ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
February 23, 2025
At what point do you choose to stop being gentle and choose a different approach? I recently was trying to get something corrected with my medical insurance, and though I started with the spirit of gentleness, I can’t say exactly when, but somewhere in that conversation and the passing me on to someone else, I sort of left behind the gentleness. Yes, you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar, but I wasn’t trying to catch flies. I was trying to get someone on the phone who could get something done. Yet later in the evening, I reflected on the conversation, and I realized that gentleness does not mean passivity or a willingness to be run over. Gentleness can, in fact, be strong. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said, “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” I would go as far as to suggest that one act of gentleness is far more powerful than any of us can truly imagine. Remember that gentleness is found in the Fruit of the Spirit, and if the Spirit of God is what gives power to the attribute of gentleness, then no act of mean-spiritedness, hatefulness, or violence will ultimately defeat it. Gentleness is light, and as John’s Gospel reminds us, “The light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.” Sadly, the darkness sometimes extinguishes the lamp-bearer, but the impact of the light is forever, as is the impact of gentleness.
In so many moments of life, it feels as if I should reach for something other than gentleness. Remind me, Merciful and Gracious God, of the capacity of gentleness. It is infused with your Spirit, and so we pray for your help as we seek to unleash it through our daily choices. Amen.
