Readings for Lent and Easter

Footnotes

1. 1 Peter 3:8 Mutual love of Christians is expressed in a new type of social relations and inner attitudes that lead up to evangelical behavior (see Lk 6:28; Rom 12:9-20).
2. 1 Peter 3:13 Persecution must not come as a surprise to believers; it is their lot according to one of the Beatitudes of the Gospel (see Mt 5:10), almost repeated here word for word. Thus, Christians follow the example of Christ, ready to justify their hope but refusing to retaliate with hatred and violence. They are not enemies of society or other people, a crime that has apparently already been leveled at them.
3. 1 Peter 3:18 The author presents the vision of a new world. Christ’s Death and Resurrection have been victorious over sin; the risen Lord dominates the universe and all the good or evil forces in it, e.g., angels, dominations, and powers. Christ truly died and was in the sojourn of the dead, as the New Testament more than once attests (see Mt 12:40; Acts 2:31; Rom 10:7; Eph 4:8-10).
   The intent of this passage is probably to say that nothing human or cosmic can be excluded from the Redemption that Christ effected. It is in this sense that we are to understand the article of the Creed that speaks of Christ “descending into hell.” The story of Noah (see Gen 6:1—7:4) is interpreted as a saving of the righteous and a destruction of sin; it seems to be taken as a symbolic anticipation of Baptism, which at the time was received by immersion.