„Łagodność” w Biblii i adhortacji Gaudete et exsultate
“Gentleness” in the Bible and the Gaudete et exsultate exhortation

Summary/Abstract: Pope Francis wrote in Gaudete et exsultate, his last exhortation about holiness in the modern world, that it consists in “reacting with meekness and humility”. The aim of this article is the biblical and theological analysis of the concept of “meekness”, understood as a characteristic of the attitude of modern Christians, for which the pope appeals in the exhortation. The reflection begins with a concise presentation of the etymology of the biblical term πραΰς (meekness/gentleness). Subsequently, the motif of meekness in the conduct and teaching of Jesus was analyzed. The distinction was made – following the Gospel of Matthew, which as the only canonical gospel contains the examined notion – between two aspects: meekness as a description of Christ being an example (Mt 11:29; 21:5) and Jesus’ parenesis about the gentleness of the disciples (Mt 5:5.38–45). The last point of the article was dedicated to the three parenetic passages of the New Testament’s epistolary prose, to which Pope Francis appealed in the exhortation Gaudete et exsultate. These texts exhort Jesus’ disciples to assume the attitude of meekness in three different contexts of life: (1) towards the sinful brothers Christians, whom the Church community should retrieve (Gal 6:1); (2.) towards the hostile environment from which the Christians’ faith and conviction should be defended (1 P 3:16); (3) towards the opponents of the teaching of Christ and of the Church (2 Tim 2:25). The conclusions resulting from the analysis were collected at the end.

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