Feast of the Circumcision

The 1st day of January is the Octave of Christmas (i.e., from December 25 to January 1, inclusive, are 8 days).

This is the Feast of the Circumcision, a day known in the Novus Ordo as "Mary, Mother of God"; either way, January 1 is a Holy Day of Obligation on which we must attend Mass. On this day, we recall Our Lord's submitting to the Mosaic Law by getting circumcised on the eighth day of His human life in obedience to the Law:

Our Lord later fulfilled this part of Torah through the Sacrament of Baptism, an event which will be brought into focus on the Feast of the Epiphany in five days and again on the 13th of January at the Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord. His Circumcision, though, has another, deeper meaning in that it symbolizes and foreshadows the Blood He will shed for us on Calvary.

In Aquinas's Catena Aurea, Epiphanius gives four more reason why Our Lord was circumsized: "First indeed to shew the reality of His flesh, in opposition to Manichæus and those who say that He came forth in appearance only. Secondly, that He might prove that His body was not of the same substance with the Deity, according to Apollinaris, and that it descended not from heaven, as Valentinian said. Thirdly, to add a confirmation to circumcision which He had of old instituted to wait His coming. Lastly, to leave no excuse to the Jews. For had He not been circumcised, they might have objected that they could not receive Christ uncircumcised."

Today, too, we honor the Holy Name of Jesus which was given to Him on this day. We celebrate His Holy Name more fully next Sunday (or tomorrow if the first Sunday of the year falls today, or on the 6th or the 7th), on the Feast of the Holy Name.

Finally, today, too, we celebrate St. Telemachus, an Eastern ascetic who was martyred in Rome in a particularly interesting way. President Ronald Reagan related his story well at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 2, 1984:

This power of prayer can be illustrated by a story that goes back to the fourth century. The Asian monk living in a little remote village, spending most of his time in prayer or tending the garden from which he obtained his sustenance -- I hesitate to say the name because I'm not sure I know the pronunciation, but let me take a chance. It was Telemachus, back in the fourth century. And then one day, he thought he heard the voice of God telling him to go to Rome. And believing that he had heard, he set out. And weeks and weeks later, he arrived there, having traveled most of the way on foot.

And it was at a time of a festival in Rome. They were celebrating a triumph over the Goths. And he followed a crowd into the Colosseum, and then there in the midst of this great crowd, he saw the gladiators come forth, stand before the Emperor, and say, ``We who are about to die salute you.'' And he realized they were going to fight to the death for the entertainment of the crowds. And he cried out, ``In the name of Christ, stop!'' And his voice was lost in the tumult there in the great Colosseum.

And as the games began, he made his way down through the crowd and climbed over the wall and dropped to the floor of the arena. Suddenly the crowds saw this scrawny little figure making his way out to the gladiators and saying, over and over again, ``In the name of Christ, stop.'' And they thought it was part of the entertainment, and at first they were amused. But then, when they realized it wasn't, they grew belligerent and angry. And as he was pleading with the gladiators, ``In the name of Christ, stop,'' one of them plunged his sword into his body. And as he fell to the sand of the arena in death, his last words were, ``In the name of Christ, stop.''

And suddenly, a strange thing happened. The gladiators stood looking at this tiny form lying in the sand. A silence fell over the Colosseum. And then, someplace up in the upper tiers, an individual made his way to an exit and left, and others began to follow. And in the dead silence, everyone left the Colosseum. That was the last battle to the death between gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. Never again did anyone kill or did men kill each other for the entertainment of the crowd.

One tiny voice that could hardly be heard above the tumult. ``In the name of Christ, stop.'' It is something we could be saying to each other throughout the world today.

May the spirit of St. Telemachus inspire us all throughout the new year! We need such fortitude now more than ever! The power of one individual should never be underestimated! All great change for the Good must start somewhere; let it be with you! For inspiration, I encourage you to read Vaclav Havel's essay, "The Power of the Powerless" (pdf) from this site's Catholic Library. A detail from a painting of St. Telemachus by José Benlliure y Gil. Click on it to enlarge and see the entire painting; it depicts a great procession of martyrs surrounding him as he makes his heroic plea.

On this first day of the new year, a plenary indulgence can be acquired, under the usual conditions, by praying the Veni, Creator Spiritus to glorify God and call down the Holy Ghost to grant us virtues and peace (in the same way, praying the Te Deum on December 31, the last day of the year, is indulgenced). Download a pdf of the Te Deum and Veni Creator Spiritus for easy printing.

