Father Cornelius a Lapide's Commentary on 1 Peter 1:13-21

Translated by Qwen. 

Cornelius a Lapide on 1 Peter 1:13-16

1 Pet 1:13 "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind..."

This is the ethical part of the first chapter; for the preceding part was dogmatic, by which the manners of the faithful are formed so that they may be worthy of Christ and of Christianity. The phrase "wherefore" connects these exhortations with what precedes, and as it were draws from them as from principles a fitting conclusion, as if to say: "Since an incorruptible and good inheritance, preached by me and the Apostles through Christ, has been prepared for you, O Christians, and these blessings are so great that not only the prophets but even the angels desire to behold them, it remains that, trampling upon earthly thoughts, as it were girding up the loins of your mind, with your whole soul's affections, and as it were with full steps, you hasten toward heaven."

Let avaricious men, like moles, pursue earthly riches; let the proud, as if seeking a breeze of honor, court ambition; let the gluttonous, like swine, crave delicacies; but you, citizens—indeed, kings—of heaven, inscribed and destined by God, seek with more ardent zeal, and girded up, that is, unencumbered, strive for the eternal kingdom, so that, despising the allurements, riches, threats, and hatreds of the world, you may hope for and attain that grace, that is, that glory to be revealed on the day of judgment.

Note First: We gird up the loins for four purposes: First, for a journey; Second, for work; Third, for battle; Fourth, for service. Whence St. Augustine on Psalm 92 says: "To be girded," he says, "is for one about to undertake a journey; to be girt, for one about to do some work; to be accinct, for one about to fight; to be precinct, for one about to serve." All these apply: for First, as pilgrims, they make their way to heaven; Second, as laborers, they perform the work of God; Third, as soldiers of Christ, they fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil; Fourth, as servants, they owe service to Christ. Therefore they ought to be "girded up in the loins of their mind," that is, they ought to be in mind and soul not impeded but prompt, free, and unencumbered for the four purposes just mentioned.

First, there is a catachresis: for the girding of the loins makes a man unencumbered, and therefore signifies this. Second, there is a metaphor, and this twofold: the former taken from the dress of the ancient Jews, for they used very long garments and tunics; whence, when about to do work or undertake a journey, they would gird them up. Hence Christ says to the faithful who will meet Him at death (Luke 12:35): "Let your loins be girded." For, as Haymo says, "He who is ungirded is impeded by his very garments so that he cannot walk freely; but he who is girded can run hither and thither." The latter metaphor consists in attributing "loins" to the mind, whereby it is signified that Christians, with all impediments removed, ought to exhibit their mind prepared, eager, and keen to enter upon this work and journey.

Therefore, he "girds up the loins of his mind" who drives from his mind errors, especially evil practical principles, harmful thoughts, and desires. So Oecumenius, Gagneius, and Thomas Anglicus, who beautifully says that the interior man, that is, the soul, is in its own way proportioned to the exterior man. For a man is said to have a foot, that is, affection; an eye, that is, reason; a hand, that is, operation; a nostril, that is, discretion; loins and reins, that is, delights. Thus in Luke 16, the spiritual operations of the souls of Lazarus and the rich man are signified through eyes, fingers, tongue, and bodily members.

Therefore, St. Peter by "the loins of the mind" understands the powers, faculties, affections, loves, and desires of the mind, and he orders these to be girded and restrained lest they flow freely and delay the purpose and course toward heaven and God. Second, that being unencumbered they may be able to respond to God calling them to evangelize, to suffer many things with Him, and to do whatever else. "My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready" (Ps. 56:8). Third, that the mind may command its own loins, that is, its powers and affections, and not permit them to wander at will, but may rule and direct them both to its own salvation and to God's service and glory. For the mind that commands itself and its own affections is a queen, ruling fully and widely, more so than a king or emperor of the world, according to that saying of Horace: "You shall reign more widely by subduing the greedy spirit than if you were to join distant Libya to far-off Gades, and both Carthaginians serve one master." Such a one, therefore, "girds up the loins of his mind" because he dominates all the affections, loves, and fears of his mind so that he can restrain or loosen them at will, like a hunter with his dog or a fowler with his hawk.

Note Second: The girdle is, First, a symbol and cause of strength and constancy; wherefore the Gentiles dedicated the girdle to Mars. And Cicero gives this precept to the orator: "Let him gird his sides with a tighter girdle so that they may be firmer and stronger for speaking." Thus Proverbs 31:17 is said of the strong woman: "She has girded her loins with strength, and has strengthened her arm." And God is said to be "girded with power" (Ps. 64:7), and to gird others. Whence David says: "You have girded me with strength unto battle" (Ps. 17:13). Therefore Peter signifies that Christians ought not to act sluggishly, but that they ought to intend their mind and strongly and constantly apply themselves to Christ, to Christianity, and to eternal salvation and glory to which they are called by Christ. So Oecumenius. Hence among the Greeks, εὔζωνος, that is, "well-girded," is the same as "strong and vigorous." Conversely, however, discinctus ("ungirded") among the Latins sounds like "dissolute and unwarlike," because it was considered the utmost disgrace if an emperor ordered an ignoble soldier to spend the day ungirded, as Suetonius says in Augustus, ch. 24. To this belongs that saying of 3 Kings 20:11: "Let not him that is girded boast himself as he that is ungirded"—that is, one about to fight should not boast as much as one already resting from battle, victory having been won.

Second, the girdle is a symbol of chastity: both because it itself restrains the loins, and consequently lust, which has its origin in the loins; and because to guard chastity is an act of great strength. Hence that saying of Christ: "Let your loins be girded" (Luke 12:35), many expound thus, as if to say: "Mortify lust, strive for chastity." So St. Augustine, Homily 23 on the Words of the Lord; St. Gregory, Homily 13 on the Gospels; St. Basil on Isaiah 15; St. Jerome, Book 1 against Jovinian, and others. Thus also some expound St. Peter's words here. Whence also follows "Be sober": for sobriety is the companion—indeed, the mother—of chastity. So Bede: "He girds up the loins of the mind," he says, "who restrains it from impure thought. And he who in mind and body chastely awaits the coming of the Lord, merits to hope when He is revealed." And St. Gregory, Moralia 32, ch. 2: "To gird up the loins of the flesh," he says, "is to restrain lust from effect; but to gird up the loins of the mind is to restrain it even from thought." And Peter Chrysologus: "Girt," he says, "with the belt of chastity, which is the insignia of Christian warfare, let us cut off the flowing ignobility of the flesh. The Lord orders our loins to be bound with the belt of chastity; He commands the whole pendulous, fluid, dissolute part of our flesh to be constricted by the continual zone of virtue, so that, with the flesh girded, the progress of our mind may be rendered free, swift, and unencumbered to meet the Lord."

Third, the girdle is a sign of an honest, modest, and composed mind: for such as the exterior man is, such as his dress and attire, such is the interior man. Whence Sulla was noted because he walked ill-girded, as if this were a sign of an inordinate and intemperate character. Thus also concerning Julius Caesar, while still a boy, it was an omen when Sulla warned the optimates to beware of the ill-girded boy; for he would be the destruction of the optimates, saying that in Caesar there were many Mariuses, as in the Life of Julius Caesar, ch. 1 and 45.

