NOTES for Pe1 2:9

In the first half of this verse the apostle Peter proclaims that in those whom he addresses, and therefore in us, God's promise given through Moses at the conclusion of the covenant on Mount Sinai has been fulfilled (Ex. 19). But there it says that the promise concerns those who keep all the commandments given by God, the law of Moses. Do we keep them? And if we recall how Jesus interprets these commandments in His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5), our conscience should immediately accuse us. And there is no need to think that this is how things are now, while in the time of the apostles everything was in order. The books of Acts and of the apostolic letters testify that even then righteousness and sin, holiness and apostasy were mixed in people, members of the Church, just as in us. Why, then, does Peter write this?

There is one Man who did not break the law, who filled up and fulfilled all the commandments: God's Chosen One, our King and High Priest, Christ. In Him everything God promised in His covenant is accomplished, and all this becomes ours then, and only then, when we unite our life with the life of Christ, when we hand our life into His hands and allow Him to govern our life. We only need not to be "distracted" from Him, always to seek Him, to look to Him, as Peter did when he walked on the water toward Jesus (Matt. 14:29-31).

But Peter says something else as well. In this new life we have a task: to bring it to other people, to witness before them to how the Lord has changed our life, to manifest such light and such love that people may see through us the fullness of the perfection of the One who Himself is Light, Love, and Life.

Christ is called a living stone, but we too are called to be living stones like Him. Once again the apostle points to the high calling entrusted to us: we are called to become like God, His fellow workers in salvation. After all, He created us in His image and likeness; and even though we have distorted His image through our sinfulness, this does not mean that the Lord has abandoned His original design.

The gathering of the faithful around Christ is the most important step toward restoring the world damaged by sin. Peter concludes the list of descriptions that reveal the vocation of Christians, a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation..., words on which we ought to reflect more often amid the bustle of daily life, by saying that Christians once were not a people, but now are the people of God. This recalls how the calling of Abraham began the journey of a people chosen to preserve faithfulness to the Lord. At first, to fulfill the ministry entrusted to them, the people had to separate themselves from their pagan neighbors. Now, however, the people of God are expanding: all who are called may enter, even if they have been rejected by others. But not by God.