translated by Qwen.
Noel Alexandre's Commentary on 1 Peter 2:4-10
LITERAL COMMENTARY
1 Pet 2:4-5 "To whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed by men but chosen by God and honored, you yourselves also as living stones are built upon, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
Explanation: To whom indeed—coming to Christ Jesus, and joining yourselves to Him more and more through daily progress in virtues—as to a living stone who was rejected and cast aside by men as useless, indeed even as harmful, but by God truly chosen, held in honor, and made into the cornerstone by which the Church might be sustained. You yourselves, as living stones, are built up into one spiritual and mystical house, namely the Church, into the order of holy priests, chosen to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Pet 2:6 "Wherefore the Scripture contains: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and whoever believes in Him shall not be confounded.'"
Explanation: Wherefore it is said in Scripture: "Behold, I am about to place in the Church—whose type is Mount Zion and the city of David, or which shall have its origin on Mount Zion in Jerusalem—Christ the Savior, as the primary and principal foundation, joining two walls coming from opposite directions at the corner and sustaining them by His firmness, a stone chosen from thousands, precious, honored, and from whom the honor of the entire building is derived. And whoever believes in Him and places the hope of his salvation in Him shall not be disappointed of the salvation which he hopes to obtain through Him."
This is an oracle of Isaiah 28:16 according to the Version of the Seventy Interpreters: "Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will send into the foundations of Zion a precious stone, elect, angular, honorable for its foundations, and whoever believes shall not be confounded."
St. Jerome translates somewhat differently from the Hebrew: "Behold, I will send in the foundations of Zion a stone, a stone proved, angular, precious, founded upon a foundation; whoever believes, let him not hasten." That is: "If He delays, let no one despair, because coming He will come and will fulfill His promises," as Saint Jerome explains.
Grotius says that this prophecy is referred to Christ by the Apostles in a more sublime sense, hinting that it should be understood in the literal and prophetic sense perhaps concerning another, namely Hezekiah. For Grotius considers that these things pertain to the time of Sennacherib.
To Grotius we oppose Theodoret: "I judge," he says, "that it is the height of madness to adapt this prophecy to Hezekiah. For the divine Oracles forbid trusting in man: Psalm 146:3: 'Do not trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.' Jeremiah 17:5: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man.' Psalm 118:8: 'It is good to trust in the Lord than to trust in man.' But in this passage, the prophetic discourse praises those who trust in this stone."
1 Pet 2:7-8 "To you therefore who believe is honor; but to those who do not believe, 'the stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner,' a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal, to those who stumble at the word and do not believe, in which also they have been appointed."
Explanation: To you therefore who believe in Christ, that living stone shall be the cause of honor, glory, and eternal salvation. But to unbelievers, that stone which the Pharisees, priests, doctors, and senators of the Jews rejected, and which against their will has become the cornerstone foundation of the Church—to unbelievers, I say, it has become a stone against which they dash, and at which stumbling, they fall into most grievous sins and into eternal damnation, abandoned by God, justly by the merit of their infidelity and malice.
1 Pet 2:9-10 "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of acquisition, that you may proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His admirable light. Who once were not a people, but now are the people of God; who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."
Explanation: But you, Christians, are a chosen generation, called to faith, taken up for the building of the Church, living stones, beloved by God, candidates for blessed eternity, an order of Kings and Priests, a holy nation consecrated to God, an acquired, redeemed, peculiar people, that you may proclaim His greatness and divine perfections and immense benefits, who called you from the darkness of ignorance, errors, and vices into the admirable light of faith and the Gospel.
Who once were not the people of God—you indeed, Jews, after the Synagogue was repudiated when it had rejected Christ along with itself; and you, Gentiles, when you served idols and your concupiscences—but now are the people of God since you have believed in Christ and have been made members of the Church. Once you had not obtained mercy when you lived in the darkness of ignorance and the slavery of sin; but now you have obtained mercy when through Christ you have been called to the faith of the Gospel, not by any merits of your own, but by the sole goodness and grace of God who has mercy.
MORAL COMMENTARY
1 Pet 2:4-5
Christ Jesus is the cornerstone and foundation of the Church, which is the temple of God. He is a living stone, the Son of the living God, having life in Himself, just as the Father, with whom is the fountain of life. He sustains, contains, and connects all parts of that spiritual building, and whoever belongs to the Church subsists in Him and is joined to Him by living faith.
This is the stone who joined two peoples, as two walls coming from opposite directions—Jews and Gentiles—together in the Church. This is the stone whom the priests, scribes, and Pharisees rejected, who boasted themselves as architects of the Synagogue, unwilling to acknowledge and receive Him as the true Messiah and Savior promised by God and foretold by the oracles of the Prophets, but despising Him as a carpenter's son, crucifying Him as a disturber of the state; whom nevertheless God chose from eternity and constituted as Head of the Church and King, crowned with glory and honor, and declared that eternal salvation is to be hoped for from no other.
