Second Sermon for the Feast of Circumcision: On the Manner in Which the Name of Jesus Has Been Poured Out in the Saviour’s Other Titles

« And after eight days were accomplished that the Child should be circumcised, His name was called Jesus, which was called by the Angel before He was conceived in the womb.” — Luke ii. 21.

“ And His name shall becalled Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of peace. His Empire shall be multiplied and there shall be no end of peace.’’—Is. ix. 6-7.

From the beginning, my brethren, God has shown His predilection for order, and nothing out of order has ever been acceptable to Him Whose very Essence is order. Hence it is that not only has He, as Creator, “ ordered all things in measure and number and weight,” but He also prescribed an order to be observed by man, and gave him a precept, saying to Adam, “‘ Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat ; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat.” A most easy commandment surely, and a most ample liberty. Nevertheless, man refused to observe the order thus established, but transgressed the limits appointed him. Therefore God turned away His Face from him; and only in the days of His friend Abraham did He begin to grow propitious again. At that time He instituted another order, and promulgated another law, but a law and an order altogether unlike the preceding. For whereas the first law was preventive, the second was remedial; by the first man was forbidden to admit anything superfluous, the second commanded him to cut off and remove from him the superfluities already admitted ; the first concerned the tree of knowledge and forbade its fruit to be eaten, the second related to the human body, the flesh whereof it ordered to be circumcised.

And although this circumcision was confined to one part of the flesh, it cannot be doubted that the Leviathan of concupiscence had spread its poison throughout the whole body, and had infected the entire man with an inordinate and insatiable passion for pleasure. Nevertheless, because our human fragility, and in particular the tender delicacy of a new-born babe, could not endure a universal circumcision, the Lord in His loving-kindness was content with a partial. The eighth day after birth was appointed for the ceremony. This fact of itself held out a hope of the heavenly kingdom, inasmuch as the returning circle of the week seemed to represent a crown. It is for this reason that we celebrate with special solemnity the octave day after each of the principal festivals. And in the Lord’s sermon on the mount, the eighth beatitude, as you may have noticed, is united to the first, so that we have the same obvious suggestion of a crown in the repeated promise of the kingdom of heaven.

Very properly, therefore, did the Child Who was born for us receive the name of Jesus, that is, Saviour, at the time of His circumcision ; because it was then He began the work of our salvation, by pouring out the first instalment of His immaculate Blood. Christians surely have no need to be told the reason why our Lord Jesus Christ willed to be circumcised. He was circumcised for the same reason for which He was born and for which He died. None of these things was for His own sake, but “all for the sake of the elect.” He was not conceived in sin, He was not circumcised because of sin, neither did He suffer death for sins of His own, because He had none, but for our sins. “‘ His name was called Jesus, which was called by the Angel before He was conceived in the womb.” It was called, but not given. For Jesus has been His name from everlasting. To be a Saviour is a property of His Nature : He owes this title to His own Divine Essence, not to any creature, angelic or human.

But, my brethren, how shall we explain the fact that the illustrious Prophet who predicted the various names that would belong to this Child, appears to have passed over just that one by which alone He was called, as the Angel foretold and as the Evangelist bears witness? Isaias rejoiced “ that he might see this day ; he saw it and was glad.” He saw it, I say, because full of gratitude and praising God, he cried out, “A Child is born to us, and a Son is given to us, and the government is upon His shoulder. And His name shall becalled Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of peace.” Great names, no doubt, are all these. But where is that name which is above every name, at which “ every knee shall bow’’? Where is the name of Jesus? Perhaps we shall find it distributed in a manner, and poured out in these others. For it is of this name— Jesus—that the Spouse says in the Canticle of love, “Thy name is as oil poured out.’’*

Yes, my brethren, so it is. We have the name Jesus contained in a state of solution, so to speak, amongst all the other titles mentioned by the Prophet.* And if He lacked any one of these He could neither be, nor becalled, a Saviour, that is, Jesus. But have we not each of us found Him truly admirable in the transformation He has accomplished in our wills ? For that was the beginning of our salvation, when we began to hate what we used to love, to lament what we used to delight in, to embrace what we used to fear, to pursue what we used to fly from, and to desire what we used to loathe. Admirable surely He must be Who has wrought such wonders in us. But it is necessary that He should likewise show Himself our Counsellor, so as to direct us in the practice of penance and in the ordering of our lives, lest otherwise our zeal should be without knowledge, and our good will without discretion. He must, in the next place, manifest Himself as our God, by pardoning the sins of the past, because otherwise He cannot be our Saviour; and no one can forgive sin save God alone. Yet not even this will suffice for our salvation, unless He also proves Himself mighty in “ overthrowing them that fight against us.” For if the same evil passions prevail over us again, our “last state” shall undoubtedly “be worse that our first.” Does He now need anything more in order that He may be our Saviour? Yes, my brethren. That is still wanting to Him which is the most important of all, namely, to be the ‘ Father translation of the beautiful and famous Hymn to the Holy Name at the end of this volume.—(Translator.)

2E of the world to come,” so that He may beget unto life everlasting those who have been begotten unto death by their fathers in this world. But to merit the name of Jesus, there is one thing more necessary : as ‘‘ Prince of Peace” He must reconcile us to the Father to Whom He is at last to deliver up the kingdom, as the Apostle declares. Then in truth “ His empire shall be multiplied,’’ so that the very multitude of the redeemed shall entitle Him to the name of Saviour ; “and there shall be no end of peace,” so that the permanence of their peace shall be to the saved an evidence of the truth of their salvation.