From: 1 Peter 2:4-9
The Priesthood Common to All Believers
[9] But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own peo-
ple, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of dark-
ness into His marvelous light.
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
4-10. Baptism makes us members of the Church. The sacred writer uses the
idea of constructing a building (verses 4-8) to explain that Christians together go
to make up the one, true people of God (verses 9-19). The whole passage is built
on quotations from the Old Testament, possibly ones used in early apostolic ca-
techesis.
The Church is like a spiritual building of which Christ is the cornerstone, that is,
the stone which supports the entire structure (cf. “Lumen Gentium”, 6). Chris-
tians have to be living stones united to Christ by faith and grace, thereby forming
a solid temple in which “spiritual sacrifices” are offered which are “acceptable to
God” (verse 5). The closer their union with Christ, the stronger the building: “All
of us who believe in Christ Jesus”, Origen explains, “are called ‘living stones’ [...].
For if you, who are listening to me, want to prepare yourself better for the cons-
truction of this building, and be one of the stones closest to the foundation, you
need to realize that Christ Himself is the foundation of the building we are des-
cribing. As the Apostle Paul tells us, ‘no other foundation can any one lay than
that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 3:11)” (”In Iesu Nave”,
9, 1).
8. Applying to Christ what the prophet Isaiah says of Yahweh (cf. Isaiah 8:14;
note on 1 Peter 2:13), St. Peter shows how, for those who do not believe in Christ,
the cornerstone becomes “a stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will
make them fall”; Simon prophesied as much to the Blessed Virgin in the temple
(cf. Luke 2:34).
“As they were destined to do”: this does not mean that God predestined some
to damnation. God wants all men to be saved (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4), and that was
why Jesus Christ became man; but for someone to be saved, his free response
is necessary, and man can oppose God’s salvific plan and reject grace. It should
be remembered that in the language of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament,
sometimes no distinction is made between what God orders or wills and what He
simply allows to happen (cf. Romans 9:14-33 and notes on the same).
9-10. In contrast with those who reject faith (verses 7-8), believers form the true Is-
rael, the true people of God. In this people the titles applied to Israel in the Old
Testament find their full meaning: they are “a chosen race” (cf. Exodus 19:5-6), a
people convoked by God to sing His praises (cf. Isaiah 43:20-21). Their election
is something Christians should glory in; it makes demands on them: Christians
are set apart for God, they belong to Him (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19), for the blood of
Christ has been paid as their ransom (cf. 1 Peter 1:18-21). So, they must not re-
main passive; they have to preach the greatness of God and bring many other
souls to Him: “the Good News of the Kingdom which is coming and which has be-
gun is meant”, says Pope Paul VI, “for all people of all times. Those who have re-
ceived the Good News and who have been gathered by it into the community of
salvation can and must communicate and spread it” (”Evangelii Nuntiandi”, 13).
In this people there is only one priest, Jesus Christ, and one sacrifice, that which
He offered on the cross and which is renewed in the Mass. But all Christians,
through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, obtain a share in the priest-
hood of Christ and are thereby equipped to mediate in a priestly way between God
and man and to take an active part in divine worship; by so doing they can turn all
their actions into “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God” (1 Peter 2:5). Theirs is a
true priesthood, although it is essentially different from the ministerial priesthood
for those who receive the sacrament of Order: “Though they differ essentially and
not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hie-
rarchical priesthood are nonetheless ordered one to another; each in its own pro-
per way shares in the one priesthood of Christ. The ministerial priest, by the sa-
cred power that he has, forms and rules the priestly people; in the person of Christ
he effects the eucharistic sacrifice and offers it to God in the name of all the peo-
ple. The faithful indeed, by virtue of their royal priesthood, participate in the offe-
ring of the Eucharist. They exercise that priesthood, too, by the reception of the
Sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, abnegation and
active charity” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 10: cf. “Prebyterorum Ordinis”, 2).
And the same Council says, apropos of those “spiritual sacrifices” (verse 5) by
which Christians sanctify the world from within, that “all their works, prayers and
apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and
body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit—indeed even the hardships of life if
patiently borne—all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most frequently be
offered to the Father along with the body of our Lord. And so, worshipping every-
where by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God” (”Lumen
Gentium”, 34).
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: John 14:1-12
Jesus Reveals the Father
[8] Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.” [9]
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know Me,
Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us
the Father?’ [10] Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in
Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the
Father who dwells in Me does His works. [11] Believe Me that I am in the Father
and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the sake of the words themselves.
[12] “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me will also do the works that
I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
1-3. Apparently this prediction of Peter’s denial has saddened the disciples. Je-
sus cheers them up by telling them that He is going away to prepare a place for
them in Heaven, for Heaven they will eventually attain, despite their shortcomings
and dragging their feet. The return which Jesus refers to includes His Second Co-
ming (Parousia) at the end of the world (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:5; 11:26; 1 Thessalo-
nians 4:16-17; 1 John 2:28) and His meeting with each soul after death: Christ
has prepared a Heavenly dwelling-place through His work of redemption. There-
fore, His words can be regarded as being addressed not only to the Twelve but
also to everyone who believes in Him over the course of the centuries. The Lord
will bring with Him into glory all those who have believed in Him and have stayed
faithful to Him.
4-7. The Apostles did not really understand what Jesus was telling them: hence
Thomas’ question. The Lord explains that He is the way to the Father. “It was
necessary for Him to say ‘I am the Way’ to show them that they really knew
what they thought they were ignorant of, because they knew Him” (St. Augus-
tine, “In. Ioann. Evang.”, 66, 2).
