Opening a Letter

Wednesday of Week 8 in Ordinary Time

Sts Gregory VII, Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, Bede the Venerable

Monday the Church began reading from 1 Peter.  So we are in the Third day…a good time to check in with the letter’s circumstances.  Scholarly consensus sees 1 Peter as a part of the nascent development of early Christian tradition.  Its concern is pastoral and is steeped in Pauline theology and expression.  Pastoral concerns aim to translate theological vision into answers for real live communities, in this case a community facing acute suffering.   “Their Christian commitment was leading to slander, estrangement, and abuse from their neighbors because they no longer shared their non-Christian values and were no longer free to participate in many of the events, practices, and associations as they did formerly.  The sanction for this was not only social alienation but could have included economic consequences as well.” (p.13, Sacra Pagina, vol 15, Donald Senior, CP) 

After an initial greeting comes an encouragement passage that reads like a prayer of thanksgiving to God with a hymn-like tone; sweeping and majestic.  The focus on future salvation embodies the grounding paschal experience of suffering leading to glory.  (Monday’s pericope plus a bit)

Then with yesterday’s reading comes a ‘call to holiness’ (v.13-16)  The hearers have been reminded of their beautiful vocation and now comes the search for an appropriate response.  Though my world is different...are the circumstances radically different?  Can these be mine?

-how do I gird my loins/a metaphor for mind?

-what does it mean to live ‘sober’ in the face of ------???

-what does hope in action look like?

I think it takes a lot of contemplation and prayer to respond to

Be holy because I am holy (v16)

And today’s verses offer more cosmic language that turns intimate putting the reader in the center of God’s concern.  You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God (v.23)

Just do it, doesn’t quite suffice.  Earnestly love one another (v.22)

We are in this together…how Trinitarian;)