I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. – Romans 12:1-2
A priest is one who mediates between God and humanity and who offers sacrifice.
This is something only God himself can do sufficiently. Christ is the one High Priest.
But by our participation in the life of Christ, every Christian is also given a measure of Christ’s priestly work.
“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2;9).
It is not an accident that we call the men among us in the ministerial priesthood by the name of “Father.”
By presiding at the sacrifice of the Mass and confecting the Eucharist, preaching the Gospel, and leading his parishioners to Christ, the ordained priest is participating in Christ’s life as priest, prophet, and king.
Fathers who are not ministerial priests also have a priestly role to play.
A father offers himself to God as a living sacrifice.
As St. Paul writes in Romans, the father brings to the worship of God the sacrificial gift of his life.
The Christian father does not just give God occasional and sporadic worship.
He brings his whole self—his relationships, his work, his leisure, his time and money, his bodily desires—to the altar and offers them to God to be used as God wills.
Paul points especially to the call to be renewed in mind, to throw off conformity to a darkened world and practice steady, consistent obedience.
A father of a family plays a special role in mediation.
The family is the domestic Church, and the father is an image of Christ to his family, whether he wishes it or not.
The father brings his family to the public worship of God; he makes sure that they take Mass seriously, and he sees that the life of the Church runs through his home.
He ought to be grateful for the special gifts his wife brings to the spiritual life of the family, but he does not fall into the common pattern of leaving her to bear the burden of bringing Christ into the home. He offers his own leadership, and he supports her in whatever ways she is modeling Christ.
A father speaks truth to his family and sees that truth is the basis of their life together.
With his wife, he governs the education of his children, making sure that they are being well taught, and guides their intellectual and spiritual growth.
We may feel profoundly inadequate to represent Christ to those around us in this priestly way.
The truth is that we are entirely inadequate for the task. But it is not us, it is Christ who is mediating in us, “for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
Be confident in God’s action in you and through you.
Know that you are a priest and ask for the grace to live out your vocation more fully today.
