Our Spiritual Circumcision
A circumcision is a cutting of the flesh; circumcision according to the letter, as St Cyril describes it, is also a cutting, but of the heart. It is the removal of something, often painful, so that we can be fitting members of Christ by “the sharp surgery of faith and by ascetic labors.” The sharp knife of faith removes from our hearts its reliance on whatever we trust for our security other than the true God. In the Roman Empire Jews trusted in the Law of Moses and pagans trusted in the gods and goddesses of the state. In our day it may be our family, our job, our culture or our political and economic systems that we feel will take care of us. People continually find that any of these can fail them drastically if they put the confidence in them that is due to God alone. The surgery of ascetic labors is the way we deal with our pride, our greed, our lust and the like: often particularly painful as it is a surgery we face daily. St. Paul described this dynamic as “…the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh” (Col 2:11). Elsewhere he catalogued these sins as “…your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5). Lest we feel too confident in our “sinlessness,” he continues the list with “anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language” and lying (Col 3:8-9). Of these we continually need to be circumcised.What Is “The Flesh”?
When speaking of “the sins of the flesh” St Paul uses a Greek word, sarx. This is not the Greek word for body – soma – which shows that the Apostle is not equating the body with sin. As the fourth-century Egyptian ascetic Poemen said, “We were taught, not to kill the body, but to kill the passions.” Sarx has been described as “the complex of sin, death and futility into which humanity has imprisoned itself…” (John S. Custer, The Apostolic Writings, p. 78). The term “flesh,” then, includes anything including mental attitudes and even religious practices which are opposed to the kingdom of God. Circumcising the flesh, in fact, involves dealing more with our motivations, our imaginations and the whole range of our conscious and subconscious thoughts. It is a refocusing of all our attitudes as well as our actions on God and the godly way of life. Asceticism, then, are the means by which we restore the natural hierarchy of body and spirit. The body is meant to serve the spirit; not the other way around, as is the case in the fallen world. Human nature in its fallen, sinful condition finds the spirit enslaved to the flesh, and to the need to gratify the appetites of the flesh. Insofar as the spirit remains in this state of bondage, it is rendered incapable of communing with God. Spiritual circumcision, then, is an indispensable part of our progress toward union with God. It is an aspect of what we are urged to do continually in our liturgical services: “Let us commend ourselves, one another and our whole life to Christ God.”Hymns of the Feast
The most merciful God did not disdain circumcision in the flesh. He offered Himself instead as a symbol and example of salvation to all. He made the Law, and yet submitted Himself to its commands and to what the prophets had foretold of Him. O our God who hold all things in Your hands, and yet were wrapped in swaddling clothes: O Lord, glory to You! (Vespers sticheron)
O Merciful Lord who, being God, assumed our human nature without undergoing change, You fulfilled the Law by accepting to be circumcised in the flesh, so as to put an end to prefigurations and remove the veil of our passions. Glory to Your goodness, O Word! Glory to Your compassion! Glory to Your ineffable condescension! (Troparion)
The most merciful God did not disdain circumcision in the flesh. He offered Himself instead as a symbol and example of salvation to all. He made the Law, and yet submitted Himself to its commands and to what the prophets had foretold of Him. O our God who hold all things in Your hands, and yet were wrapped in swaddling clothes: O Lord, glory to You! (Vespers sticheron)
O Merciful Lord who, being God, assumed our human nature without undergoing change, You fulfilled the Law by accepting to be circumcised in the flesh, so as to put an end to prefigurations and remove the veil of our passions. Glory to Your goodness, O Word! Glory to Your compassion! Glory to Your ineffable condescension! (Troparion)