Blessed are the steadfast, for they will inherit the earth.
The Beatitudes give us Matthew’s gospel image of Christ, showing how you and I can be Christlike. Matthew’s third Beatitude is almost everywhere mistranslated “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” The Greek word praüs is nothing like “meek;” it means: steadfastly pursuing your own purpose, despite whatever opposition and insults you meet, and despite your own temptation to anger in response, drawing you quickly off course. The prophet Isaiah put it clearest: “I have set my face like flint.”
King Darius I, carved the following rule into granite as his spiritual qualification to govern Persia, three thousand years ago. “By the favor of Ahura Mazda [the Wise God] I am a friend to right, I am not a friend to wrong. I do not desire that the weak should have wrong done to them by the mighty; nor the mighty have wrong done them by the weak. What is right, that is my desire. I am not a friend to any who follow lies. I am not hot-tempered. What things develop in my anger, I hold firmly in control by my own thinking power. I am firmly ruling over my own impulses.”
Nevertheless, King Darius I was killed by a disloyal subordinate. That happens to many people who are praüs, despite living loyal to their highest purpose. It happened to Jesus, did it not? And to Martin Luther King, Jr, to Dag Hammarskjold, and Malcolm X? Many of them knew that might happen, but they acted all the more faithfully.
Matthew’s third Beatitude recommends we try it too. He promises us our ideals’ fulfillment on earth, something that praüs people desire even more than personal success. Matthew’s gospel alone puts the word praüs in Jesus’ mouth:
Take up my working yoke and study me, because I am praüs, and my plans are not distracted by narcissistic anger. My yoke will fit you smoothly and lighten your workload.
[Matthew 11:29–30]
on the 51st anniversary of his ordination
