Father Noel Alexandre's Literal Commentary on 1 Peter 1:3-9

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 Translated by Qwen. 1 Pet 1:3–4: The Blessing of Regeneration "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you." We ought to give immortal thanks to God, to offer Him continually the sacrifice of praise, on account of His infinite goodness toward His elect. It belongs to the Eternal Father to choose the members of His Son, the adopted children who are co-heirs with the Only-Begotten. Let us seek no other reason for this election than mercy, whose greatness cannot be worthily expressed in human words. He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Us, unworthy sinners, His enemies, deserving of eternal punishments, He has regenerated through Baptism; and, the oldness which we had contracted from Adam in our first birth being abolished, He ...
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Father Libert Froidmont's Commentary on Colossians 3:1-5

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 Father Libert Froidmont's Commentary on Colossians 3:1-5

ARGUMENT

He draws their minds away from earthly things to heavenly ones. For this, it is necessary to lay aside the burden of sins, to put off the old man, and to put on the new; and he shows what the life of the new man consists of. Then, descending to particular persons, he teaches what is owed by husband and wife, son and parent, servant and master to one another.

COMMENTARY 

Col 3:1 "THEREFORE IF YOU HAVE RISEN" in baptism to a new spiritual life, as he said in the preceding chapter, verse 12, "WITH CHRIST" rising to a bodily life, "SEEK THE THINGS THAT ARE ABOVE," the heavenly and celestial things. "DESIRE" them and place all your endeavor in them. Hence, when a Christian man rises in the morning, says Adam, he ought not immediately to think of breakfast and lunch as Epicureans are wont to do, but of heavenly things and God's benefits, so that from the remembrance of them he may burst forth into thanksgiving. "WHERE CHRIST IS" and our humanity with Him, "SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD" in equal and the same glory as God the Father.

Col 3:2 "MIND THE THINGS THAT ARE ABOVE." Again I say, meditate on heavenly and eternal things with your intellect, ruminate on them with affection and delight. "NOT THINGS THAT ARE ON EARTH." Not earthly and mortal things. For although we tread the earth with our feet, yet we must burst forth in spirit into heaven, says Augustine. For we have been made with upright stature to be admonished of this, says he, whereas beasts are prone and prostrate toward the belly, because all their pleasure is drawn from the earth.

Col 3:3 "FOR YOU HAVE DIED" to all earthly pleasures and concupiscences, the old man having been suffocated [drowned] in the waters of baptism. Now the dead no longer see or desire those things to which they are dead. "AND YOUR LIFE," spiritual and celestial, by which you now live inwardly through grace, and afterward through glory, "IS HIDDEN" from the eyes of mortals, before whom you appear base and abject like other men, just as living trees in winter, without fruit and leaves, are not distinguished from dead ones, says Augustine on Psalm 36. "WITH CHRIST," who is now in heaven, withdrawn from the eyes of mortals, and lives wholly absorbed in God, "IN GOD," into whom your life, or the inner man, has been transferred and transformed through affection. Whence, just as God is invisible to mortal eyes, so your life, which is absorbed in Him, is hidden with Christ so that it cannot be seen by mortal men. Or, just as the moon, when it returns to the sun, is somehow absorbed so that it cannot be seen by eyes on earth, although its upper face, turned toward the sun, is kindled with most ardent light; so the soul, when it draws near to the unchangeable wisdom through the affection of piety, and that light of the mind which was inclined toward lower things is turned toward higher things, is somehow taken away from earthly things, that it may die to the world and its life may be hidden with Christ in God, says Augustine, Epistle 119.

Col 3:4 "WHEN CHRIST, WHO IS YOUR LIFE," shall appear to the whole world, glorious on the last day of judgment, "THEN YOU ALSO" shall appear with Him. For He is the object and author of your life; for the knowledge and love of Christ and God is the spiritual life, which Christ also invisibly infuses into us, just as the head [infuses life] into its members. "NOW INDEED THE PLACE OF GLORY AND HONORS IS NOT YET," whence you ought not to seek them in this world before the proper time, says Theophylact. "YOU SHALL APPEAR WITH HIM." Just as the splendor of a gem appears when the shell is broken, in which it lay obscure or ignoble, says St. Chrysostom. "IN GLORY," glorious in soul and body, animated by this hope.

Col 3:5 "PUT TO DEATH THEREFORE," by killing all motions of concupiscence inclining to sin, or by crucifying your flesh with its vices and concupiscences, as in Galatians 5:24, "YOUR MEMBERS," the instruments of the old man, by which it still works wicked motions in us, at least the first impulses. "WHICH ARE ON EARTH," which tread the earth with their old man through the affection of earthly pleasures, and do not fly with Christ into heaven. Some, says Hugh [of St. Victor], merely imprison the members of the old man, they do not kill them, because although they restrain from the act of sinning, the will still lives if the opportunity were present or if impunity were hoped for.

"FORNICATION": every natural intercourse with one not one's own, whether simple fornication or adultery, etc. And by putting to death this and the other foulnesses that follow, the earthly members by which they are practiced are also put to death.

"UNCLEANNESS": pollution of the flesh and every impure touch.

"LUST": in Greek, "PASSION," as the translator also renders it in 1 Thessalonians 1:5, but here he translates it as "LUST." It seems to be taken by excellence for lust or Sodomitical passion, and because pathos or passion also signifies a disease, "Truly it is a passion, a rabid frenzy of the bodies, like a certain fever and sickness," says Theophylact. The Apostle mentions these foulnesses in 2 Corinthians 12:21, Galatians 5:19, Ephesians 4:19 and 5:3, 1 Thessalonians 4:7, and to other churches of Greece and Asia, and cries out against them because many philosophers, whose schools filled Greece and Asia, taught by word and deed that such things were lawful and natural.

"EVIL CONCUPISCENCE": In one word, it embraces every foulness of the flesh, indeed every sin, says Chrysostom. Although there is some good concupiscence, such as that by which the soul desires the courts of the Lord (Psalm 83), nevertheless custom has prevailed that unless it is added what thing is desired, concupiscentia is always taken in a bad sense, says St. Augustine, City of God, Book 14, Chapter 7.

"AND COVETOUSNESS": To the Venereal foulnesses he adds covetousness, because the Greeks and Asians were also very addicted to this vice, whence also the Turks who inhabit those regions today are the most covetous of all. Nevertheless, some interpret "COVETOUSNESS" generally as the insatiable greed for any pleasures whatever, as in Ephesians 4:19.

"WHICH IS IDOLATRY": In Greek, "IDOLATRY." For the covetous man is like an idolater; just as the idolater worships gold and silver in his idols, so the covetous man in a certain manner worships it in his chest, while he places his hope in it as in a god and refers all his endeavors to money as his final end. Whence he also seems to fear touching it to spend it, as a sacred and divine thing, according to the poet's verse: "With sacks heaped on all sides, you sleep gaping, and as if you were forced to spare sacred things, or as if you rejoined in painted tablets." [Horace, Epistles 1.6.37-38]

CONTINUE

 

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