Fourth, the girdle is a sign of fidelity: for spouses are girded with the conjugal girdle that they may be admonished mutually to keep conjugal fidelity.

Fifth, it is a sign of continence and mortification of appetites toward secular and fleeting things. So St. Augustine, Sermon 39 on the Words of the Lord, and St. Gregory, Moralia 34, ch. 35: "He girds up the loins and the breasts," he says, "who restrains all the movements of mutable thoughts through the bonds of love alone, so that he may say with the Psalmist: 'For what have I in heaven? And besides You, what do I desire upon earth? O God of my heart, and my portion forever, O God'" (Ps. 72:25).

You will ask: With what girdle ought the loins of the mind to be girded? I answer: With truth. For St. Paul assigns this girdle of truth in Ephesians 6:14: "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth." See what is said there, to which add the exposition of St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 42: "I inquire," he says, "what the loins have in common with truth, and what was Paul's mind when he said, 'Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth'? Was it perhaps that speculation restrains concupiscence and does not permit it to be carried to other things? For it cannot be that one who burns with love for any thing has equal force for other pleasures"—that is, as Nicetas explains, "the contemplation of Christ constricts our loins and concupiscence, and does not permit it, when wholly transfused and derived to the love of divine things, to be diffused and dispersed. For Christ is the truth" (1 John 5:6). Therefore prayer and contemplation of Christ and heavenly things diminishes and breaks every concupiscence that dwells in the loins. Wherefore prayer is the mother of mortification, continence, and chastity. And conversely, mortification purifies and enkindles prayer.

The same Nazianzen, Oration 40: "What are the loins," he says, "what the reins? 'Let your loins be girded' and restrained through continence, just as formerly for Israel according to the prescription of the Law when eating the Passover. For no one departs purely and perfectly from Egypt, nor escapes destruction, unless he has tamed and restrained these. But let the reins experience praiseworthy change, transferring the whole force of desire to God, so that we may be able to say: 'Lord, all my desire is before You' and 'I have not desired the day of man.' For it behooves us to be men of spiritual desires. For thus at length shall we oppress that dragon whose strength is situated especially in the navel and loins, namely with that power extinguished and overturned which it holds in these parts."

The reason is this: because the soul in man is one and the same; therefore, since it is of limited power, if it exerts and expends its whole force in the speculation and love of heavenly things, it has nothing further that it can expend in the love and speculation of carnal things. Whence we see men devoted to meditation and prayer scarcely feel the stings of the flesh. Thus our Blessed Aloysius Gonzaga was so perpetually intent on prayer and meditation that he felt no wandering or distraction of mind in it, and wondered that a man conversing with God in the presence of so great a majesty could be distracted or turn his mind elsewhere; and thence he obtained the extraordinary gift of chastity, so that, like St. Thomas Aquinas, he felt no impure motions of flesh or soul, and seemed insensible to them, as if he were an angel not by nature but by virtue.

"Be sober": First, as if to say: Not drunk, nor indulging in wine, gluttony, and the belly. For wines prepare the mind for venery, and vice versa; without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus grows cold. Whence St. Jerome, Epistle 83 to Oceanus: "Drunkenness," he says, "belongs to buffoons and revelers, and a belly boiling with wine easily foams forth into lust." See what is said on Ephesians 5:18, on that passage: "Do not be drunk with wine, in which is luxury." For just as drunkenness and a satiated and full belly are unfit for a journey, for work, for battle, for service, so for all these things the sober man is prepared, and sobriety prepares. Truly Origen, Homily 3 on Leviticus: "Sobriety," he says, "is the mother of all virtues, just as, on the contrary, drunkenness is the mother of all vices." And soon after: "In the sickness of drunkenness, body and soul are corrupted together; the spirit is vitiated along with the flesh; it weakens all the members, relaxes the foot, the hand, the tongue; darkens the eyes; veils the mind with oblivion, so that one knows not nor feels that he is a man." And St. Basil, Homily 14: "The souls of drunkards are submerged in wine." And soon after: "Deprived of the light of mind through you, you can be numbered among the irrational beasts." St. Chrysostom, Homily 58 on Matthew: "No one," he says, "is more a friend of the devil than he who is stained with delicacies and drunkenness," and he compares a drunkard to one possessed by a demon; for a drunkard does not seem to be a man but a demon incarnate—so he rages, quarrels, fights, raves. "One devoted to delicacies," he says, "is separated by no distinction from a demoniac; for he is equally shameless and furious. We pity all demoniacs, but we shun this one because he attracts fury upon himself voluntarily, and makes his mouth, eyes, nostrils, and the other instruments of the senses sewers of most bitter pleasure."

Second, Oecumenius and the Syriac join "sober" with "perfectly," as if St. Peter required from Christians not a half-soberness, such as was that of the Jews, but a full and perfect sobriety, which would make their mind girded and prepared for the heavenly journey. Now full sobriety is abstinence not only of the flesh but also of the mind, that is, continence and moderation of soul, by which one dominates all desires. Concerning this Seneca, Epistle 39: "It is the mark of a great soul," he says, "to despise great things and to prefer moderate ones to excessive ones; for the former are useful and vital, but the latter, insofar as they are superfluous, do harm. Thus too much abundance lays low the crop; thus branches are broken by their burden; thus too great fecundity does not reach maturity. The same thing happens also to souls, which too great happiness bursts." And Plutarch, On Moral Virtue: "A temperate soul," he says, "is equal and peaceful, with the lower portion of our soul consenting to the higher, adorned and composed with admirable quiet, upon which gazing you might say: 'The winds had now ceased, and the sea was tranquil without wind; for God Himself had calmed the vehement waves,' restraining the insane and raging movements of desires by reason, and rendering those things which nature requires obedient and consenting to itself, so that they neither run ahead of reason nor turn their backs, nor disturb the order, nor be disobedient to its command, but that every movement, whithersoever reason wishes to lead, may be prepared to follow, like a well-trained colt running together with its mare." But this is a mystical sobriety; and "perfectly" is more aptly referred to the following "hope."

Third, the Greek νήφοντες can be translated "watching," as Vatablus and St. Jerome (Book 1 against Jovinian) translate; whence also the Syriac translates "be watchful." For sobriety is the mother of watchfulness, just as drunkenness is of sleep and sloth. Wherefore St. Peter joins these two as inseparable companions in chapter 5, verse 8, saying: "Be sober and watch." For the life of the faithful is a vigil; for they ought to keep watch among so many enemies by whom they are surrounded on all sides. Moreover, Christ's doctrine, sublime equally with His grace and glory, demands a mind that is watchful, attentive, keen, zealous, and industrious.

"Perfectly": The Gloss, Hugo, Dionysius, and others read "perfecti" ("perfect"), but the Greek has τελείως, that is, "perfectly." So also the Roman edition.

