481st Meditation
“Gentleness, which is the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul, can conquer more hearts than hardness” (Inner word).
This refers to a wonderful fruit of the Holy Spirit in our soul. It is through the Holy Spirit that our Father builds His kingdom in our hearts. This is how He expresses it in the message to Mother Eugenia:
“The work of this third Person of My divinity is carried out silently and often man is not aware of it. But for Me it is a very fitting way of living, not just in the tabernacle, but also in the souls of all those in a state of grace, to establish My throne in them and to live there always, like the true Father Who loves, protects and helps His children.”
Fr. Lallemmant, a master of the spiritual life, describes it this way: The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our soul causes the fire of anger to subside and the presence of the Lord, with the peace it brings, to take deep root in the heart. As this peace becomes more and more established in the soul through the practice of the virtues and the influence of grace, “gentleness is able to restrain the impulses of anger without further effort. The soul remains in the same state of mind and never loses its equilibrium. In this way the Holy Spirit has taken possession of all the passions and keeps away from the soul all disordered sadness, or at least does not allow it to take possession of it. Even the spirit of evil shuns such a soul and does not dare to approach it.”
The loving presence of our Heavenly Father brings about our inner transformation through the gifts of the Spirit, so that we adopt His gentle and tender way of being and acting. This gentleness conquers souls more easily for the Kingdom of God, because human hearts can discover love in it more quickly than when they encounter harshness. The constitution of the human soul delights in gentleness, with the firmness that is proper to it. Thus it can conquer more hearts in which the triumph of love becomes a reality.