The Third Beatitude: "Blessed are the gentle in spirit, for they will own the Earth"

Rudolf Steiner:

We read [in Matthew 5:5]: "Blessed are the gentle in spirit, for they will own the Earth." Two forces are active in the world: on the one hand, egotism; and on the other, love and compassion. If love is to be developed, egotism must diminish. Sensual love must be developed to a higher, spiritual love. The third sentence of Mabel Collins' Light on the Path speaks about the same thing that is meant by "gentle in spirit": "Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters, it must have lost the power to wound." One should encounter all people with a loving disposition so that the voice no longer wounds; in this way, we are gentle in the way spoken of in the Sermon on the Mount. Love is the goal of the evolution of the Earth; it will own the Earth.

Source: 1/19/1907. From The Christian Mystery, p. 268