"This is the stone," says our Apostle to the priests and princes of the Synagogue, "which was rejected by you builders, which has become the head of the corner, and there is salvation in no other. For neither is there any other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Blessed are those who in this age are rejected by men, held in contempt as useless stones, and suffer persecution like Christ and for the name of Christ, for faith, or for justice—these are precious stones chosen by God to be placed in the building of the heavenly Jerusalem.
They themselves now, as living stones, are built upon and fitted to Christ, the cornerstone and principal foundation of the Church, that they may compose with Him a spiritual house, never to be destroyed but to endure forever. They are not only moved and placed by foreign hands in the building like inanimate stones, but they move themselves with the help of the Holy Spirit preventing and assisting, as living stones, by holy affections and acts of faith, hope, charity, and other virtues and good works, that they may become a spiritual house in which God may dwell and remain, as Christ Himself promises: "We will come to him and make our abode with him." And the Apostle of the Gentiles: "For you are the temple of the living God, as God says: I will dwell in them and walk among them."
1 Pet 2:5-6
This house is now being built; at the end of the age it will be dedicated. Christians ought not only to be a holy temple to the Lord through purity of heart and body, but also holy priests consecrated to the worship and ministry of the one God, who despise earthly things and whose portion and inheritance is God alone—"a holy priesthood." Their common function ought to be to offer to God sacrifices of justice, victims of praise, thanksgiving, penance, almsgiving, and all good works; to immolate and offer themselves as living victims to God through Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest, through whom unless they are offered, they cannot be pleasing to God—to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
But do not think that you offer immaculate victims to God without having among you a union strengthened by love. For the Apostle Paul says: "Lifting up pure hands without anger and disputing." For how will he who strives through prayer to unite himself to God attain this, while through anger and wicked disputations he separates himself from his brother?
Let us approach Christ, the living, precious, elect stone, by faith working through love, not by a merely speculative and sterile faith, but by one obedient to His commandments, that we may not be confounded at His coming, but may deserve to obtain eternal honor and glory. "Whoever believes in Him shall not be confounded." "To you therefore who believe is honor." Whence the Lord Himself says: "If anyone serves Me, My Father will honor him." And Saint Paul: "Glory and honor and peace to everyone who works good."
1 Pet 2:7-8
But woe to those who do not believe or do not live according to the faith of the Gospel, who, falling through various degrees into the depths of sins, and counting most frequent and most grievous sins as nothing, deserve to be blinded, hardened, and delivered over to a reprobate sense, God deserting them; to whom the very divine Scripture, the very Sacraments, the ceremonies of the most holy Religion, the Law itself and the commandments of God are occasions of ruin; Christ Himself, whom they crucify again in themselves and hold in mockery, becomes for them a stone against which dashing they fall and are crushed—"and a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal, to those who stumble at the word and do not believe, in which also they have been appointed."
Moreover, they are said to be "appointed in this" not as if they were segregated by God for this purpose. For no cause of perdition is supplied by Him who wills all men to be saved; but those who have made themselves vessels of wrath, and unbelief has followed, and they have been established in that order to which they prepared themselves. For if man was made with free will, and free will cannot be compelled, no one with fitting speech will accuse Him who decreed such a lot for him as he himself acquired for himself by his own works.
1 Pet 2:9-10
Those magnificent and precious promises were not made to the Jews who gloried in Abraham their father. For they were not chosen into a royal priesthood on account of Abraham; indeed, among his descendants, the priestly tribe was distinct from the royal. Nor did the Law of Moses confer true and interior holiness upon those who observed it; but these things are fulfilled in Christians who faithfully observe the covenant solemnly contracted with God in baptism. These, called to grace and glory through the sole mercy of God, have been made His people and children, and partakers of the royal and priestly dignity of Christ.
We are kings, that we may not serve our desires but rule over them. We are priests, that as members of Christ the High Priest, we may immolate ourselves to God as a living, holy victim pleasing to Him. In the unity of faith and baptism, our fellowship is undivided and our dignity is common. For the sign of the cross makes all regenerated in Christ kings, but the anointing of the Holy Spirit consecrates priests, so that besides this special service of our ministry, all spiritual Christians may recognize themselves to be partakers of royal lineage and priestly office.
For what is so royal as for the mind, subject to God, to be the ruler of the body? And what is so priestly as to vow to the Lord a pure conscience and to offer immaculate victims of piety from the altar of the heart?
We are the people of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, that we may not subject ourselves again to the slavery of the devil. Let us give thanks to our Redeemer; let us sing forever the mercy of the Lord, who called us from darkness into the admirable light of His Gospel. Let us therefore walk and live as children of light. Let us proclaim through good works His virtues: His greatness, omnipotence, goodness, mercy, by which He called us, sanctified us in spirit and truth, and adorned us with the gifts and virtues of the Spirit. "So," says Christ, "let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
We are the possession and inheritance of God; let us not withdraw ourselves from obedience, that He also may be our possession and inheritance. For all men indeed are God's as creatures, but truly His possession are those alone who by faith, hope, charity, and good works have been held worthy of this benefit. Moreover, they became worthy through good works because the mercy of God prevented them and followed after in them and through them, working good unto salvation.
CONTINUE
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