"Meek," says Fr. James Martin, S.J., "may be an ...unpalatable word, conjuring up a simpering milquetoast, someone afraid to stand up for himself or herself, a person devoid of self-confidence and self-respect. When was the last time you heard someone say 'I really like that guy. He's so meek?'"
So, what did Jesus mean? Fr. Martin suggests that for Jesus, being "meek" meant "self-control over one's passions;...gentle.....Jesus probably had in mind the word 'anawim.' The anawim were not simply the meek, but those who were so poor, or weak, that they knew they depended on God. So, poor and humble, a combination of two traits not highly prized today."
Jesus did not mean for his followers to be overly submissive, or docile. If we look at the person Jesus was, we can see in him the most positive meanings of "meek": someone with self-control over his passions; a gentle, humble, patient man who knew himself well, knew his gifts and talents, knew his mission, and exercised the courage, endurance , and self-restraint needed to accomplish his mission.
Being humble means to first of all acknowledge that we are children of God, dependent on God. When we live in the light of God's love, we discover who we really are - our gifts, our weaknesses, our missions. We humbly acknowledge the extent of our gifts: there will always be those who are more talented than we are, and those who are less talented. It's useless to waste time and energy on jealous comparisons with others. We also discover and acknowledge that we need others to accomplish anything we want and need to accomplish - because we don't have all the gifts!
Jesus did know who he really was: in his human nature like us, he was a humbly dependent child of God who called God "abba," which means "Daddy." He was a man who was humble enough to wash his disciples' dirty, sweaty, stinky feet, yet spoke his mind clearly and articulately and courageously to those who ridiculed or tried to stonewall him and his mission.
Because Jesus was humble and gentle, he didn't try to be the "Whole Show;" he gathered followers, disciples, taught them, then sent them out two by two to teach, preach, and heal. They were so close to him that today we call the Christian community "the Body of Christ."
Because Jesus was humble, patient, gentle, he didn't find it necessary to hang around with the rich and famous. Instead he sought out the poor, the handicapped, the outcasts, the sinners - the anawim, the poor and weak who knew they depended on God.
Pope Francis warns us about "the pride that so often leads us to despise the humble means of the Gospel; it is the pride that alienates us from the 'Divine weakness of the Beatitudes'. Such pride does not inspire us to put all our hope in God and to seek him in simple supplication, in continuous prayer, and in the laborious penance of every day....Our vocation to evangelize requires that we cultivate the humility that comes with being stewards, not masters...."
The steward does not own the property or the possessions of the master; he or she both takes care of and uses the property and possessions as the master wishes, in service to the master. To be a steward, a member of the anawim, is to acknowledge that everything we are and everything we own belongs to our master, Jesus, to be used as Jesus desires, in service to our mission as his disciples. How can we be prideful, when we are simple stewards? How can we grasp anything too tightly, when we may need to give it away? How can we grow angry or hostile or hoard when everyone and everything belongs to God?
Pope Francis, himself, dressed in simple white, wearing a plastic watch and heavy orthopedic shoes, living in a two-bedroom dwelling in a guesthouse, is a model of gentle, meek, patient humility. He believes in listening to and personally encountering people. His friends include Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, straights, and gays, rich, middle class, and poor. When Archbishop in Argentina, he rode buses and subways, and regularly visited shantytowns. Once his eyes flooded with tears when he visited a Buenos Aires shantytown and a man declared that he knew the Archbishop was one of them because he'd seen him riding in the back of a bus.
When the Pope was still a Cardinal in Argentina, he attended an ecumenical event attended by Catholics and Protestants, and was asked to speak a few words. He said "How nice that brothers are united, that brothers pray together. How nice to see that nobody negotiates their history on the path of faith - that we are diverse but that we want to be, and are already beginning to be, a reconciled diversity." Then, hands outstretched, he called out to God " Father, we are divided. Unite us." Dropping slowly to his knees, he asked the audience to pray for him. They did, led by an evangelical minister.
During his trip, as Pope, to the Middle East, Francis embraced an imam, Omar Abboud, and a rabbi, his friend Rabbi Skorka, after praying with them at the Western Wall. He did this as a favor to his friend Skorka, who told him, before they left on the trip, " This is my dream, to embrace beside the wall you and Omar."
He is a Pope who intends to reform the disarray of the Vatican Bank, the bureaucratic avarice bedeviling the Roman Curia, the scandal of pedophile priests insulated from justice by Church officials.
"Calling sexual abuse in the Church a 'sacrilegious cult,' he formed the Pontifical Mission for the Protection of Minors, headed by Sean Patrick O'Malley, the Archbishop of Boston." (National Geographic, August 2015, in an article on the Pope written by Robert Draper.) The Mission includes both men and women, including a sexual abuse survivor, and makes recommendations to the Pope about policies that should be instituted in Dioceses throughout the world.
The Pope has also formed a network of international assisting agencies to tackle the huge, international problem of human trafficking.
Pope Francis is not naive; he knows he is making enemies, and he doesn't wear a bullet-proof vest. But in self-deprecating humor and humility he knows himself, knows his radical dependence on God, and knows his God-given mission. He says "The Lord has put me here. He'll have to look out for me....I kept looking in Benedict's library, but I couldn't find a user's manual, so I manage as best I can."
He also says something that makes us think he'd like mild-mannered, friendly Clark Kent: "Depicting the Pope as a sort of Superman, a star, is offensive to me. The Pope is a man who laughs, cries, sleeps calmly, and has friends like everyone else."