Sermon 196A

SERMON 196/A

He who worships the humble Christ finds the exalted. Circumcision is justification.

[Dearest brethren,] the sublimity of our Lord Jesus Christ, being invisible, became visible humility. His sublimity does not have a day, his frailty accepted having a day. Where there is humility, there is frailty. But the frailty of God is strength to the humble. From his sublimity he made the world, from his humility he conquered the world. Unless Christ deigned to be humble, today no faithful one would be signed with Christ's sign. You have heard the Apostle say about him, because, being true God, he did not consider it robbery to be equal to God. How was it robbery to be what he was by nature? But what did he do? He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. And this is what we celebrate today. Many despised the humble Christ and did not reach the height of Christ. But those who worshipped the humble found the exalted. Therefore, on the eighth day according to that custom, the Lord was circumcised and a sacrifice was offered for him as Moses commanded. The Jews hear and say: Christ is ours. But if you recognized him, why did you kill him? Great is the dispensation, dearest! About to take away circumcision, he accepted circumcision. He accepted the shadow, about to give light. He accepted the figure, about to fulfill the truth. Indeed, that very circumcision which was instituted so that an infant might be circumcised on the eighth day signified Christ. But you say to me: How are we circumcised in heart by Christ's resurrection? So what was figurated in the body was to be done in the heart. For the apostle Paul says about the Lord Christ who was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. Circumcision is justification. What is circumcision? To put away the affection of the flesh, to be circumcised from the world, to serve God and to have truth in heart. For what is added to a man from whose flesh a small piece is removed? But it is a sign. It is a sign where truth is in Christ. How in Christ? I have already said. By his justification, we are justified. Therefore, by his justification we are circumcised in heart. Look to the eighth day, the Lord's day. Christ died on the sixth day of the week, was buried on the seventh, and rose again the next day. See therefore on what after the Sabbath he rose again, which is the first of the week. Therefore, if any Jew heard Christ was circumcised, let him come and be circumcised by Christ. But he says to me: I do not depart from my law. Would Christ himself not have accepted circumcision? Would he have condemned what he commanded to observe? Where would it be that he gave the law himself? Or do you think that Christ began to exist when he was born of Mary? Christ existed before his mother, because he created her for himself as mother. He was before Abraham. I tell you a little: He was before Adam. And this I tell you a little: He was before heaven and earth, because all things were made through him. Therefore do you think that someone other than the Only-Begotten of the Father, the Word of God, gave the law through Moses? What magnitude did the old Simeon see in the small one? What his mother carried, he saw. What he understood ruled the world.

Tell me what Elisha did when he resurrected the son of his hostess? In that figure, the law was given. What was done? It was announced to him: the child is dead. He gave his staff to his servant and said: Go and place it upon the dead one. The servant took his staff, placed it upon the dead one, and he did not rise. Elisha himself came, conformed himself to the dead one, and resurrected the dead one. Pay attention, brothers, pay attention. The staff through the servant, that is, the law through Moses. The staff was placed upon the dead one and he did not rise. The Jews could receive the law, but they could not live by it. Therefore, they must not despise the humility of Christ; they must not despise him set in weakness. Behold, he is believed and conceived, he is clothed in flesh, born of a woman, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger. Do not despise him for doing such things. He conforms himself to the dead one. Watch from where you laugh. If you are converted, you will live there. The humility of Christ conformed itself to us as if to dead ones for reviving. Through this, we have meanwhile risen through faith and someday truly through the flesh. But I, he says, hold what God handed over to Moses. Hear what God says through the Prophet. What does God speak to Jeremiah? Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will establish a new Covenant upon the house of Jacob. Leave the old, take the new, and you see that you must leave circumcision and carnal unleavened bread and the carnal Sabbath and carnal sacrifices. Listen to how the New Covenant is promised: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will establish a new Covenant with them, not according to the Covenant which I gave their fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, when the law was commanded, when the people were led through the desert. Not according to that Covenant I will give the new one. Do not, therefore, bear the old tunic. It crucified Christ. Your father crucified, you hated. He with his hand, you with your heart, both fulfilled the crime. Therefore, let your father displease you and listen to what your Lord has done.

For the solemnity of the day and brevity, a few words will suffice for you. These indeed are the lesser days in the year in which Christ was born, but in which the days begin to lengthen. Therefore, let Christ grow in your hearts. Advance and believe so that you may attain eternal life.