of external things) therefore there would be no disturbance if a man did not desire riches [at the expense of his neighbor].Through the gift of piety we come to embrace our true good, communion with God the Father. The reward of meekness is the inheritance of the earth. Aquinas himself clearly expresses perplexity concerning the reward promised for each of the beatitudes. Some say the rewards are for a future life, others for this life, and yet again others that they are both for the future and for this life. Insofar as the beatitudes are preparations or dispositions toward future beatitude they belong to another world; but if they give us hope that through the ac­ tion we experience an "imperfect beginning in this life". With the men of perfection, beatitude begins in the present life.22 But hyre again the peculiar case of the meek makes the issue more acute - for of all of the rewards, the inheritance of the land seems uniquely a promise of a reward in this life. But in reply to the second objection, that punishments clearly belong to another life, and so do rewards, he points out that even if good men do not receive temporal or corporeal rewards, they do always receive spiritual re- 21 C. 5., lesson 2. §406. 22 ad pefectionem viae. 1 petual inheritance, signiied by the earth". The inheritance of the earth for vengeance upon the enemy.21 He suggests that the teaching is aimed at those who seek for their happiness in honor achieved through completion, 116 wards. So what is the manner of the inheritance of the land? In the reply to the third objection he says this: "possession of the earth signifies the good The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Progamme for All Time and for Every Culture earth signifies "solidity" or security which only comes through a relation­ and assertion of force. The follower of Jesus Christ understands rightly the 3. The mystery of piety and reconciliation according to Saint John Paul II The history of the modern world provides ample opportunity to realize that the world is precarious, despite man's best eforts to establish themselves as the owners and possessors of nature. The twentieth century ushered in the era of world wars, culminating in the atomic destruction of entire cities, and the enslavement of millions through death camps and the GULAG.Thus our Polish Pope could speak from experience when he said - "We live a world shattered to its very foundations".23 His gaze takes in violence and oppression, terrorism and discrimination, mutual hatreds and ideological rivalries, divi­ sions between national, religious, economic, and political groups. From the long trajectory of his life and work we know that he did not speak as an arm­ chair philosopher, but as a man who lived through the horrors ofWorld War II, endured Nazi and Communist oppression, and as Pope he traveled the world and opened his arms to a remarkable diversity of nations, religions, and groups. From the depth of the anguish of modern world he famously said "Be not araid" and he discerned the stirring of a "longing for reconciliation". Such a longing is one of the signs of the time. He called the Church, the whole community of believers, to witness to reconciliation and to help bring it about throughout the wold. In this way the Church will fulill its mandate articulated in Lumen Gentium to be a sign and instrument, a sacrament, of communion with God and unity of people. 23 Opening of Reconciliation and Penance, 1984. The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Programme for All ime and for Every Culture 117 JOHN P. HITIINGER ON MEEKNESS, PIEY AND RECONCILIATION Striking a deep ainity to St Thomas Aquinas, and Augustine, he explains cause damage to the fabric of his relationship to others and to the created the mystery of piety, as it stands in contrast with the mysterium iniquitatis, eousness and judgment, the mystery of evil is only fully comprehended be­ But how do we achieve reconciliaion in such a shattered world? Saint Pope of the cross, the righteousness of the Son, "penetrates to the roots our in­ this mission by appealing to the central concept of the mysterium pietatis, mystery of evi1.24 There is a longing for reconciliation in the world today. John Paul II's working principle is that "reconciliation cannot be less pro­ found than the division itself " (§3). Thus, true reconciliation must get to the root of the division. Sin is a "wound in man's innermost self," the "orig­ inal wound," and thus the root of all other wounds. The consequences of world". Yet as the Holy Spirit convinces the world concerning sin, right­ fore the cross and the gift of the heavenly Father and his Son. The mystery iquity " and "evokes in the soul a movement of conversion". The mystery