Dear Friends,

Still within the Christmas Season (the Twelve Days of Christmas), the Sunday ahead of us  - in the secular calendar New Year’s Day the 1st January 2023 - is traditionally known as the Feast of the Circumcision, commemorating the circumcising of our Lord, and also the official bestowal upon Him of the name Jesus, the name which, St. Luke’s Gospel reminds us, He was called by the Angel who appeared to Mary before He was conceived in Her womb.

As we will have seen, the Twelve Days, along with the great merriment accompanying the human Birth of the Eternal Son of God, depicts the great seriousness of the human presence of that Son. Connected with it is the commemoration (on the 2nd and 4th Days respectively of Christmas) of the martyrdom of the Saint and Deacon Stephen and the slaughter, probably about two years or so after the Birth, by Herod the Great of the innocent baby boys of Bethlehem. In between those two commemorations in our Kalendar is the Commemoration of the Beloved Apostle and Evangelist St. John, who drew out so well the great contrasts of the Light of Christ (the Word) and the darkness of sin that surrounds and attempts to extinguish that Light. 

The Circumcision of Christ was also an event of great seriousness, establishing for all that the Eternal Son of God was born as a male into the Jewish nation, laws and culture. Those of us of all nations, Jew and Gentile, may also note that it involved the shedding of the first drop of that Blood which was later shed for the sins of the whole world.

The Collect for the Circumcision of Christ is

Almighty God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man; Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts, and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Collect points out that God’s blessed Son was “circumcised, and obedient to the law for man”. His parents Mary and Joseph, and others, saw that the ancestral law was kept. The marks of circumcision formalised His participation in the law of the Jews. His participation was necessary for the salvation of both Jews and non-Jews: Our Lord pointed out later to a Samaritan that salvation “came from the Jews”. Indeed so: it came from Jesus, born into the Jewish Family and from the very beginning fulfilling the God-given law of the Jews, interpreting it truly even where their own teachers got things wrong.

The Collect’s petition can be said to be the Christian’s new year’s day prayer, in place of all the particularised resolutions: "Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit”. May the Holy Spirit grant us the graces that as Christians we should always be searching for, a turning away from all desires contrary to the will of God for us and an obedience in the whole course of our life to God’s “blessed will” - “through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The Season of Epiphany begins on Friday the 6th January, 2023.

We shall look forward to Mr. Peter’s address on this 1st Sunday and 1st day of January 2023. 

For directions about the services this Sunday the 1st January 2023, the Circumcision of Christ, please see the website www.TruthWithLanguage.com .

In faith in the holy Name of our Lord Jesus, who will continue to provide guidance in all matters and joy, by the Holy Spirit, to all His people.

+ Nicholas