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From: 1 Peter 5:5b-14
To the Faithful
[6] Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you. [7] Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares about you. [8] Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. [9] Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. [10] And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, establish and strengthen you. [11] To Him be the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Epilogue
Peace to all of you that are in Christ.
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Commentary:
5-11. The Apostle concludes his exhortation with a call to humility, which should express itself in complete docility in the face of the
trials God permits (verses 6-7). This last piece of advice is often found in Sacred Scripture: “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22); Jesus also teaches that we should trust in God’s fatherly providence (cf. Matthew 6:19-34). “You have such care for each one of us”, St. Augustine exclaims, “as if you had no offers to care for” (”Confessions”, 3, 11).
However, abandonment in God does not mean irresponsibility, so St. Peter reminds them there is always need to be watchful against the assaults of the devil, who will pounce on us if we lower our guard (verse 8).
The description of the devil (etymologically the word means liar, detractor: cf. Revelation 12:9-10) as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour has often been taken up by the Saints. “He moves round each one of us”, St. Cyprian says, “like an enemy who has us surrounded and is checking the walls to see if there is some weak, unsecured part, where he can get in” (”De Zelo Et Livore”).
Christians “firm in the faith” will resist the attacks of the devil. The trials they suffer (cf. 1:6-7; 4:13; 5:1-4) serve to purify them
and are a pledge of the glory God will give them: “For this momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparisons” (2 Corinthians 4:17). “So great is the good that I hope for, that any pain is for me a pleasure” (St. Francis of Assisi,
“Reflections on Christ’s Wounds”, 1).
5. “You who are younger”: it is not clear whether he is addressing people who are young in age or Christians who are not “elders”
(priests), that is, lay people.
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”: a quotation from Proverbs (cf. James 4:6 and note on same), containing an idea which runs right through the Old Testament (cf., e.g., Job 12:19; Psalm 18:88; 31:34) and the teachings of Christ (cf., e.g., Luke 14:11). The Blessed Virgin proclaims this truth in the “Magnificat”: “He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree” (Luke 1:52).
“Humility is the source and foundation of every kind of virtue,” the Cure of Ars teaches; “it is the door by which all God-given graces
enter; it is what seasons all our actions, making them so valuable and so pleasing to God. Finally, it makes us masters of God’s heart, to the point, so to speak, of making Him our servant; for God has never been able to resist a humble heart” (”Selected Sermons”, Tenth Sunday after Pentecost).
8. For the third time, St. Peter exhorts the faithful to be sober; earlier he referred to the importance of sobriety so as to put one’s
hope in Heavenly things (1:13) and to help one to pray (4:7). Now he stresses that it puts us on guard against the devil.
Man should use the goods of this world in a balanced, temperate way, so as to avoid being ensnared by them, thereby forgetting his eternal destiny: “Detach yourself from the goods of the world. Love and practice poverty of spirit: be content with what enables you to live a simple and sober life. Otherwise, you will never be an apostle” ([St] J. Escriva, “The Way”, 631).
12. Silvanus, called Silas in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 15:22), accompanied St. Paul on his second apostolic journey through Asia Minor and Greece (cf. Acts 15:36-18:22); he was therefore well known to the Christians addressed in this letter.
From the reference St. Peter makes to him here, it is not possible to say for sure whether Silvanus was simply the bearer of the letter, or acted as an amanuensis who took down the Apostle’s dictation, or was an editor or redactor of ideas the Apostle gave him (on this subject, see the Introduction to this Letter).
13. “Babylon”: this is a symbolic way of referring to Rome, the prototype of the idolatrous and worldly city of the era. Some
centuries earlier Babylon had been the subject of severe reproaches and threats by the prophets (cf., e.g., Isaiah 13:47; Jeremiah 50-51). In the Book of Revelation Rome is also referred to by this name (cf. e.g., Revelation 17-18).
The Mark referred to is the author of the second Gospel. Tradition says that he acted as St. Peter’s interpreter in Rome. The Apostle
calls him “son”, meaning that he was spiritually his son, and implying that they had been close to each other for a long time (cf. “The
Navarre Bible: St. Mark”, pp. 56-57).
14. “The kiss of love”: St. Paul also, at the end of some of his letters, refers to the “holy kiss” (cf. Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians
16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26), a mark of supernatural charity and shared faith. With this meaning the gesture
passed into primitive eucharistic liturgy (cf. note on 1 Corinthians 16:20).
The final words, “Peace to all of you that are in Christ”, are similar to the way St. Paul ends many of his letters; since the first age of
the Church it has been used in liturgical celebrations. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, for example, ends his baptismal catechism with these words: “May the God of peace hallow you entirely, and your body and your soul remain unsullied until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (”Mystagogical Catechesis”, 5, 23).