Click here to read the daily readings from the USCCB website. 

Today's readings concern the priestly office of Baptism. Fr. Andy preached about this a few weeks ago. In baptism, we are anointed priest, prophet, and king. These offices are not just for Jesus but are for all the baptized.

What does it mean, then, for a lay person to possess a priestly office?

Really, the priesthood is about sacrifice. A ministerial priest, the ones you call Father _________, perform the ministry of the priesthood wherein the offer the sacrifice of the Mass to God the Father. Laypeople possess the common priesthood, the priesthood common to all the baptized.

By our priesthood, we are also called to offer sacrifice to God the Father. We bring our own sacrifices to the Mass and offer them with the ministerial priest as he offers Jesus to the Father in the Eucharist.

When I was in college I learned that there are two kinds of sacrifice, active and passive. Passive sacrifices are the things that we don't have control over that might be inconvenient or painful. Instead of getting upset or raging about them, we can "offer it up." We make a sacrifice that we didn't exactly choose but that we can still unite to Jesus's pain and suffering on the cross.

Active sacrifices are things that we seek out. When we fast from meat on Fridays, that's an active sacrifice. When we say no to dessert for the sake of self-denial or when we put our money in the offertory collection (especially when we give until it kind of hurts) then we're participating in active sacrifice.

Both types of sacrifice are important, but I would argue that active sacrifice is more important. It is by choosing to deny our own needs, desires, and comfort that we unite ourselves with Jesus who denied His own needs, desires, and comfort for our sake when He embraced the cross.

The exercise of our common priesthood is critical in the lives of the Baptized. How can you grow in sacrifice?