do you have evangelical meekness

Evangelic meekness, which is, above all, self-control, will make different intellectual positions seem more understandable and less suspect to us. Let us give anyone, who questions us about our faith, a chance to speak; when they express their own opinion, let us try to enter into their thoughts. Their mistake is quite often merely an incomplete truth; it will be less a matter of refuting them than of clearing up points for them. Do not let us give anyone with whom we are discussing the impression that we want to triumph over him: it is not some truth of our own we are defending, but the Christian doctrine. We have not invented it and we have no merit in possessing it. Lamartine said of that great Christian, Ozanam: 'His orthodoxy was charity. One could differ but one could not quarrel with this pride-free man: his tolerance was not a concession, it was a respect'.

 

An apostle is so much the more persuasive if, solidly attached to his own faith, he does not make little of others' beliefs, he admires what is good wherever he sees it, he looks for occasions to commend others rather than to criticise them. No air of superiority takes from the quality of his words and his example. He does not impose his views, he explains them and offers them freely. This simply affirmative attitude does not hurt anyone, it removes the barrier, it is a step forward towards the Gospel. Without looking for out-of-the-way examples, many men have recovered a lost faith under the single influence of the equanimity and the meekness of a Christian companion.