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The Catholic Telegraph
April 5, 2002With this Sunday we begin a series of more or less consecutive readings from the first letter of Peter. This letter is addressed to members of Christian communities scattered throughout the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. It is attributed to the authorship of the apostle Peter, but scholars think that the high quality of the Greek in which it is written make it unlikely that it was dictated or written down by a Galilean fisherman. Perhaps Peter used an editor. It is also possible that the letter was composed by a disciple of Peter’s writing in his name. We don’t know much about the specific purpose of the letter, the situation of the addressees, or the date when it might have been written.
The letter is clearly intended to provide encouragement to its readers who seemingly found themselves in a difficult situation. It is a Christian exhortation about life in the world based on reflections about the meaning of faith and baptism. Its teaching applies to every member of the contemporary Church, but it is particularly appropriate material for those who were baptized or received into the Church at Easter.
This Sunday’s passage is in three parts. It starts off with praise and thanksgiving to God for the believers’ new birth through baptism. This new birth gives us reason for confidence in the future ("hope") by reason of our association with Christ’s resurrection. Because of our faith, the new birth gives us a sure and unswerving claim to participation in God’s family. Finally, the new birth constitutes our salvation, already begun but destined for final manifestation at the end of time.
All this provides reason for joy and gladness, in spite of the difficulties in which the believers find themselves. Their faith may have to be tested like gold in the fire, but, if it is genuine, it will be a source of ultimate validation when Jesus returns in glory.
Finally the author acknowledges that their relationship with Christ is based on their faith and love, not on visible human contact with Jesus. This initial association will develop into joyful fulfillment when salvation reaches its completeness at the coming of Christ.
Everything that the author of First Peter says about the condition of the first recipients of his letter also applies to us. Our association with Christ is not based on immediate personal contact with Jesus, but on faith. While our salvation has begun in us through the new birth of baptism, it has not yet reached its final fulness. We still have growing and developing to do. Finally, like these early Christians, we live in a context of trials and temptations that test our faith.
Scholars think that the "various trials" to which the author refers are not a formal, state-sponsored persecution, but rather the more ordinary sufferings of scorn and social rejection that would naturally be aimed at men and women who involved themselves with this new and unknown religion.
The kinds of trials that we face are similar to theirs, though not exactly the same. Our religious faith does not result in our being arrested and put to death, as happened in times of deliberate persecution. Nor do we routinely experience open contempt or insult because of our membership in the Church. What our situation offers is more a matter of indifference and disinterest. Our culture says to us: "If you want to believe all that stuff, go ahead. It’s your business. But see to it that you don’t involve us with it. We don’t want to hear about how religious faith is supposed to influence society. We don’t care about sin and salvation because we’re too busy with other things. Religion is a nice hobby for those who are interested, as long as it is kept for one’s private entertainment."
This kind of attitude is dangerous because it is contagious. If we are not careful, we can find ourselves dragged into this mind set that is all around us. We can find ourselves ever more distracted from our religious faith by the false values that the world holds up and the mass media glorify: success, comfort, security, power, constant amusement. We can also feel threatened by the realization that people of obvious religious commitment are looked on by many as rather strange, as outsiders to the world’s real business, as not really involved with the important things of life. We may find ourselves feeling left out as we feel the constraints of our faith that lead us away from participation in the world of casual sex, elastic honesty, sanctioned selfishness. It’s a difficult and dangerous world that we live in, and we need to be conscious of that.
We also need to be conscious that the trials we experience here and now are only transitional stages in our journey toward final fulfillment in the glory of Christ. Our faith and our hope carry us forward. The new life we have received in Baptism is only the beginning of "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading."
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Conversation Questions.
What makes me most glad to be a Christian believer?
What trials to my faith have I experienced?
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