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

 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 has made us a new creature in Christ Jesus, through the merit of His passion and death, and through His resurrection, which is the exemplar and principle of our regeneration and new life. For He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification, says St. Paul; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.

He has regenerated us unto the hope of eternal life, which we conceive from the resurrection of Christ. For since Christ has risen, we also shall rise to immortal and eternal life, and He will reform the body of our lowliness, configured to the body of His glory; that where the Head has gone before, the body also may follow. We are Christians not for this fragile and mortal life, but for eternal life. Let us therefore live by faith and hope in that life. That hope is not empty and deceitful, but solid and founded on a stable basis, which (as the Apostle of the Gentiles says) does not confound. For the beatitude of eternal life which we await, we shall in its own time, if we do not fail on our part, truly obtain—provided our faith and hope are living, that is, joined with charity and good works.

He has regenerated us unto hope. This is the hope of which St. Paul says: For by hope we are saved. For otherwise it is presumption and vain confidence if anyone promises himself the blessed life—which is promised to the just who persevere in good—without charity and good works.

The eternal life which we believe, we rightly hope for, because it is our inheritance, which Christ has claimed for us by His precious blood: but on this condition, that we obey the commands of God our Father, live according to the Gospel, and persevere in the faith, love, and imitation of our Savior to the end of life.

That inheritance is to be desired and sought by us all the more ardently, inasmuch as it is superior to every earthly inheritance. For earthly inheritances, to which carnal fathers beget their children, however ample, precious, and magnificent they may be, can perish and be taken away, grow foul and be contaminated, become vile and displeasing. But the inheritance of eternal life, which God has prepared for His elect, for His children, is incorruptible, because it can neither perish nor be taken away; undefiled, because it is in every part most pure, having nothing that offends; unfading, because it can never create satiety in its possessors. This inheritance is safe: for God Himself, from whose hand no one can snatch it away, preserves it for us in heaven. Indeed, the inheritance of the elect is God Himself.

If we understand these things, why do we hesitate to cast away miserable, useless, deceitful hopes, and to cling with all the fervor of our spirit to this hope, so solid, so perfect, so blessed? With David let us say: God is the hope of my heart, and my portion forever. It is good for me to cling to God, to place my hope in the Lord God. Beware, O man, lest you lose your heavenly patrimony, lest you lose Christ your co-heir, since you are to live forever with Him who has made you heir. For He has not made you heir that you might succeed one who is dead, but that you might live forever with Him.

1 Pet 1:5: Divine Custody Through Faith

"Who by the power of God are kept through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

Human frailty and weakness would have cause to fear lest the elect, amid the continual struggles of the flesh against the spirit, amid the allurements or threats of a flattering or terrifying world, amid the manifold and persistent snares of the devil, should fall away from the hope of life and eternal salvation—unless God Himself were to guard and protect them by the omnipotent power of His grace and by a singular and vigilant care; unless He who began the good work were Himself to perfect it; unless He were always at hand to bring them aid. For it is necessary that by the same One who helps us to conquer, we be conquered again if He does not help; and, Unless the Lord keeps the city, he watches in vain who guards it. Hence Christ thus prays to the Father: Holy Father, keep in Your name those whom You have given Me… I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil… and that none of them perish, except the son of perdition.

God keeps His elect through faith joined with charity, which directs the soul to pious and holy affections, to right counsels, and to just works; by which faith, with all its errors, loves, and terrors, the world is conquered: For this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith; by which finally all the fiery darts of the devil are extinguished, blunted, and shattered. Nothing of Satan's will be permitted against the servants of the living God, unless the Lord permits it, either that He may destroy Satan through the victorious faith of the elect in temptation, or that He may show men to have been His who have defected to him. You have the example of Job, to whom the devil could inflict no temptation unless he had received power from God, nor indeed against his substance unless the Lord had said: Behold, all that he has I deliver into your hand; but do not stretch forth your hand upon him. Finally, he did not stretch forth his hand even then, until afterward, when the Lord, granting this also to him who asked, had said: Behold, I deliver him to you; only keep his life. So also Satan asked for the power of tempting the Apostles, not having it except by permission. Indeed, the Lord in the Gospel says to Peter: Behold, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; that is, that so much be not permitted to the devil that faith should be endangered. By this it is shown that both the shaking of faith and its protection are with God, and when both are asked of Him—the shaking by the devil, the protection by the Son.

1 Pet 1:6–9: Joy in Trial and the Goal of Faith

"In this you will rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with unutterable and glorious joy, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

The brevity of the present life and the eternity of the life to come are two reasons for consolation in the gravest afflictions. Whatever a Christian suffers in this mortal life, he is filled with consolation and abounds in joy, if he lives by faith. Hence the Apostle Paul says: As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also through Christ our consolation abounds. But we suffer for a very brief time; we shall rejoice forever. Now, if need be, you have been grieved for a little while by various trials.

Our Apostle says fittingly, if need be, because not all the just are tested by afflictions, nor all sinners; nor do these or those always rejoice: but the just indeed are afflicted for the increase of their crowns, while sinners suffer to pay the penalties of their crimes. Not all the just are afflicted, lest you, considering suffering a mark of virtue, should abhor virtue itself. Nor are all sinners afflicted, lest you despair of the resurrection, as though all received their due in this life.

The afflictions of this life are a fire testing the faith of the just, as gold, that through it faith may become brighter and more precious. If in the sight of men they suffered torment, their hope is full of immortality. In few things vexed, in many things they shall be well disposed: because God has tested them and found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace He has proved them. To suffer the loss of all temporal goods, even of life itself, for Christ's sake; to overcome the force of all evils for His sake—this is the proof, the glory, and the triumph of faith: that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The victory of our faith is not to be arrogated to ourselves, but referred to the praise, glory, and honor of God, whose gift faith is. For God grants that we believe mysteries which surpass the grasp of human reason—namely, the Incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension into heaven of the God-Man, etc.; He grants that we love Him whom we do not see; He grants that we hope for eternal life, and that we obey the precepts of Christ, who commands humility, the cross, the denial of our own will, of our body, of temporal goods, of all worldly pleasures (as regards affection and attachment); He grants that, humbled, poor, and afflicted, we may taste beforehand the joys of heavenly life.

Whom, though you have not seen, you love; in whom, though now you do not see Him, you believe; and believing, you rejoice with unutterable and glorious joy. This joy is unutterable because the goods promised to faith joined with charity and good works eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man; it is glorious because it is a foretaste of the joy into which God introduces His elect and faithful servants. Hence St. Augustine, having experienced those spiritual delights, thus addresses God: Not in You are our scattered selves gathered together, nor from You does anything depart from us… And sometimes You introduce me into an affection most unusual, inwardly to an I-know-not-what sweetness, which, if it were perfected in me, I know not what it would be that this life would not be.

If the drippings of heavenly joys, by which the souls of the just are refreshed in this life, are so ineffable, so glorious, who can comprehend in mind or express in words the torrent of eternal delights with which they shall be watered in heavenly glory? One does not reach the fountain of life through the pleasures of this age, through the broad way, but through the cross, through labors, through afflictions, through the narrow and difficult way of the Gospel, through perpetual penance and the continual mortification of soul and body. Let us therefore undertake and endure labors, afflictions, and mortifications with joy, considering the end set before us and the promised rewards: obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Toward this end ought all our action and intention to be directed.