Listen now to what the Apostle urges us to do. I appeal to you, he says, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. By this exhortation of his, Paul has raised all men to priestly status.
How marvellous is the priesthood of the Christian, for he is both the victim that is offered on his own behalf, and the priest who makes the offering. He does not need to go beyond himself to seek what he is to immolate to God: with himself and in himself he brings the sacrifice he is to offer God for himself. The victim remains and the priest remains, always one and the same. Immolated, the victim still lives: the priest who immolates cannot kill. Truly it is an amazing sacrifice in which a body is offered without being slain and blood is offered without being shed.
The Apostle says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Brethren, this sacrifice follows the pattern of Christ’s sacrifice by which he gave his body as a living immolation for the life of the world. He really made his body a living sacrifice, because, though slain, he continues to live. In such a victim death receives its ransom, but the victim remains alive. Death itself suffers the punishment. This is why death for the martyrs is actually a birth, and their end a beginning. Their execution is the door to life, and those who were thought to have been blotted out from the earth shine brilliantly in heaven.
Paul says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living and holy. The prophet said the same thing: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you have prepared a body for me. Each of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest. Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you. Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Let your heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will.
--Saint Peter Chrysologus, Sermon
可是讓我們聽一聽保祿使徒請求什麼，他說：「我憑天主的仁慈請求你們，要奉獻你們的身體。」他藉著這樣的請求，使眾人升高到祭司職的頂峰：「奉獻你們的身體，當作生活的祭品。」
基督徒的祭司職真是前所未聞的！他本身是祭品，又是祭司；他不必在他以外尋找、他該奉獻給天主的祭品；他個人在他內就擁有為他自己獻給天主的祭品；祭品常是同一個，而祭司也是同一的；被宰殺的犧牲仍然生活，祭司也不會死亡，因為他該獻祭。
這真是令人驚異的祭獻：肉身被奉獻，而不需要有肉身；血被奉獻，而不必流血。保祿說：「我憑天主的仁慈請求你們，要奉獻你們的身體，當作生活的祭品。」
弟兄們，這祭獻是以基督的祭獻作典範，他祭獻了他的身體，為的是將生命賜與世人；他確實使他的肉體成為生活的祭品，因為他曾被殺死、而仍然活著。在這祭品中，死亡成為代價，而祭品仍然存在；祭品依舊活著，而死亡已被懲罰。因此殉道者因死亡而誕生；結束了生命時，便開始生活；雖被殺害而仍然活著。人們以為他們在世上已經絕跡，他們卻在天上閃爍發光。
「弟兄們，我憑天主的仁慈請求你們，要奉獻你們的身體，作為生活的、聖潔的祭品。」這正是先知所唱的歌：「犧牲和素祭，都非你所喜，你便給我造了一個身體。」
人哪，你要成為天主的祭品和祭司；你不要失去崇高的天主賦與你的恩惠；你要穿上聖德的長袍，束上貞潔的腰帶。願基督作你的頭帕；願印在你額上的十字時常保護你；把天主知識的奧秘放在你心裡；要不斷的焚燒你祈禱的馨香；緊握聖神的劍；使你的心成為一座祭壇。這樣，把你的身體毫無畏懼的獻于天主，作為祭品吧！
--金言聖伯多祿主教講道集
All are priests and victims
