GENTLENESS THAT CAPTIVATES
Even since the epidemic and disgusting drug business was generalized, especially among the youth, many parents have suffered and they alone will know their efforts to get their children away from such a dark hell. Fr. Claret was very sensible to perceive unredeemable situations of many of his country men who needed to be freed. He was not the only person who lived with this anxiety, and that´s why he could perceive correct or incorrect approaches in other “fishers of men”.
In the text of Claret that we meditate today, the author relates it with the virtue of gentleness, which he qualifies as “the sign of apostolic vocation”. He knew the priests were pastorally concerned, but was not certain about their mode of carrying it out; some were carried away by a “bitter zeal”, with which they achieved just the opposite to what they were aiming at: hardened attitude of the fisher. If we were to ask Fr. Claret how to recover a person who had “gone astray”, he would probably have replied with a following crazy expression by “loving a lot”. He was in a hurry to save people, seeking efficient methods for all and even he could have suffered the temptation of “having acted hastily” against the anti gospel attitudes or situations. But his lucid reflection led him to that quality about which James Balmes commented with admiration, “gentleness in all”.
Perhaps this soft and peaceful way was not easy for him who was burnt by the cause of God from within; but his repeated resolution (“particular examination of conscience”) for years, namely, “never shall I get angry” was very effective. Speaking of himself and also of other evangelizers, Claret gave this creative interpretation to the second beatitude, “they will inherit the earth, namely, the hearts of humanity”.