The eighth day of Christmas is New Year's Day of the secular year, and it's considered good luck in the United States to eat black-eyed peas (for luck), collard greens or cabbage (for money), cornbread (for health), and hog jowls (for plenty). In the American South and Midwest, the black-eyed peas are eaten in the form of "Hoppin' John":

In the Middle Ages, the days after Christmas were coupled with celebrations in honor of the various levels of the clergy. The second day of Christmas, the Feast of St. Stephen, was devoted to deacons; the third day of Christmas, the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, was devoted to priests; the fourth day of Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, was devoted to choristers and those who serve at Mass. The eighth day of Christmas, Feast of the Circumcision, became associated with the lower clergy -- but their feasting got way out of hand. This celebration, known as the "Feast of Fools," became known for extreme antics rooted in its appointing a "Lord of Misrule" and a reversing of the normal order of things with regard to clerical status. So outrageous it all became that it was banned under the severest penalties by the year 1435.

Finally, enjoy this piece by Bach, written especially for the Feast of the Circumcision: Herr Gott, dich loben wir (BWV16):

Note: For very important information about the Catholic view of circumcision, and to learn how the ritual Christ endured was a radically different sort of circumcision than the one that prevails today, see this page.

Reading
From Gueranger's "Liturgical Year"

Our new-born King and Saviour is eight days old to-day; the Star that guides the Magi is advancing towards Bethlehem, and five days hence will be standing over the Stable where our Jesus is being nursed by his Mother. To-day the Son of Man is to be circumcised; this first sacrifice of his innocent Flesh must honour the eighth day of his mortal life. To-day also a Name is to be given him: the Name will be Jesus, and it means Saviour. So that mysteries abound on this day: let us not pass one of them over, but honour them with all possible devotion and love.

But this day is not exclusively devoted to the Circumcision of Jesus. The mystery of this Circumcision forms part of that other great mystery, the Incarnation and Infancy of our Saviour - a mystery on which the Church fixes her heart not only during this Octave, but during the whole forty days of Christmastide. Then, as regards our Lord’s receiving the Name of Jesus, a special Feast, which we shall soon be keeping, is set apart in honour of it. There is another object that shares the love and devotion of the Faithful on this great Solemnity. This object is Mary, the Mother of God. The Church celebrates to-day the august prerogative of this divine Maternity which was conferred on a mere creature, and made her the co-operatrix with Jesus in the great work of man’s salvation.

The holy Church of Rome used formerly to say two Masses on the first of January; one was for the Octave of Christmas Day, the other was in honour of Mary. She now unites the two intentions in one Sacrifice, in the same manner as, in the rest of this Day’s Office, she unites together the acts of her adoration of the Son, and the expressions of her admiration for and confidence in the Mother.

The Greek Church does not wait for this eighth day, in order to pay her tribute of homage to her who has given us our Emmanuel. She consecrates to Mary the first day after Christmas, that is December 26, and calls it the Synaxis of the Mother of God, making the two days one continued Feast. She is thus obliged to defer the Feast of St Stephen to December 27.

But it is to-day that we, the children of the Roman Church, must pour forth all the love of our hearts for the Virgin-Mother, and rejoice with her in the exceeding happiness she feels at having given birth to her and our Lord. During Advent we contemplated her as pregnant with the world’s salvation; we proclaimed the glory of that Ark of the New Covenant, whose chaste womb was the earthly paradise chosen by the King of Ages for his dwelling-place. Now she has brought him forth, the Infant-God; she adores him, him who is her Son. She has the right to call him her Child; and he, God as he is, calls her in strictest truth his Mother.

Let us not be surprised, therefore, at the enthusiasm and profound respect wherewith the Church extols the Blessed Virgin and her prerogatives. Let us on the contrary be convinced that all the praise the Church can give her, and all the devotion she can ever bear towards her, are far below what is due to her as Mother of the Incarnate God. No mortal will ever be able to describe, or even comprehend, how great a glory accrues to her from this sublime dignity. For, as the glory of Mary comes from her being the Mother of God, one would have first to comprehend God himself in order to measure the greatness of her dignity. It is to God that Mary gave our human nature; it is God whom she had as her Child; it is God who gloried in rendering himself, inasmuch as he is Man, subject to her: hence, the true value of such a dignity, possessed by a mere creature, can only be appreciated in proportion to our knowledge of the sovereign perfections of the great God, who thus deigns to make himself dependent upon that favoured creature. Let us therefore bow down in deepest adoration before the Majesty of our God; let us therefore acknowledge that we cannot respect as it deserves the extraordinary dignity of her whom he chose for his Mother.