"Hope in the grace that is offered to you": St. Peter requires from the faithful not just any hope, but perfect hope, and he hints that it is prepared by sobriety; for abstinence from carnal pleasures makes us hope for heavenly things, and makes the mind able, keen, and eager to receive and taste them beforehand. For "is offered" the Greek is φερομένῃ, which St. Jerome and others translate "is being brought," because, namely, God not only promises this grace but also offers, brings, and as it were places it in the hand and bosom—yet so that He does not compel but leaves it free to the will to accept or reject it, as the Council of Trent defines, Session 6, chapter 5. For "grace" the Greek χάριν, some read χαράν, that is, "joy." So the Syriac. For although grace can be taken here in its proper sense, as if to say: "Hope in faith and grace, that it will lead you to salvation," yet it is better to take grace for glory; for this the faithful and just hope for, and this brings full joy, according to that word of Christ: "Enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matt. 25:21). This is also grace because, although it itself is the reward of good works, nevertheless these have their origin from grace. Whence Romans 6:23 says: "The grace of God is life eternal." This full hope drove and excited St. Peter, St. Andrew, Philip, and Simon to ascend the cross exultingly; James and Paul to embrace swords and axes; St. Lawrence to trample the gridiron; Sebastian the arrows; Stephen the stones; Ignatius the lion; Clement shipwreck; Polycarp fire; Thecla serpents, bulls, racks, and all kinds of torments to be overcome bravely and eagerly. Truly Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh: "The confidence of Christians," he says, "is the resurrection of the dead; he who has this has God, as also faith and charity hope."

Note First: Since hope is a theological virtue, it has for its primary object God, not a creature such as grace; yet secondarily it also hopes for the means by which it leads us to itself as to the ultimate and blessed end—such are grace, faith, charity, and the other virtues. Thus faith believes many things about Christ and created things insofar as they are revealed by God; thus charity loves not only God but also neighbor for God's sake.

Note Second: The Hebraism "to hope in grace" means "to hope for grace," that is, glory; for this is consummated grace. Thus "to believe in God" is to believe God and to believe God.

Mystically, our Turrianus, Three Dogmatic Characters, takes grace to mean the Eucharist, which in Greek signifies the same as "good grace," because it is the sum of graces and ἐσιώδης, that is, substantial; for in it Christ imparts Himself and His substance—namely, His whole divinity and humanity—as an extraordinary gift and grace to us; and therefore we properly hope in this grace because we hope for Christ, who is really present in the Eucharist—indeed, the Eucharist itself is the grace of graces.

"In the revelation": So the Roman edition, as if to say: "Hope for grace," that is, glory, "until the day of the revelation of Christ"—that is, until the day of judgment comes; for then that grace will be given by Christ the Judge as the reward of labors and patience. Or: "Hope in the revelation of Jesus Christ"—that is, in Jesus Christ, that in the revelation of His glory and judicial power, that is, on the day of judgment, He will consign to you this grace, that is, glory. Or: "Hope in the day of the revelation of Christ," because that day will bring this grace to you. The Greek has ἐν ἀποκαλύψει, that is, "in revelation." Hope for this grace now when it is revealed to you through my preaching and that of the Apostles. Or rather, as if to say: "Hope that this grace will be given to you in the revelation of Christ," that is, on the day of judgment.

Note: The word "revelation" signifies that we live this life in faith, that is, in a riddle and obscurity, in which the things we believe and hope for do not appear, are not seen, but are as it were hidden and concealed with God; for all these, and their dignity and majesty, will be revealed on the day of judgment, so that then we may contemplate them face to face and enjoy them. Thus Paul says: "You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:3-4); see what is said there.

1 Pet 1:14 "As obedient children": These words depend on what precedes, as if to say: "Stand girded in your loins," that is, unencumbered, constant, and sober; "hope for future glory," as befits children of obedience—that is, obedient to the precepts of Christ, mine, and the Apostles, such as you are. For it befits children to obey their parents. Therefore St. Peter requires from the faithful obedience—not just any obedience, but filial obedience, arising from filial love and reverence. Moreover, "children of obedience" are called those devoted and wholly given over to obedience, as if born from it as from a mother, and appearing to have wholly imbibed and absorbed the disposition and nature of obedience. Furthermore, "children of obedience" are as it were devoted and consecrated to obedience, in the way that religious are called children of obedience because they have devoted themselves to it and have vowed it to God. And such were the first Christians, namely, most obedient to Christ and the Apostles, so much so that they made a vow or profession of obedience to the Apostles, as is shown in Acts 5:1. Thus also are called "children of perdition," of unbelief, of distrust—that is, wholly lost, unbelieving, distrustful. Likewise "children of wrath, of death, of hell"—that is, destined for vengeance, death, and hell.

Morally, St. Peter signifies that Christians ought to be most obedient, as children of obedience, children of Christ and of the first Christians, who were most obedient. For Christ "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8). Likewise, as brothers of the angels; for the angels are "mighty in strength, doing His word, hearkening to the voice of His speeches" (Ps. 102:20). Hence they are painted winged and fiery, because most swiftly and effectively they execute God's commands, according to that word: "Who makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire" (Ps. 103:4).

"Not conforming yourselves to the former desires of your ignorance": He shows what kind of obedience He requires from the faithful as children—namely, not of faith only, that they believe in Christ (as heretics hold), but also of works, that they do not follow their former desires and lusts which they followed in Gentilism, but strive for holiness, that in all conversation they may be holy. Whence the Syriac translates: "Do not communicate any longer with the former desires to which you adhered without knowledge."

Note: "Conforming yourselves"—that is, being conformed. He who follows desires conforms and configures himself to them, and appears to put on their form and figure. You see a drunkard: you see the form, manners, and gestures of drunkenness. You see a glutton: you see the figure, gaping, and voracity of gluttony and venery. You see an ambitious man: you see the figure, swelling, and ambition. Conversely, those who conform and configure themselves to Christ and His virtues put on His form, manners, and character. For just as paper pressed to a printing plate and configured to the plate in which the image of Christ is engraved and sculpted is configured to it and puts on its image, so that it represents and expresses the form and habit of Christ, so entirely he who applies his mind and will to Christ as to a norm, rule, and exemplar configures himself to Him and expresses in himself His form, manners, and virtues. This is what Paul commands in Ephesians 4:22: "That you put off, according to the former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of error." For which St. Peter says "ignorance," to signify that they in Gentilism were in profound darkness and night of infidelity, gluttony, lust, pride, etc., which the Gentiles thought honorable and beautiful, and therefore gloried in them; but now through Christianity they have been translated to the clear light of faith, knowledge of God, sobriety, chastity, and every virtue. Paul adds: "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth" (Eph. 4:23-24); see what is said there.

1 Pet 1:15 "But according to Him who called you to faith, grace, and salvation, be holy": God and Christ, who is the Holy of Holies and everlasting justice (Dan. 9:24).

"And be you also holy in all conversation (conduct, way of life, etc)": An ancient saying of one of the Seven Sages was: "Follow God." More ancient is God's word through Moses: "You shall be holy, because I am holy" (Lev. 11:45). More recent but fuller is Christ's in Matthew 5:48 and Paul's in Ephesians 5:1: "Be ye therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect"; "Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children." Note: the Latin word conversatione has a broad range of meaning, including:  "way/manner of life, conduct/behavior; monastic life; frequent resorting (place); familiar intercourse/intimacy (w/person); acquaintance; (habitual) association; turning around; moving in place; constant practical experience; frequent use" [Whitaker, William. Dictionary of Latin Forms, Logos Bible Software, 2012].

