Have you ever gone through Mass feeling as if you were not “getting anything out of it”? This is a common problem that many face and few face down. But the solution is even more common and comes to each one of us every day: sacrifice. Since “the measure you give will be the measure you receive,” I believe that the more one gives to the Lord and offers with the Lord at Mass, the more one’s heart will be disposed to receive the Lord and His abundance of graces. Through Baptism, we become one with Christ’s mission and are able to exercise the common priesthood of the faithful, to live our vocation in union with Jesus and in everything to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice pleasing to God.

Each baptized Catholic participates in Christ’s priesthood in a special way. This should be understood in the sense that, having been baptized into His family, we have also been given the responsibility to carry out His mission. What is the greatest part of Jesus’ mission? “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” How did Jesus save the world? By His suffering and death. Through our own suffering, then, we are to share in Christ’s mission.

The key to living our vocation in union with Christ’s mission is to unite ourselves fully in all that we do to Christ and His Cross. There is at least some amount of suffering in any vocation. All our little crosses should be offered to God the Father combined with Jesus’ ultimate Cross; every suffering, large or small, can be redemptive if given to God to use towards His will. Even sitting in traffic may begin to take on new meaning! The more often we offer up our sacrifices, the more we can utilize our common priesthood as we are “completing the sufferings that still must be undergone by Christ.” The only thing lacking in Christ’s suffering is our suffering.

Although every Christian is obviously not of the ordained, or ministerial, priesthood, we are all what Fr. Mike Schmitz likes to call “kingdom priests.” According to Mass and the Sacraments by Fr. John Laux, “All who are baptized participate in the life and power of Christ, who was Victim and Priest.” The life is the life of grace, and the power is the power to offer sacrifice. It is in every vocation to offer sacrifice. Rather than attempting to escape this fact, one should accept it and offer it to God. He knows best how to use all trials and afflictions, and can work in powerful ways when we let Him in and give Him our whole self, even the difficult parts of our life. One should give one’s all to the Lord, one’s joys, one’s sufferings, one’s self. The common priesthood of the faithful is for us to offer our own sacrifices in union with the Sacrifice of the Mass.

United with Christ’s mission of redemptive suffering and enabled by our baptism into the common priesthood of the faithful, Catholics the world over can find new meaning in their tribulations. We are called to live our particular vocation in union with Christ, the head. We are called to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice at each and every Mass. “Pray brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the almighty Father.” The Mass should be our sacrifice as well as our highway to heaven. Without Sacrifice, there is no Mass, and without our sacrifices, sadly, many may see no meaning to the Mass. But in the fullness of our Christian vocation, we are not passive spectators of the Mass. It is the sacred right and duty of all Catholics to utilize their common priesthood; it is our privilege; it is our vocation.

Sources:

Daughters of St Paul, prep. Saint Paul Daily Missal. Boston: Pauline, 2012. Print.

Laux, Fr. John. Mass and the Sacraments. Rockford, IL: TAN. 1990. Print.

The New Testament and Psalms: St Joseph Edition. New Catholic Bible. NJ: Catholic Book Publishing Corp. 2018. Print.

Schmitz, Fr Mike. Catechism in a Year. West Chester, PA: Ascension. 2023. Podcast.