A people set apart for Christ
"But you are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises’ of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were ‘no people’ but now you are God’s people; you ‘had not received mercy’ but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:9–10) This passage from the First Letter of Peter affirms the profound identity bestowed upon the Christian faithful by virtue of their incorporation into Christ. Drawing deeply from Old Testament covenantal language, particularly from Exodus 19 and Hosea 2, the apostle redefines the Church as the new Israel, not by ethnicity or geography, but by divine election and baptismal grace. This ecclesial identity is not static but deeply vocational: the Church exists to proclaim the praises of God who has rescued her from spiritual darkness and consecrated her in light. The text encapsulates the dignity of the baptized. To be a “chosen race” is to be set apart not for pri...