Saint Alphonsus Liguori writes of the virtue of meekness like this:

In fact, we are never so meek and gentle toward others as when we feel great tenderness toward Jesus Christ. (The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ, Ch XII, #6)

The meaning of this seems very plain to me. If we have our eyes fixed on Jesus and his Kingdom, then we see Jesus and the Church of Heaven in and behind the people and events of life. We see, we contemplate. If that contemplation is with us, how can we not be meek and gentle to those people in our lives?

Certainly, we have to work on the virtues. But there comes a point when we realize we cannot accomplish them. The only time the virtues really come to us is when we receive them: when we love Jesus, see him in his brothers and sisters, and enter into contemplative love.