The Letters of Peter
The two letters bearing the name of Peter, the first of the apostles, are addressed to Christians scattered and tried. Christ had said to Peter: strengthen your brothers; these letters fulfill that mission. The first consoles believers whom persecution is beginning to strike, showing them the meaning of suffering and the greatness of their vocation. The second, written at the evening of his life, warns against false teachers and rekindles the expectation of the Lord’s return. From the voice of the fisherman become the rock of the Church rises one same call: to hold firm in hope.
Hope in trial
The first letter opens with a song of thanksgiving: “he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:3 The whole letter flows from there. The Christian is a man regenerated, torn from death, turned toward an inheritance that does not wither. This hope transfigures trial: persecutions, far from being a scandal, are like the fire that purifies gold. Peter invites believers to suffer without complaining, after the example of Christ, who suffered for us and left us a model so that we might follow in his footsteps. The Christian’s suffering, united to that of the Savior, ceases to be absurd: it becomes a path of likeness to him and a pledge of the glory to come. To say the meaning of this suffering, Peter rereads Christ through the prophet Isaiah, who had described, centuries earlier, a suffering servant, despised, bruised for our sins, and by whose wounds we are healed. This mysterious servant, of whom Isaiah said that he bore the punishment of all without opening his mouth, Peter recognizes in Jesus: Christ did not undergo an absurd death, he fulfilled the prophecy of the righteous one who saves by suffering. Thus the persecuted Christian is not alone: he walks behind a Savior whose Passion was announced and willed for the salvation of the world.
A royal priesthood
Peter then reveals to the baptized their hidden dignity. These often humble believers, despised by the world, are in reality a people chosen by God: “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.” 1 Peter 2:9 Through baptism, every Christian shares in the priesthood of Christ: he can offer to God his life, his prayers, his actions, as a spiritual sacrifice. This is what the Church calls the common priesthood of the faithful, distinct from the priesthood of priests, but real: each baptized person is consecrated, called to make of his whole life an offering. This word has raised up generations of obscure Christians by showing them their true nobility: not that of blood or rank, but that of the sons of God called out of darkness into his marvelous light. These titles are not invented: Peter takes them word for word from Exodus, where God told Israel, at the foot of Sinai, that he would make of it a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. What God once promised to his people, Peter applies to the Church: it is the true chosen people, the fulfilled Israel, gathered not by blood but by faith in Christ. Likewise, he rereads the psalm of the stone rejected by the builders and become the cornerstone: this stone is Jesus, set aside by men and laid by God as foundation. In a few lines, Peter shows that the whole history of Israel led to the Church born of Christ.
Giving account of the hope
From this dignity flows a duty: to bear witness. Peter asks believers to be “always ready to defend the hope that is in you.” 1 Peter 3:15 The Christian must be able to say why he hopes, with gentleness and respect, without arrogance but without fear. He lives in the midst of a world that observes him, and his upright conduct is already a preaching. But Peter is not unaware of the combat: he warns that the adversary is watching. “Your adversary, the devil, prowls like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 Hence the call to sobriety and vigilance: Christian life is a struggle, and hope does not dispense one from watching, but gives the strength to stand firm in faith.
Sharers in the divine nature
The second letter raises the gaze higher still. It recalls the unheard-of promise made to the believer: “you may become sharers in the divine nature.” 2 Peter 1:4 This is the summit of Christian hope: through grace, man is called not only to be forgiven, but to be united to God, to share his very life. The Fathers of the Church will say that God became man so that man might become god by grace. Faced with those who mocked the promised return of the Lord, Peter answers that God is not slow, but patient, “not wanting anyone to be lost, but wanting all to come to conversion.” 2 Peter 3:9 The delay is not a forgetting, it is a mercy that leaves each one the time to be converted, while awaiting the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness will dwell.