St. Basil Day, Circumcision of Our Lord 2020 - Fr. Lawrence Margitich

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,

Luke 2 · chapter mention

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.