The concept of sacrifice, alien to a culture of self-assertion, is the foundation of moral strength. Friedrich Nietzsche, the philosopher of power, mocked Christ’s willing submission to suffering for others, and thought that the beatitude delivered on the Mount – “Blessed are the meek”- constituted a “slave mentality.” He did not realize that “meek,” as used here, is rooted in the Greek word paos, and means the kind of discipline that tames a wild animal and makes it able to put its strength to useful purpose, which is why the “meek,” so disciplined, inherit the earth. The priest must be tamed by the Holy Spirit so that his holy meekness will also strengthen the faithful. Nietzsche went insane, and it is said that his breaking point was when he watched a horse being beaten by its owner and could not reconcile this cruelty with his theories of “man as superman.” St. John Vianney was the meekest, and strongest, of men, and said that a true understanding of the priesthood would not drive us insane, rather it would make us die “not out of fear but out of love.”

In a show of heroic meekness, 30 Catholic priests were killed last year on various continents, the highest number in the last 10 years. Last Sunday in Warsaw,  more than 140,000 people attended the beatification of Father Jerzy Popieluzsko, who was beaten to death by Communist agents and tossed into a reservoir in 1984 at the age of 37. Since then, 17 million pilgrims have visited his tomb. His mother led the faithful in praying before his relics at the beatification. Saints are stronger than supermen.

Last month, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the priesthood when he went to Fatima, and was heard by a throng even larger than the crowds that welcomed Pope John Paul II in 2000. He told half a million people, “…we must cultivate an interior watchfulness of the heart which, for most of the time, we do not possess on account of the powerful pressure exerted by outside realities and the images and concerns which fill our soul.”

This is the power of holy meekness, which inherits the earth. The end of the Year for Priests is the beginning of a renewed response to St. John Vianney’s definition: “The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.”