Moreover, he opposes holiness to "desires," that is, concupiscences, whereby he signifies that holiness consists in purity, which is acquired by fleeing and mortifying carnal and earthly desires, so that just as God is holy—that is, segregated from the earth and earthly defilements—so likewise the faithful should be holy. Whence Origen, Homily 11 on Leviticus: "Holy," he says, "is said in Greek ἅγιος, which signifies as it were 'being outside the earth'; for whoever has consecrated himself to God merits to seem to be outside the earth and outside the world." But clearly St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, ch. 12: "Holiness," he says, "is purity free from all crime, perfect, and in every part uncontaminated, which so excels in God that He merits to be called and celebrated by that most famous hymn, the Trisagion, by the blessed minds in heaven." And St. Basil, On the Holy Spirit, ch. 9: "The soul," he says, "purged from the reproach which contaminated it through malice, and returned to its native beauty, and as it were restoring the ancient form by purity to the royal image, can in this one way only approach the Paraclete. But He, like the sun finding a pure eye, will show you in Himself the image of Him who cannot be seen." And soon after: "This Paraclete, shining upon those who are purged from the tumult of desires, through the communion which they have with Him, renders them spiritual. And just as bright and transparent bodies, when touched by a ray of the sun, themselves become exceedingly bright and pour forth another splendor from themselves, so also souls breathed upon by the Spirit and illuminated by the Spirit are themselves spiritual and emit grace upon others."

Moreover, St. Peter requires from the faithful a full and universal holiness; for he says: "In all conversation be ye holy." For some in the temple appear to be angels, but in the house are devils. Therefore he requires the continual exercise not of one virtue but of all virtues, and that they acquire for themselves solid and intense habits of them. For habit gives to virtue not only facility but also constancy, so that one endowed with it may stand firm, strong, and like himself against any temptations, and may exercise virtue in all conversation and do all things to be done from it.

Therefore the sense is, as if to say: "All your conversation, O Christians, in Gentilism was impure, stained, and often bestial. For many of you in the temple were superstitious, in the court contentious, in the forum ambitious, in the street insulting, in business fraudulent, in the field rapacious, in the house quarrelsome; many at table were wolves, in the bedroom foxes, at work asses, at home peacocks, abroad hawks, in bed swine, in anger tigers, in circles dogs, in the streets lions. But now in Christianity it behooves that all your conversation—in acting, speaking, walking, eating, studying, disputing, sleeping, working, governing, etc.—be pure, Christian, holy, angelic; that in the temple you be ardent in prayer like Seraphim, in school and bedroom contemplative like Cherubim, in judgment calm and equitable like Thrones, in restraining desires exalted like Dominations, in rule prudent like Principalities, in trampling the temptation of the world generous like Powers, in wrestling with the devil like Virtues, in office and public work faithful like Archangels, at table, in the street, in the forum, in bed, etc., honest, modest, composed, holy like Angels." See St. Bernard, Treatise on the Manner of Living Well, to a Sister, where he shows what kind of conversation one ought to have in the temple, bedroom, at table, in conversation, in reading, in sleep, etc.

This the first Christians accomplished, who therefore were commonly called by the name "Saints," as Paul everywhere calls them. Hear St. Justin, Philosopher and Martyr, graphically depicting the Christians of his age—that is, around the year of Christ 150—in his Epistle to Diognetus:

"They inhabit their own fatherlands, but as if sojourners therein; they participate in all things as citizens, and endure all things as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. They marry like all others and beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. They set a common table, but not an impure one. They are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. They dwell on earth, but they converse in heaven. They obey the established laws, and they surpass the laws by their manner of life. They love all, and by all are persecuted. They are unknown, and they are condemned. They are put to death, and they are made alive. They are poor, and they enrich many. They lack all things, and in all things they abound. They suffer ignominy, and in their ignominies they are glorified. They are blasphemed, and they are justified. They are reviled, and they bless. They are assailed with contumely, and they honor. Doing good, they are punished as evildoers; being punished, they rejoice as if made alive. By the Jews they are assailed as aliens, and by the Gentiles they are persecuted, nor can those who hate them allege any cause of hatred."

Such were the Essenes—that is, the first Christians under St. Mark—who were called Essenes as if from ὅσιος, that is, "holy," or rather as if from חסידים (chasidim), that is, "pious ones." For how holy the Essenes were in all conversation, learn from one who was a sworn, though hostile and detracting, enemy of Christ and the Christians; wonder and imitate. For thus he depicts them in Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel, Book 9, ch. 1:

"The Essenes are Jews by race. These love one another more than other men do, and they spurn every pleasure as vicious, considering continence and integrity of soul, removed from every disturbance, the preeminent virtue. They take wives, but they educate as their own and establish in their manners adopted children, still tender and fit for instruction; they do this not because they abhor marriage, but because they think the manners of women are to be avoided. They so despise all riches that a certain wonderful community exists among them. None of them possesses anything more than the others; all things are common to them. No one is richer or poorer than another. One possession belongs to all as to brothers. They do not permit themselves to be anointed with oil; and if anyone happens to be touched with oil, they carefully wipe his body as if from a great stain; for they wish to be not soft but dry and hard of body. They always wear white garments. They elect stewards and governors for themselves, and they are undivided in their affairs. They do not inhabit one city, but easily migrate hither and thither, and always proceed to those who follow their heresy—that is, their sect and religion—from whom they are so received that you would always say they had lived there; whence it happens that those setting out carry no expenses with them. They do not change clothing and shoes before they are utterly worn out by time, nor do they buy or sell anything, but they use barter when they have need. For among them, whatever things they wish are common, even for those bringing nothing.

Then he describes their prayers, works, and meals: 'They use the greatest piety toward God. For before the sun rises, nothing profane is spoken by them, but they use ancestral prayers by which they entreat the sun to rise. Then each is sent by the prefects to his arts and works; and after they have labored for five hours, they are again gathered together in one place, and having washed with water, they come into a house into which it is permitted no one to enter except one of the same sect. Thus, purified as if into a temple, they proceed to the dining hall, where, when all are seated in great tranquility and in order, bread is placed, and a single dish for each. But first the priest, having said a prayer, begins to eat; and it is altogether unlawful to taste anything before the prayer. And when they have dined, they pray much more diligently. Thus, beginning and ending with praises, it would seem wonderful with what order and silence they sing together. After these things, having put off the garments in which they dined as sacred, they go out again to their works; and having returned, they dine similarly at twilight, with guests also partaking if any happen to be present. No clamor or tumult is heard among them, but they converse in such order that their perpetual continence seems so great. Food and drink are taken for the necessity of life. Then, having recounted their oath by which they swear to preserve piety, justice, truth, religion, and secrecy, he adds: 'Moreover, they use such sparingness and paucity of food that they rarely need to relieve their bowels more than once in seven days. From which continence they attain such patience and strength of soul that they cannot be compelled by goad, fire, or any kind of torture either to speak against their lawgiver or to eat anything unlawful—which they especially showed in the war which was waged against them by the Romans: they never used any flattery toward their tormentors, nor did they, when tortured, utter any groans, but smiling in their pains and mocking those by whom they were tortured, thus most joyfully expired, as if they saw themselves returning most happily to their fatherland. For this opinion is firm among them: that bodies indeed are subject to death, but that souls live forever; and that when they are carried by a certain natural impulse from the most subtle ether and are joined to bodies, but when they are released from the bonds of the body as if from a long slavery, then with the greatest joy they seek higher things. By which life and piety it easily comes about that many among them foresee the future, especially those who exercise themselves in the sacred volumes and the various sayings of the purification of the flesh and of the prophets.' Thus Porphyry testified concerning the philosophy of the Essenes. Thus far Eusebius.

