Joy to be with you all on the first day, the
first day of the Lord's year, 2020. I think the
litany that we had at the beginning said enough
about our time and the year past and the year
to come, our need for God's blessing upon it,
our hope that We never think of time as something
to kill or waste. But we remember that time is
a precious commodity. It's really the only thing
we have. And it's a... It's given to us for our
repentance, for deepening our knowledge, understanding
of God, and our fellowship with one another.
And I think those prayers probably said enough,
and we'll do a few more. Instead of talking about
the new year, which everybody talks about anyway,
I wanted to read out of the Synaxaria just a
little bit on today's feast, the circumcision
of the Lord, who received that precious name,
Jesus, on the eighth day after his birth, the
name we repeat over and over. and over, the name
which has power on this earth and in heaven.
Here's what the Sennacherib says. Eight days
after the Savior's birth, his parents had him
circumcised. We read that in Luke chapter 2,
if you want to look it up. Just one sentence.
In accordance with the order given by God to
Abraham, and when he promised to make an everlasting
covenant with him and all his descendants. This
is my covenant which you shall keep, said the
Lord, between me and you and your descendants
after you. And who's speaking to Abraham? It's
the word of God. When they are eight days old,
all your meals shall be circumcised throughout
your generations. He, says the synopsis, he who
in his love for mankind deigned to assume the
human nature he created. even extended his compassion
so far as to assume in its fallen and corrupt
condition but without sin. By the cutting away
of that fragment of mortal flesh, representing
mankind's subjection to death, he, the pure and
sinless one, condescended to receive the sign
of reconciliation, which as God and author of
the law, he himself had instituted. and it shall
not pass away. We no longer circumcise. And St.
Paul was very clear on why. Romans and Galatians,
and you heard in Colossians. It's been fulfilled.
We circumcise the heart, cutting away our sins.
And you're going to hear more of that in a moment
through baptism. On coming to the earth, he submitted
humbly to the ordinance of the law and showed
thereby that its foreshadowing is finding in
him their fulfillment. The drops of blood that
he shed today were the earnest of the blood which
he was soon to shed on the cross to wash away
the sins of the world and to release us from
our condemnation, death, and sin. Hence, in the
circumcision of our Lord, we are in fact commemorating
the whole mystery of the redemption. Today, in
the circumcision of Christ, the new Adam, the
fleshly circumcision of the old covenant reaches
its term, and the new and true covenant is brought
in by His blood. Christian baptism is none other
than true spiritual circumcision, the sign of
belonging to a new people, no longer by cutting
away a piece of mortal flesh, but by gaining
freedom from death itself through communion with
the Lord's life -giving death and resurrection.
This is why St. Paul and the other apostles were
so strongly opposed to those who wanted to oblige
converts from paganism to be circumcised. In
Christ, writes St. Paul, you have been circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands. Such
is the circumcision of Christ, and you have been
buried with him in baptism, in which you are
also raised with him. because you have believed
in the active power of God who has raised him
from the dead. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision is of any of them, but only
faith, effective through love of God. Hence Orthodox
Christians, witnesses of the life -giving name,
ought to do everything in the name of Jesus.
Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything
in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God the Father through him. By our constantly
repeating with each breath and in every circumstance
the holy prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy on me. The very person of our Lord
himself will occupy our thoughts, inspire our
behavior, purify our passions, and finding little
by little a fixed abode in our heart will cause
the divine light of His countenance to shine
in us. Commemoration of the circumcision on the
eighth day after the Nativity is thus also the
feast of the Holy Name of Jesus and the prayer
through which we acquire the grace of His Holy
Spirit. It's said that the martyrs, we know,
suffer denying themselves their own life for
the life of the kingdom. And they shed their
blood. We dare not celebrate the Feast of the
Martyrs, that shedding of blood for Christ, without
ourselves denying our own will, martyring our
own will, as it were. As the Lord says, if you
want to follow me, deny yourself this invitation.
This beautiful invitation from the Lord, not
a threat, but an invitation to be with him, to
acquire his will, which is life -giving and will
save us. Amen.