The Earth Of The Meek

Beati mites, quoniam ipsi possidebunt terram Hieronymus: Non terram Judaeae, nec terram istius mundi, nec terra maledictam spinas et tribulos afferentem, quam crudelissimus quisque et bellator magis possidet, sed terram quam Psalmista desiderat, dicens: Credo videre bona Domini in terra viventium. Hujuscemodi possessor, et post victorim triumphator etiam in quadragesimo quarto psalmo describitur: Et intente, prospere procede, et regna propter veritatem, et mansuetudinem, et justitiam. Nemo enim terram istam per mansuetudinem, sed per superbiam possidet. Augustinus: Significat enim quamdam soliditatem et stabilitatem haereditatis perpetuae, ubi anima per bonum affectum, tanquam loco suo requiescit, sicut corpus in terra; et inde cibo suo alitur, sicut corpus ex terra: ipsa est requies et vita sanctorum. Mites autem sunt qui cedunt improbitatibus, et non resistunt malo, sed vincunt in bono malum. Rixentur ergo immites, et dimicent pro terrenis et temporalibus rebus: Beati autem mites quoniam ipsi haereditate possidebunt terram, de qua evelli non possint.  Rabanus Maurus, Commentariorum In Matthaeum, Liber II, Cap V Source: Migne PL 107.795b-d

Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. 1 Jerome: 2 This is not the earth of Judea, not the earth of this world, not the cursed earth that bears thorns and thistles, 3 which the most cruel warmonger delights to possess, but the land which the Psalmist desires, saying, 'I believe I will see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.' 4 This possessor triumphant after victory is described in the fourty fourth Psalm: 'And look, and go forth prosperously and reign on account of truth and meekness and righteousness.' 5 For none possess this earth because of meekness but because of pride. Augustine: 6 This signifies a certain firmness and stability of the perpetual inheritance, where the soul though its good disposition rests as in its own place, just as the body rests on the earth, and it is nourished from there with its own food, as the body is from the earth. This is the rest and life of the saints. But the meek are those here who give way to wickedness and do not resist the evil man, 7 but overcome evil with good. 8 Let those, then, who are not meek dispute and fight for earthly and temporal things, but 'blessed are the meek,' for by inheritance they shall possess the earth, from which they will not be able to be uprooted. Rabanus Maurus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 5 1 Mt 5.4 2 Jerome Com Mat, chap 5 3 Gen 3.18 4 Ps 26.13 5 Ps 44.5 6 Augustine, Our Lord’s Sermon On the Mount 2 7 Mt 5.39 8 Rom 12.21