As preached by Brother Christopher
Holy Wisdom Church
Today is the feast of the
Circumcision – the immediate follow-up to the Nativity – which commemorates
Jesus being formally stamped as a member of God’s chosen people, the one
through whom humanity would be saved. For it is also the feast of the name of Jesus,
the name the angel gave to Mary at the Annunciation and which now defines his
mission: ‘God saves’. So taken together, today is a feast of identity, a feast
whose mystery we enter into every time we utter the name of Jesus in faith and
love.
Yet I have to admit that I was struck
several days ago when we celebrated the feast of St Stephen, the protomartyr,
who was put to death because he had the temerity to confront the high priest
and the entire Sanhedrin with their inauthenticity, showing that there was
nothing automatic about circumcision and that it only had real meaning to the
extent that they followed God’s lead. Remember what he said? “You stiff-necked
people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the Holy Spirit...”
Little wonder why he was soon under a pile of stones. For Stephen, circumcision
quite obviously didn’t accomplish what it was supposed to signify.
Which
leads one to ask, ‘so why did Jesus get circumcised? What is the deeper meaning
of him submitting to a procedure that would soon become obsolete as the
definitive sign of being part of the chosen people? I believe it points to a
deeper mystery that is taking place. In submitting to the law of circumcision
it marks a transition: that Jesus is the fullness and completion of the Old
Covenant, that by having this marked on his body as an infant, it will be
completed and brought to fulfillment on the cross. And his resurrection will
usher in a new age, a new covenant in which physical circumcision will no
longer be a legal requirement for being part of God’s people, but which will
now be transformed into a spiritual requirement that applies to Jew and Gentile
alike.
I
think it’s fair to say that this isn’t a ploy to let us get off easy. For
submitting to a true spiritual circumcision is about the total stripping of the
old person, consecrating and sanctifying our bodies as part of this
transformation. It’s a process that takes place over the course of our lives.
And this is not gender specific. Spiritual circumcision applies to all of us,
male and female alike, because above all, what it’s pointing to is circumcision
of the heart. It is our heart – whose depths include all our thoughts,
feelings, desires... everything that is not in synch with our dedication and
love for God. That is what must be excised and left behind. That can’t happen
without a lot of personal effort combined with grace. But that’s what we’re
called to.
Today
marks the beginning of a new year. While it is not the beginning of the
liturgical year, psychologically it represents a new opportunity to turn the
page of our tired habits and compromises. Let’s receive it as the gift that it
is.