In this mirror, gaze upon yourself and your own conduct, O Christian; and if you find yourself far removed from these precepts, strive to follow and attain them, lest that saying of Salvian (On Divine Providence, Bk. 4) apply to you and your like: "In vain do we flatter ourselves with the privileged name of Christianity, when we so act and live that this very thing, that we are called a Christian people, seems to be a reproach to Christ." And soon after: "Where is the Catholic law which they believe? Where are the precepts of piety and chastity which they learn? They read the Gospels and are impure; they listen to the Apostles and are drunkards; they follow Christ and plunder; they live wickedly and claim to hold an approved law... In us Christ suffers reproach, in us the Christian law suffers curse, when it is said: 'Behold what kind of people they are who worship Christ.' It is plainly false that they say they learn good things; for if they learned good things, they would be good. Such indeed is the sect as are its followers. Without doubt they would become what they are taught by Christians, if Christ had taught holy things. He who is worshipped can therefore be judged by his worshippers. For how is he a good master whose disciples we see to be so bad? From Him Christians are; Him they hear; Him they read."

1 Pet 1:16 "BECAUSE IT IS WRITTEN: YOU SHALL BE HOLY, BECAUSE I AM HOLY." This is written in Leviticus 20:26; see the notes there and Leviticus 27:28. The sense is, as Didymus says, as if to say: "Just as I, the fountain of holiness, exist holy by substance, so strive to participate in holiness, you whom I love, that you may be as I am." Hence Nazianzen beautifully says in Iambic 15: "What is holiness?" he asks. "To be accustomed with God." Thus Noah and Enoch, walking with God, became holy (Gen. 5:24; 6:9).

1 Pet 1:17 "AND IF YOU INVOKE AS FATHER HIM WHO WITHOUT RESPECT OF PERSONS JUDGES ACCORDING TO EACH ONE'S WORK, CONDUCT YOURSELVES IN FEAR DURING THE TIME OF YOUR SOJOURNING." St. Peter continues to urge the faithful to be holy in all their conduct and to dwell continually in holy fear of God, using various reasons and incentives. The first is in this verse: namely, that He Himself, the Holy One who called them, is their God, Father, and Judge, whom they adore and invoke. As if to say: Therefore, worship Him holily as God; obey Him holily as a Father, as dutiful children; fear Him holily as a Judge. For He judges without respect of persons, neither preferring the rich to the poor, the master to the servant, the noble to the ignoble, but judges each according to merits, according to works. Wherefore, while you inhabit this life, this flesh, and as it were sojourners and pilgrims, conduct yourselves in holy fear, and revere God either with filial love as a Father, or at least with servile fear as a Judge, so that you may avoid all His offenses and sins, and do whatever pleases Him and is commanded and established by His law, and thus avoid hell and obtain the eternal inheritance in heaven as God-fearing servants and dutiful children. This is what Malachi 1:6 says: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My fear?" says the Lord of hosts.

Note: He calls God "Father," which is common to the Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For He is Father, that is, Creator, Preserver, Provider, Governor of angels, men, and all creatures. Thus Christ in the Lord's Prayer commanded us to pray and begin thus: "Our Father who art in heaven" (Matt. 6:9). From this passage, Calvin and the Calvinists wrongly contend that God should be expunged by us from the litanies. Wrongly, I say; for Christ commanded baptism by invoking the Holy Trinity, saying: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Hence St. Dionysius invokes the Holy Trinity (On Mystical Theology, ch. 1), St. Augustine (On the Trinity, Bk. 15, last ch.), and others everywhere, indeed the whole Church on the Feast of the Holy Trinity and often elsewhere. See Fevardent, Dialogue 1 against Calvin. Not without cause did learned men accuse Calvin of Arianism and Judaism, as Hunnius wrote a book titled Calvinus Judaizans. For if it is not lawful to invoke the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, then the Son is not God, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the Holy Trinity. For whoever is true God, we can and ought not only to adore but also to invoke.

Note Second: The Son alone, as man, will be the Judge judging all men. Yet the Father and the Holy Spirit will also be judges, because they will judge through Christ the man, just as a king judges through his praetor. So St. Augustine, Tractate 21 on John. See Francisco Suárez, Part 3, q. 57, art. 1. A great incentive to holy conduct is God, who sees all, judges, and avenges. Hence the Apostles constantly inculcated this, and preachers ought to frequently press it. St. Clement relates that St. Peter used to say: "Who could sin if he always placed God before his eyes?" St. Paul vehemently feared this very thing: "Lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Cor. 9:27). And: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12). And: "We must all be manifested before the tribunal of Christ, that everyone may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether good or evil" (2 Cor. 5:10). And: "Let us serve, pleasing God, with fear and reverence: for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:28). See the notes there, and Joel 3:2, and Rev. 6 at the end, and 22:12, where Christ says: "Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to his works." Rightly, therefore, the royal Prophet says: "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling" (Ps. 2:11). Who should not tremble before God, before the supreme Judge, before the Avenger who can destroy both soul and body in hell, in whose hands are our life and death, heaven and hell, our eternal salvation and damnation? Truly Job 9:28: "I feared all my works, knowing that You would not spare the transgressor." St. Jerome, Epistle 5: "I, defiled with the filth of sins, day and night strive to render the last farthing, and that it may be said to me: 'Jerome, come forth.'" And to Eustochium, recounting his tears, fastings, and penances in the desert: "I, for fear of hell, had condemned myself to such a prison." And inviting Heliodorus to his desert, he says he would overcome all delays if the love of God and fear of hell seized the soul.

