The circumcision of our Lord
1st of January
According to the Law of Moses (Lev. 12,3) every boy of Jewish origin had to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth.
So the Virgin Mary’s baby, the Word of God who became flesh for our Salvation, was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth and “he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived” (Lk. 2, 21).
As the expected Messiah, Jesus Christ obeyed the Law; for, as a real descendant of Abraham, “he had to be made like his brothers in every way” (Heb. 2,17); thus the Jews accepted him when he started preaching about the Kingdom of God. Otherwise His own people would have considered Him an alien and His teaching would have had no effect on them.
Moreover the circumcision was a proof our Lord’s real Incarnation and it was a part of His work of the Salvation of Men.
– From An Abridged Calendar of the Feasts of the Orthodox Church (including all the fixed feasts of our Lord and His Mother and selected Saints’ day based on authentic ecclesiastical sources) by M. Tsami-Dratsellas, vol. 1: January to June, Myrioviblos Publications: Athens, 2008.
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