of piety therefore signifies Christ himself, and the Christian response to God, the growth and transformation as adopted sons of God - "Thus the word of Scripture, as it reveals to us the mystery of pietas, opens the intellect sin are precisely the divisions within oneself, between self and God, self and to conversion and reconciliation, understood not as lofty abstractions but "with God, with oneself, and with others". Such a conversion is a fruit of reconciled with God, within our self, with others - "The mystery of piety others. Only by a conversion, a radical break with sin, one can be reconciled as concrete Christian values to be achieved in our daily lives". We can be the gift of piety. He strives to make known the "true and profoundly reli­ is the path opened by divine mercy to a reconciled life". God, and others, must take into account the two poles of attraction, the mystery of piety (mysterium pietatis)25 and the mystery of evil,26 a variation of God poured into our hearts (Rom gious meaning of reconciliation" . The achievement of reconciliation, with of Augustine's two cities, the love of God to the contempt of self and the love of self to the contempt of God. Saint John Paul II rightly begins with the primary theological aspect of sin - disobedience to God. Then follows a second dimension of sin. By re­ fusing to submit to God, man's "internal balance is destroyed and within himself contradictions and conflicts emerge". Sin sunders the integrity of the self and sets up a division within the sel. A man is alienated from his true self, or his whole sel. And third, a man caught by sin must "inevitably The gift of Piety derives from the original gift, the Holy Spirit, the love 5:5). Thomas often cites this passage in his account of the Gifts, just as his mentor in the theology of grace, St. Augustine, who refers to it frequently in his anti-Pelagian writings. 27 Peter Brown says of Augustine that "an act of choice is not just a matter of know­ ing what to choose: it is a matter in which loving and feeling are involved. . . Meh choose because they love". And yet we cannot generate our own heal­ ing - "the vital capacity to unite feeling and knowledge comes from an area outside man's power of self-determination. 'From a depth that we do not see, comes every thing you can see' [says St Augustine]" (373). Brown quotes a passage from Augustine's tract onJohn that seems to fit the proile of Saint John Paul II and his vision for the new evangelization - "Give me a man in love . . . give me one who yearns . . , but if! speak to a cold man, he just 24 See Dominum et vivificantum §§32,33,39,48; Penance and Reconciliation. §§14, 1922,23. 25 John Paul II derives this term rom a passage in Paul's First Letter to Timothy, 3.1Sf. As if to emphasize the profound mission of the Church, the bulwark of truth, Paul exclaims "Great is the mystery of our religion" or "mystery of piety". Christ himself is the mystery of our religion: "He was made manifest in the reality of human flesh and was constituted by the Holy Spirit as the Just One who ofers himself for the unjust. He appeared to the angels, having been made greater than them, and he was preached to the nations as the bearer of salvation. He was believed in,in the world,as the one sent by the Father,and by the same Father assumed into heaven as Lord". 26 John PaullI takes a phrase from St. Paul concerning the "mysterium iniquitatis", 2 Thess 2.7. The text from St. Paul is an obscure reference to a man of rebellion who will be brought under judgment at the end of time. John Paul claims to "echo" this phrase to signiY "the obscure and intangible element hidden in sin". Although a function of human reedom,sin touches on a something "beyond the merely human,in the border area where man's conscience, will and sensitivity are in contact with the dark forces". 118 1 does not know what I am talking about". To put it more simply - a person must come to delight in the beauty and holiness of God, a person must come to be pious - a person must "feel delight in that object, commensurate with its claims on his afections [God]" (Spirit and Letter, §63). The gift of piety renders the human person a lover of the Father and of all his children. Father Garrigou say s that the gift of piety corresponds to the beatitude of meekness, since it bestows on us a heavenly sweetness which leads us to comfort our alicted neighbor. By this gift we see him as a brother or suf­ fering member of Christ - "in its highest degree, the gift of piety strongly inclines us to give ourselves entirely to the service of God, to ofer him all our acts and suferings as a perfect sacrifice. This gift makes us realize that 27 "The Spirit and the Letter" and "Nature and Grace". l