Note Third: By incolatus (sojourning) he understands the pilgrimage of this life. Whence the Greek is παροικίας χρόνον, that is, "the short time in which we sojourn as guests and strangers in this life and earth." As if to say: You are pilgrims on earth and pass through it as guests toward heaven; therefore do not be captivated and cling to the allurements of the earth, but, despising them, press on and pass through to your homeland. Hence parœci were called inhabitants, parœcia the neighborhood or gathering of the faithful who belong to one and the same temple, and Parochus (parish priest) is he who presides over them or who administers the sacraments and Eucharistic bread to them. For parochus among the Romans was one who supplied bread and other necessities of life to guests, as Cicero testifies (Ad Atticum, Bk. 3, Ep. 2). Thus David was always mindful of his sojourning, saying in Psalm 118:5: "Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Kedar; my soul has long been a sojourner." Thus Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the Patriarchs and Prophets dwelt in the promised land as in a foreign country, confessing that they were pilgrims and strangers on earth (Heb. 11:9, 13). See the notes there. St. Jerome says to Heliodorus: "We die daily, we are daily changed, and yet we believe ourselves to be eternal." Seneca, Natural Questions, Bk. 6, ch. 32: "Time flows," he says, "and abandons even those most greedy of it, nor is what is to come God's, and it is a small thing to have been." That wise man Lælius elegantly said to one who boasted, "I am sixty years old": "You will not say those sixty which you do not have; what has been is mine, and what was in a point of fleeting time..."

1 Pet 1:18 "KNOWING THAT NOT WITH CORRUPTIBLE THINGS..." Here Peter applies a second incentive to the faithful to be holy in all conduct: namely, that they were bought, redeemed, and translated from vain and impure conduct in Gentilism at an inestimable price, namely, the blood and death of Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. Let them therefore see to it that they remain in this state, lest if they return to their former vices, they trample upon the blood of Christ, provoke His wrath and vengeance, who will most sharply punish and avenge this contempt and injury to His blood. So Bede: "The greater the price by which you were redeemed from the corruption of carnal life, so much the more you ought to fear lest, by returning to the corruption of vices, you offend your Redeemer."

"FROM YOUR VAIN CONVERSATION (conversatione = conduct, way of life) HANDED DOWN FROM YOUR FATHERS." The Greek is πατροπαραδότου, that is, "handed down from the fathers," namely, concerning conduct under the Law of Moses, and also in Gentilism. For he speaks to both Jews and Gentiles converted to Christ. The tradition and conduct of Judaism was vain because it placed purification and holiness in victims and bodily washings, and because it excluded the faith and grace of Christ, who established holiness in interior virtue, and because, now that Christ's law was promulgated, it was useless—indeed, deadly. So Cajetan and Gagneius. The tradition of the Gentiles was vain because they worshipped wooden and stone idols, and from them asked and expected salvation and every good, and because they pursued vain and impure allurements of the flesh and the world.

1 Pet 1:19 "BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, AS OF A LAMB IMMACULATE, OF CHRIST." The blood of Christ, being that of God, is of infinite price; therefore we were redeemed at an infinite price. "You have been bought with a great price; glorify and bear God in your body," says Paul (1 Cor. 6:20). See also Hebrews. This great price is Christ Himself, wholly given to us, wholly expended for our uses, says St. Bernard, Sermon 3 on the Circumcision. Moreover, he calls Christ "as a lamb," that is, like a lamb in purity, innocence, chastity, meekness, obedience, by which He was immolated as a lamb for our sins. He alludes to the lamb sacrificed by the Jews at Passover, which was a type of Christ to be immolated likewise at Passover. For this lamb had to be ἄμωμος, that is, irreprehensible and immaculate (Exod. 12:5). The wool of this paschal lamb signifies example, milk doctrine, flesh the Eucharist, blood redemption, says Thomas Anglicus. St. Paulinus beautifully says in his Epistle to Florentius: "The same Lamb and Shepherd will rule us forever, who made us from wolves to whom He was a victim." Again, he alludes to Isaiah 53:7: "He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer." And Jeremiah 11:19: "I was as a meek lamb that is carried to be a victim." But more closely he alludes to the testimony of John the Baptist concerning Christ: "Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). With this voice of "Lamb," the other St. John, the Apostle, rejoices, and so frequently calls Him in Revelation, chapter 5 and following, by which he signifies that all Christians ought to be lambs of the Lamb Christ, and imitate the Lamb's manners, as St. Agnes did in deed and name. For Agnes is said to be as if "lamb," says St. Augustine, Sermon 101 on Various Subjects. Truly St. Ambrose, On Luke, Bk. 7, ch. 12: "The blood of Christ is rightly called precious," he says, "because it is of an immaculate body, because it is the blood of the Son of God, who redeemed us not only from the curse of the law but also from the perpetual death of impiety." And He redeemed us not only by paying a ransom for committed sins, but also by transferring us from vices and the state of evil life to virtues and the state of holy life, changing the mind and imbuing it with His grace, which also impels us to every good. This is what Paul says in Galatians 3:13: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." And 1 Corinthians 1:30: "Christ is made unto us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption." Hence beautifully and piously St. Ambrose, On Faith, Bk. 3, ch. 3, showing how much Christians owe to Christ: "My wisdom," he says, "is the cross of the Lord; my redemption is the death of the Lord; for we were redeemed with precious blood, as the Apostle Peter said. With His blood, as man, the Lord redeemed us; and the same, as God, forgave sins." St. Leo the Great, Sermon 3 on the Passion: "Among all the works of God's mercy," he says, "nothing is more wonderful, nothing more sublime, than that Christ was crucified for the world."

Hence theologians teach that the shed blood of Christ was not separated from the Divinity, as Francis of Mayronis held (4 Dist. 43, q. 1), but remained hypostatically united to it, just as the body did; for the blood of Christ was a just price for our sins precisely because it was the blood of a divine Person, namely the Word, who is of infinite dignity. Therefore the blood remained the Word's; hence it remained hypostatically united to the Word. For if it had been separated from it by shedding, it would not have been a condign price for our sins, since it would then be the blood of a mere creature, and therefore of limited dignity, and consequently insufficient to satisfy for sins which contain an infinite offense against the infinite God. To this belongs the axiom of theologians from Damascene, Bk. 3, ch. 27: "What God has assumed, He has never dismissed." Therefore He did not dismiss the blood once assumed. Add that if in Christ's death St. Peter had consecrated the Eucharistic chalice, there would have been in it, under the species of wine, by the force of the words of consecration, the blood of Christ; therefore there would have been in it the Divinity by concomitance; for just as the flesh of Christ is not in the Eucharist except as life-giving flesh, and thus as flesh of the Word, as the Council of Ephesus says in its epistle to Nestorius, so likewise that blood is life-giving, and thus divine and united to the Word. The same is said to have been defined by Clement VI in the Inquisitorium, 2nd q. 10, and by Pius II, as Sylvester reports in Rosa Aurea, q. 30. See more in Suárez, Part 3, tom. 2, disp. 47, sect. 3.