The same sublime Mystery overpowers the mind from another point of view: what were the feelings of such a Mother towards such a Son? The Child she holds in her arms and presses to her heart is the Fruit of her virginal womb, and she loves him as her own; she loves him because she is his Mother, and a Mother loves her Child as herself, nay, more than herself: but when she thinks upon the infinite majesty of him who has thus given himself to her to be the object of her love and her fond caresses, she trembles in her humility, and her soul has to turn, in order to bear up against the overwhelming truth, to the other thought of the nine months she held this Babe in her womb, and of the filial smile he gave her when her eyes first met his. These two deep-rooted feelings - of a creature that adores, and of a Mother that loves - are in Mary’s heart. To be Mother of God implies all this: and may we not well say that no pure creature could be exalted more than she? and that in order to comprehend her dignity, we should first have to comprehend God himself? and that only God’s infinite wisdom could plan such a work, and only his infinite power accomplish it?

A Mother of God! It is the mystery whose fulfilment the world, without knowing it, was awaiting for four thousand years. It is the work which, in God’s eyes, was incomparably greater than that of the creation of a million new worlds, for such a creation would cost him nothing; he has but to speak, and all whatsoever he wills is made. But that a creature should become Mother of God, he has had not only to suspend the laws of nature by making a Virgin Mother, but also to put himself in a state of dependence upon the happy creature he chose for his Mother. He had to give her rights over himself, and contract the obligation of certain duties towards her. He had to make her his Mother, and himself her Son.

It follows from all this, that the blessings of the Incarnation, for which we are indebted to the love where with the Divine Word loved us, may and ought to be referred, though in an inferior degree, to Mary herself. If she be the Mother of God, it is because she consented to it, for God vouchsafed not only to ask her consent, but moreover to make the coming of his Son into this world depend upon her giving it. As this his Son, the Eternal Word, spoke his FIAT over chaos, and the answer to his word was creation; so did Mary use the same word FIAT: let it be done unto me [St Luke i. 38], she said. God heard her word, and immediately the Son of God descended into her virginal womb. After God, then, it is to Mary, his ever Blessed Mother, that we are indebted for our Emmanuel.

The divine plan for the world’s salvation included the existence of a Mother of God: and as heresy sought to deny the mystery of the Incarnation, it equally sought to deny the glorious prerogative of Mary. Nestorius asserted that Jesus was only man; Mary consequently was not Mother of God, but merely Mother of a Man called Jesus. This impious doctrine roused the indignation of the Catholic world. The East and West united in proclaiming that Jesus was God and Man, in unity of Person; and that Mary, being his Mother, was, in strict truth, Mother of God’ [Deipara, Theotókos, are the respective Latin and Greek terms.] This victory over Nestorianism was won at the Council of Ephesus. It was hailed by the Christians of those times with an enthusiasm of faith which not only proved the tender love they had for the Mother of Jesus, but was sure to result in the setting up of some solemn trophy that would perpetuate the memory of the victory. It was then that the pious custom began, in both the Greek and Latin Churches, of uniting during Christmas the veneration due to the Mother with the supreme worship given to the Son. The day assigned for the united commemoration varied in the several countries, but the sentiment of religion which suggested the Feast was one and the same throughout the entire Church.

The holy Pope Xystus III ordered an immense mosaic to be worked into the chancel-arch of the Church of St Mary Major, in Rome, as a monument to the holy Mother of God. The mosaic still exists, bearing testimony as to what was the faith held in the fifth century. It represents the various scriptural types of our Lady, and the inscription of the holy Pontiff is still legible in its bold letters: XYSTUS EPISCOPUS PLEBI DEI (Xystus Bishop to the people of God): for the Saint had dedicated to the faithful this his offering to Mary, the Mother of God.

Special chants were also composed at Rome for the celebration of the great mystery of the Word made Man through Mary. Sublime Responsories and Antiphons, accompanied by appropriate music, were written to serve the Church and her children as the expression of their faith, and they are the ones we now use. The Greek Church makes use of some of these very Antiphons for the Christmas Solemnity; so that with regard to the mystery of the Incarnation there is not only unity of faith, there is also oneness of devotional sentiment.