2:9 But you are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people whom he has gained. The apostle Peter now rightly gives to
the gentiles this attestation of praise which formerly was given by Moses to
the ancient people of God, because namely they believed in Christ who like a
cornerstone brought the gentiles into that salvation which Israel had had for
itself. He calls them a chosen race
on account of their faith, that he may distinguish them from those who by
rejecting the living stone have themselves become rejected, a royal priesthood, however, because
they have been joined to his body who is their real king and true priest, who
as king grants to his own a kingdom and as their high priest cleanses them of
their sins by the sacrificial victim of his own blood. He names them a royal priesthood that they may
remember both to hope for an eternal kingdom and always to offer to God the
sacrificial victims of a stainless way of life. They are also called a holy nation and a people whom he has gained according to what Paul says, explaining
the thought of the prophet saying, Yet my
righteous one lives by faith, but if he withdraws he will not be pleasing to my
soul: We are not those who withdraw to our destruction but [people] of faith to
the gain of our soul; and in the Acts of the Apostles, The Holy Spirit has placed the bishops to rule the church of the Lord,
which he has gained by his blood. Therefore, we have become the people whom
he has gained in the blood of our Redeemer, because there was once the people
of Israel redeemed from Egypt by the blood of a lamb. Hence in the following
[part of the] verse also he both mystically recalls the ancient history and
teaches spiritually that his also is to be fulfilled in the new people of God,
saying, that you may make known his
mighty deeds who has called you out of darkness into his own wonderful light.
For just as those who were freed by Moses from slavery in Egypt sang to the
Lord a triumphant song after the crossing of the Red Sea and the drowning of
Pharoah’s army, so it is fitting also for us to render worthy thanks for
heavenly benefits after receiving the forgiveness of sins in baptism. For the
Egyptians who ill-treated the people of God—reasonably, too, because they are
interpreted to mean ‘darkness’ or ‘tribulations’[]—appropriately signify sins
washed away in baptism but still troubling us. The freeing of the children of
Israel and their being brought out into the fatherland once promised them is
also linked with the mystery of our redemption. By means of it we make our way
to the light of the dwelling place on high with the grace of Christ lighting
our way and guiding us. That cloud and column of fire that both protected them
throughout the whole of their journey from the darkness of the nights and led
them by a sure path to the promised homes of the fatherland also prefigured the
light of this grace. (Bede, The Commentary on the Seven Catholic
Epistles of Bede the Venerable [trans. David Hurst; Cistercian Studies
Series 82; Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1985], 86-88)