Morally, St. Ambrose, On Isaac, ch. 3, beautifully teaches how great a servitude we owe to Christ, our purchaser and master: "Do you not know," he says, "that Christ redeemed you, not bought with gold or silver, but with the precious blood of a lamb? Therefore you are redeemed by the Lord; you are a servant who was created, a servant who was redeemed, and you owe servitude as to a master and as to a redeemer. For it was not just any redemption, but a copious redemption of Christ" (Ps. 129:7). Whence Urban VI, in the Extravagant Unigenitus, treating of the price and treasure of Christ's blood from which Indulgences and Jubilees are drawn, says thus: "He redeemed us with the precious blood of the immaculate Lamb, who, innocent, immolated on the altar of the cross, did not shed a mere drop of blood—which, however, on account of union with the Word, would have sufficed for the redemption of the whole human race—but copiously, as it were a certain flood, is known to have poured it forth. For Christ's blood was that of a divine Person, namely the Word, who hypostatically sustained this flesh and blood." Therefore we are entirely, and ought to be entirely, Christ's, not only by the title of creation but much more by redemption. And so we are not our own, but Christ's, who bought and saved us, says Cyril, On Isaiah, ch. 45. "He bought us, not with bronze, but with blood," says St. Ambrose, On Luke, Bk. 7, ch. 12. Just as the Portuguese buy Ethiopian, Italian, or Turkish slaves, and they belong entirely to their master, and whatever they do and work, all belongs to the master; so Christ bought us, not with gold, but with His blood, and therefore we are Christ's slaves; whatever we have and can do, all must be spent in His service. "Christ gave Himself entirely to you; give yourself to Christ. Christ expended all His riches, strength, labors, spirit for you; expend the same yours for Him." "Happy is he who buys Christ with all his fortunes," says Nazianzen in his poems. Thus St. Paul everywhere calls himself a servant of Christ; thus St. Mary Magdalene wholly surrendered herself to Christ; thus St. Francis dwelt in Christ crucified, and Christ in him; thus St. Elzear, when his wife sought him by letter, replied: "I dwell in the side of Christ crucified; there you will find me, seeking in vain elsewhere."

Again, learn here how precious the soul is, for its price is the blood and life of Christ, the Son of God. As it were with this price He bought it. How then ought we to strive for the fishing and salvation of souls, those most excellent gems which Christ valued so highly, since for them Christ descended from heaven, labored, sweated for thirty-three years, died and was crucified, for whom He expended His body, soul, all labors, and Himself entirely! Do you wish to see of what price your soul and the soul of any man, even a beggar, an Indian, an Ethiopian, is? It is worth God, it is worth life. For the life of Christ was, as it were, placed as a price on the scale of divine justice and weighed. For neither angel nor archangel, nor Seraphim, nor Cherubim, nor even the Blessed Virgin could satisfy for this debt of your soul; but Christ alone; for Christ's blood alone was a sufficient ransom and condign price to pay our debts and sins. Go now, foolish mortals, go, unhappy ones, sell your soul, so precious, to the devil for a bowl of pottage, like profane Esau, for a breath of honor, for an hour of venery, for a drop of pleasure. Say with Theotimus, as St. Ambrose reports (On Luke, Bk. 4), who preferred to be deprived of his eyes forever than to have a momentary pleasure: "Farewell, friendly light; farewell, soul; farewell, heaven; farewell, God; farewell, angels. I bid you farewell forever; forever I give myself to the devil, I deliver myself to hell, that I may enjoy a drop of honey for a moment." More soundly and wisely, St. Chrysostom, Homily 11 on 2 Corinthians: "Since," he says, "we live through Jesus Christ who died, we ought surely to live for Him for whom we live." And St. Ambrose, On Elijah and Fasting, ch. 20: "Say, perhaps you see the devil's temptations fighting against you. 'What have I to do with you, Belial? I am Christ's servant, redeemed by His blood; to Him I have wholly surrendered myself. What have I to do with you? I do not know your works, I seek nothing of yours, I possess nothing of yours, I desire nothing of yours.'" And St. Bernard, On Loving God: "If," he says, "I owe myself wholly to Him who made me, what shall I add for Him who remade me? Not as easily is he remade as made. For He who made me with but one word, in remaking me both spoke many words and wrought wonders and endured hardships, and not only hardships but indignities. What shall I render to God for Himself? For even if I could repay myself a thousand times, what am I to God?" The same, Sermon on the Fourfold Debt: "O if you knew how many and to how many you owe, you would see how nothing is what you do, how it is not even to be numbered among the smallest things compared to your debts. Do you wish to know what and to whom you owe? First, to Christ Jesus you owe your whole life, because He laid down His life for your life and endured bitter torments lest you endure perpetual ones. What can be bitter or hard to you when you recall that He, in the form of God, in the day of His eternity, in the splendors of the saints, begotten before Lucifer, the brightness and figure of the substance of God, came to your prison, to your mire, fixed, as is said, up to the elbows in the mire of the deep? What will not be sweet to you when you gather to yourself all the bitternesses of your Lord, you will remember first those infantile necessities, then the labors He endured in preaching, the fatigues in running about, the temptations in fasting, the vigils in praying, the tears in compassion, the treacheries in conversing, finally the dangers from false brethren, the reproaches, the spittings, the blows, the scourgings, the mockings, the tauntings, the nails, and the like, which He wrought and suffered for the salvation of our race for thirty-three years in the midst of the earth? O how unmerited is His pity, how gratuitous and thus proved love, how unexpected condescension, how astounding sweetness, how invincible meekness, that the King of glory should be crucified for the most despised slave, nay, worm! Who has ever seen such, or anything like it?" And a little below: "As nothing has comparison to something, so our life has no proportion to His life, since that cannot be more worthy, nor this more wretched. Nor think I exaggerate with words, for here every tongue fails, nor is the eye sufficient even to gaze upon the secret of such condescension. Since, therefore, I shall give Him whatever I am, whatever I can, is not this as a star to the sun, a drop to a river, a stone to a mountain, a grain to a heap? I have but two mites, nay, the very smallest: body and soul, or rather one mite: my will. And shall I not give it to the will of Him who, so great, anticipated one so small with so many benefits, who bought me wholly with Himself? Otherwise, if I withhold it, with what face, with what eyes, with what mind, with what conscience do I go to the bowels of the mercy of our God, and dare to pierce that strongest bulwark which guards Israel, and to turn against my price not drops but floods of blood from the five parts of His body? O perverse generation, unfaithful children, what will you do in the day of calamity coming from afar? To whose help will you flee?"

"IMMACULATE LAMB." He refers to the paschal lamb, which had to be without blemish—not of color, but of vice, namely, whole and perfect, not lame, not blind, not maimed, not mutilated, to signify that Christ would be in every respect whole and perfect in wisdom and virtue, without any defect of error or stain of sin. For this is signified by the Hebrew מום (mum), whence the Greek ἄμωμος, that is, immaculate, innocent, inviolate, inculpable, irreprehensible, beyond all reproach.

"AND UNDEFILED." Some think Christ is called immaculate because He was pure from the stain of original sin, undefiled because pure from every stain of actual sin. But these two seem to be synonyms, which Peter heaps up for emphasis, to show that Christ was wholly and in every way immaculate and pure. Yet if anyone wishes to distinguish them, let him say that Christ was immaculate in Himself and in internal acts, but undefiled in habit, conduct, and external garments. For the blemish which the paschal lamb had to lack consisted in an internal bodily defect, as I have already said. But stain (from which incontaminatus and ἀκηλίδωτος, that is, undefiled, is derived) is properly a stain of color on a garment from wine or oil. Whence Marcellus in Dioscorides, Bk. 1, ch. 39, says ἀκηλίδωτοι are marks which, adhering to garments, discolor them, by likeness of which sometimes stains arise on the human face and the rest of the body, varying the surface of the skin with no or little defect, which Pliny seems to call furunculi. Wherefore Christ was far purer than the paschal lamb. For that was ἄμωμος, but could have color stains—white, black, red. But Christ was both ἀκηλίδωτος and ἄμωμος, that is, completely pure, lacking every stain, whether of color or body, whether external or internal, whether of morals or mind, whether of actions or thoughts.

