True self-giving

If we have this attitude of self-giving, the Lord will undoubtedly grant to us, Christians, what St Paul asked for: May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 15:5-6).

Meekness, to yield in what is personal

This self-giving, this understanding, and this charity lead us to forget about our own rights. They make us ready to yield, indeed to concede, in everything of our own, in anything personal, to the same extent that Jesus Christ did. Our Lord told us to learn from him: discite a me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde.²⁴ To practise this meekness, this humility, this holy tolerance in everything personal, we need only contemplate Jesus, who semetipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens, in similitudinem hominum factus et habitu inventus ut homo (Phil 2:7), who emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and reduced to the human condition.

Holy tolerance

Our Lord’s self-abasement knew no limits. His holy tolerance led him to the most ignominious of deaths: humiliavit semetipsum factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis (Phil 2:8), he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And he did so out of love for all men and women, whom he calls friends even if they may not want to be. Vos autem dixi amicos,²⁵ he says to his disciples, who will leave him alone at his hour of trial. Amice, ad quid venisti? (Matt 26:50); friend, why are you here? he says to Judas, who has come in order to betray him.

Because of his love for everyone, both for those who wish to serve him faithfully in spite of their shortcomings and for those who do not wish to be his friends at all, Christ allows himself to be mistreated, insulted, and crucified. Maiorem hac dilectionem nemo habet, ut animam suam ponat quis pro amicis suis (John 15:13); greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.