The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Programme for All Time and for Every Culture The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Pogamme for All Time and for Every Culture 119 JOHN P. HITIINGER Communion is a participation in the sacrifice cross perpetuated on our altar".28 Meekness, the forgoing of anger and the sweetness of spirit towards others,29 is an act of the Christian, in imitation of Christ, that demonstrates this love of God, and a readiness to be reconciled with his brothers. , BEATI GLI AFFLITI PERCHE SARANNO CONSOLATII <oj CARDINAL KURT KOCH Necessario conforto 0 facile soUievo? La beatitudine degli aiitti, con la promessa della consolazione loro ri­ servata, condivide in modo particolare il destino di tutte Ie beatitudini di Gesu, che e quello di contrastare Ie idee dell'uomo moderno. L'uomo di oggi e abituato a dire beato chi ottiene grandi risultati nella vita, chi con­ tinua a perseguire la sua felicid e chi quindi non pare aver bisogno di alcuna consolazione. Ne1 mondo odierno si dicono beati coloro che hanno for­ tuna, successo, riuscita: nella vita lavorativa e nella politica, nella quotidianid, nello sport e non di rado anche nella Chiesa. Ma Ie beatitudini di Gesu mostrano proprio che egli non la pensa cosio Gesu dice beato precisamente chi ha poco e chi e costretto a mendicare. Dice beato chi ha fame e chi piange. Ed invia uno speciale telegramma di congratulazioni agli aiitti. Di fronte alIa costatazione che Ie beatitudini devono essere lette in controten­ denza con l' ondata delle ambizioni odierne, va usata una regola ermeneutica 28 Christian peection and contemplation, p. 301. And Dom Gueranger says that the gift of piety combats self- centeredness and egoism such that Christian hearts should be nei­ ther cold nor indifferent towards others but rather tender and open. Other wise, he says, we cannot "ascend along the path onto which God who is love graciously deigned to call them". The gift of piety is the "imprint of a filial return to God creator" (Rom 8: 15). This disposition renders the soul sensitive to all that touches the honor of God and leads us to feel compunction for sin at the sight of the infinite goodness and thought of suf­ ferings and death of redeemer. Also in a vein similar to Aquinas he says piety resigns itself to the ordering of providence. The effect of such piety is the meekness that leads to love, mercy and pardon of others: "Piety helps them find Jesus himself in all creatures on earth; benevolence towards their brothers and sisters is universal. Their heart is dis­ posed towards pardoning of injuries, to tolerance of the imperfections of others, and to excusing all of the wrongs of their neighbors. They show themselves compassionate to­ wards the sick. An affectionate sweetness reveals what is in the depths of their heart; and. in their relation with their brothers and sisters on earth, one sees them always disposed to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice". Carlo Martini and Dom Prosper Gueranger, translated by Andrew Tullock, Gifts f the Holy Spirit (St Paul's Publishing, 2001). 29 Notice the Latin term used by Thomas to describe the men of the world is "im­ mites" (not mellow, harsh, unripe, sour). The meek, the mites, seek security in God.They are mellow, gentle, ripe with the experience of God, sweet. 120 I The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Progamme for All Time and for Every Culture particolare: una beatitudine puo essere compresa come tale a condizione che non soltanto si percepisca come molto dolorosa la situazione di coloro che sono detti beati, na anche che si colga la promessa legata alIa beatitudine come un bene e come una liberazione. La promessa della consolazione presuppone innanzitutto uno sguardo one­ sto rivolto alIa situazione di coloro che hanno bisogno di consolazione. II fatto che gli uomini deiniti "aiitti" si trovino in una condizione alquanto diicile e biasimevole e palese anche e soprattutto al giorno d'oggi. Meno evidente e la connotazione positiva dela parola "consolazione". Di fatti, non e imediatamente intuibile che la consolazione possa essere considerata come una risposta adeguata alIa situazione miserevole degli aiitti. Anche ne1lin­ guaggio corrente, la parola "consolazione" non suona molto bene. Poiche viene usata principalmente in un contesto di morte e di lutto, questa parola sembra essersi illividita e trasformata in un semplice strumento di servizio pa- 1I nter vento durante la X I V sessione plenaria della Pontificia Accademia di San Tom­ maso d' Aquino suItema "Le beatitudini, programma di Cristo per l' evangelizzazione in ogni tempo e cultura" a Roma, iI20 giugno 2014. The Beatitudes, Christ's Evangelisation Programme for All Time and for Every Culture 121