1 Pet 1:20 "FOREKNOWN INDEED BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD." Foreknown, that is, predestined, as the Syriac and Tigurine versions translate. For the knowledge of God here, as often in St. Paul, is understood practically, namely, joined with God's will, decree, and predestination. Peter says this both to crush the arrogance of the Jews, who, as St. Cyril says (On John, Bk. 1, ch. 28), always cling to the Law of Moses, thinking our mystery was devised by a recent counsel of the Father; and to declare the antiquity and magnitude of God's love for men. As if to say: God the Father did not think of us, love us, will to bless us from yesterday or from the beginning of the world, but before its creation, from all eternity, and therefore predestined the incarnation and death of Christ, that through them He might reconcile and save us to Himself. Some extend Peter's words to that opinion of Scotus and his followers, which holds that Christ would have come even if Adam had not sinned, namely, that God might show His goodness, wisdom, and power through Christ to angels and men; but that Christ would then have been impassible. For the cross and death of Christ were decreed by God after foreseeing Adam's sin, as its remedy. Their reason is that, otherwise, they say, if Christ were predestined and incarnated precisely on account of us, He ought indeed to give us thanks, and we would be Christ's glory before God in His mind and predestination; consequently Christ would be our glory, as woman is the glory of man, as St. Cyril argues (Treasury, Bk. 3, ch. 2). But these seem here to be side issues. For Peter only says that Christ was predestined before the foundation of the world, not before the foreknowledge of Adam's sin, or before the foreknowledge and predestination of the constitution or creation of the world; because that is false. For God predestined Christ to the ornament of the universe; therefore He did not predestine Christ earlier than the universe, but later, or rather simultaneously with a certain mutual dependence. For God decreed to create such a world in which, Adam having fallen, Christ would be born who would raise it up and thus celebrate God's glory throughout the whole world, so that He would not have wished to create the world except with Christ and for Christ, and conversely would not have wished Christ to be incarnate except with the world and in the world. For where would Christ have been incarnate if not in the world? Where would He have manifested His glory through Christ if not in the world to angels and men? St. Peter is echoed by St. John, who in Revelation 13:8 calls Christ "the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world." And St. Paul, who calls this mystery of Christ "kept secret from eternal times, but now made manifest through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the commandment of the eternal God, for the obedience of faith" (Rom. 16:26). And to Titus 1:2.

"BUT MANIFESTED... IN THE LAST TIMES." Manifested through Christ's incarnation, passion, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension into heaven, sending of the Holy Spirit, and preaching of the Apostles. In the last times, namely, after nearly four thousand years had elapsed from the creation of the world. The causes of this delay of Christ were various. First, the dignity and majesty of Christ, which ought to be preceded and prefigured by Abraham, Moses, and all the Patriarchs, Prophets, and ceremonial laws. Second, that the longer He was delayed, the more eagerly He might be received. Third, that through so many thousands of years the disease and corruption of human nature might vomit forth every poison of sin, and thus it might be clear how great was the necessity of Christ, who would cure all this evil. See Barradus, Harmony, Bk. 5, ch. 31. Whence St. Paul says Christ came "in the fullness of time," that is, when the times appointed by God for His incarnation had run their course and been fulfilled (Gal. 4:4).

"FOR YOUR SAKE." Christ was predestined and born for all, but first for the primitive faithful; for these first partook of Christ's fruit and grace. St. Peter pricks the faithful of his age, that they might ardently love in return God and Christ who loved them so much and drew so near to them. For from so many ages and out of hundreds of thousands in that age, He chose a few believing Jews and Gentiles, to whom He bestowed this new and recent benefit of Christ the Savior, namely, grace and salvation. Whence Paul, expressing the delights of his love for Christ, says in Galatians 2:20: "I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself for me." As if Christ had been delivered and crucified for Paul alone. For Christ's death profited Paul as much as it would have if He had died for him alone. Piously and truly, St. Augustine, Confessions, Bk. 3, ch. 11: "O Thou good," he says, "Omnipotent, who so carest for each one of us as if Thou caredst for him alone, and so for all as if for each one." πιστεύοντας εἰς θεόν, "believing in God," so the Syriac, alive and true, whereas before you had believed in the false gods of the Gentiles, namely, idols and demons.

1 Pet 1:21."WHO THROUGH HIM ARE FAITHFUL IN GOD." The Greek reads: "Who through Him are faithful to God," that is, by the passion, merits, vocation, preaching, and grace of the immaculate Lamb Christ. It is not by our own powers and nature, but the work and gift of Christ's grace, as defined by the Council of Trent, Session 6, Canon 3, after Arausicanum and Mileve. For Christ is the author of faith. "You believe in God" declares what he said "for your sake," namely, that Christ was manifested because He made you faithful and worshippers of the true God. Hence it is clear that faith is not from ourselves, but is the parent of the whole economy of grace, which embraces faith as a principle, hope, charity, and other virtues, and all the gifts by which we are led to salvation and eternal glory, as to the end and term of Christ's redemption.

"WHO RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD." As if to say: Lest anyone reject Christ as one suspended, slain, and crucified for our sins, behold, He was soon raised by God to glory, made Lord of heaven and earth and men, nay, through Him God will raise all His faithful to the same glory. This is what Paul says: "For which cause, because He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, God also has exalted Him and has given Him a name which is above all names, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth" (Phil. 2:8-10). This is what Christ, going to His passion, prayed to the Father and obtained: "Glorify Thou Me, O Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had before the world was, with Thee" (John 17:5).

"THAT YOUR FAITH AND HOPE MIGHT BE IN GOD." As if to say: God raised Christ to glory for this fruit and end, that you, seeing and hearing that He as your Head rose again, conquered death, and paved the way from death to glory for you, might firmly believe with firm faith and hope with sure hope that you also, as members of Christ, through Him will attain the same and be raised to it, and therefore through the same grace, gifts, and all means necessary and opportune for glory. Truly St. Leo the Great, Sermon 8 on the Passion: "Your cross," he says, "is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces, through which virtue is given to believers from weakness, glory from reproach, life from death." And after some intervening words: "When, therefore, the Lord bore the wood of the cross, which He would turn into a scepter of power, it was indeed in the eyes a great mockery, but the mystery was manifested to the faithful: because the most glorious victor over the devil and the most powerful conqueror of enemy powers, with the fair appearance of triumph, bore the trophy, and with invincible patience, on His shoulders, He brought the adorable sign of salvation to all kingdoms." And Sermon 1 on the Resurrection: "From this a beginning of resurrection has been made for us in Christ, since in Him who died for all, the form of our whole hope went before, especially because Christ by the power of His divinity raised Himself. For the deity," he says in the same place, "which did not depart from either substance of man, what it divided by power, by power it joined." And St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word: "He revived," he says, "by His own life which was in Him."

 

 

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