Jesus is the way to the Father—through what He teaches, for by keeping to His
teaching we will reach Heaven; through faith, which He inspires, because He
came to this world so “that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life” (John
3:15); through His example, since no one can go to the Father without imitating
the Son; through His merits, which make it possible for us to enter our Heavenly
home; and above all He is the way because He reveals the Father, with whom
He is one because of His divine nature.
“Just as children by listening to their mothers, and prattling with them, learn to
speak their language, so we, by keeping close to the Savior in meditation, and
observing His words, His actions, and His affections, shall learn, with the help
of His grace, to speak, to act, and to will like Him.
“We must pause here...; we can reach God the Father by no other route ... ;
the Divinity could not be well contemplated by us in this world below if it were
not united to the sacred humanity of the Savior, whose life and death are the
most appropriate, sweet, delicious and profitable subjects which we can choose
for our ordinary meditations” (St. Francis de Sales, “Introduction to the Devout
Life”, Part II, Chapter 1, 2).
“I am the way”: He is the only path linking Heaven and Earth. “He is speaking to
all men, but in a special way He is thinking of people who, like you and me, are
determined to take our Christian vocation seriously: He wants God to be forever
in our thoughts, on our lips and in everything we do, including our most ordinary
and routine actions.
“Jesus is the way. Behind Him on this Earth of ours He has left the clear out-
lines of His footprints. They are indelible signs which neither the erosion of time
nor the treachery of the Evil One have been able to erase” (St. J. Escriva,
“Friends of God”, 127).
Jesus’ words do much more than provide an answer to Thomas’ question; He
tells us: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life”. Being the Truth and the
Life is something proper to the Son of God become man, who St. John says in
the prologue of his Gospel is “full of grace and truth” (1:14). He is the Truth be-
cause by coming to this world He shows that God is faithful to His promises,
and because He teaches the truth about who God is and tells us that true wor-
ship must be “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). He is Life because from all eterni-
ty He has divine life with His Father (cf. John 1:4), and because He makes us,
through grace, sharers in that divine life. This is why the Gospel says: “This is
eternal life, that they know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
Thou has sent” (John 17:3).
By His reply Jesus is, “as it were, saying, By which route do you want to go? I
am the Way. To where do you want to go? I am the Truth. Where do you want to
remain? I am the Life. Every man can attain an understanding of the Truth and the
Life; but not all find the Way. The wise of this world realize that God is eternal life
and knowable truth; but the Word of God, who is Truth and Life joined to the Fa-
ther, has become the Way by taking a human nature. Make your way contempla-
ting His humility and you will reach God” (St. Augustine, “De Verbis Domini Ser-
mones”, 54).
8-11. The Apostles still find our Lord’s words very mysterious, because they can-
not understand the oneness of the Father and the Son. Hence Philip’s persistence.
Then Jesus “upbraids the Apostle for not yet knowing Him, even though His works
are proper to God—walking on the water, controlling the wind, forgiving sins, raising
the dead. This is why He reproves him: for not recognizing His divine condition
through His human nature” (St. Augustine, “De Trinitate”, Book 7).
Obviously the sight of the Father which Jesus refers to in this passage is a vision
through faith, for no one has ever seen God as He is (cf. John 1:18; 6:46). All ma-
nifestations of God, or “theophanies”, have been through some medium; they are
only a reflection of God’s greatness. The highest expression which we have of
God our Father is in Christ Jesus, the Son of God sent among men. “He did this
by the total fact of His presence and self-manifestation—by words and works,
signs and miracles, but above all by His death and glorious resurrection from the
dead, and finally by sending the Spirit of truth. He revealed that God was with us,
to deliver us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to eternal life”
(Vatican II, “Dei Verbum”, 4).
12-14. Before leaving this world, the Lord promises His Apostles to make them
sharers in His power so that God’s salvation may be manifested through them.
These “works” are the miracles they will work in the name of Jesus Christ (cf.
Acts 3:1-10; 5:15-16; etc.), and especially the conversion of people to the Chris-
tian faith and their sanctification by preaching and the ministry of the sacraments.
They can be considered greater works than Jesus’ own insofar as, by the Apos-
tles’ ministry, the Gospel was not only preached in Palestine but was spread to
the ends of the earth; but this extraordinary power of apostolic preaching pro-
ceeds from Christ, who has ascended to the Father: after undergoing the humi-
liation of the cross Jesus has been glorified and from Heaven He manifests His
power by acting through His Apostles.
The Apostles’ power, therefore, derives from Christ glorified. Christ our Lord
says as much: “Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it”. “It is not that he who
believes in Me will be greater than Me, but that only that I shall then do greater
works than now; greater, by him who believes in Me, than I now do by myself
without Him” (St. Augustine, “In Ioann. Evang.”, 72, 1).
Jesus Christ is our intercessor in Heaven; therefore, He promises us that every-
thing we ask for in His name, He will do. Asking in His name (cf. 15:7, 16; 16:
23-24) means appealing to the power of the risen Christ, believing that He is all-
powerful and merciful because He is true God; and it also means asking for what
is conducive to our salvation, for Jesus is our Savior. Thus, by “whatever you ask”
we must understand what is for the good of the asker. When our Lord does not
give what we ask for, the reason is that it would not make for our salvation. In
this way we can see that He is our Savior both when He refuses us what we ask
and when He grants it.
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.