Sermon for the Octave of the Epiphany: On the Reasons Why Christ Willed to be Cir- Cumcised and on the Different Degrees of Justice

“Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan, unto John, to be baptised by him. But John stayed Him, saying : I ought to be baptised by Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus, answering, said to him: Suffer it to be so now. For so it becometh us to fulfil all justice,’ —Matt. iii. 13-15.

My brethren, for the stiff-necked people the knife was necessary, and stony-hard hearts needed to bepierced with blades of stone, such as those wherewith, as we read, “ Jesus the son of Nave ”? (Ecclus. xlvi. 1) of old circumcised the Hebrews. But our Jesus, like a meek lamb, has put aside all severity. A Lamb Thou art in truth, O Lord, coming to us with wool and milk. Take away from me, then, I beseech Thee, this cruel knife; for it seems a harsh and ruthless thing to use the sharpened stone on a new-born babe. So indeed has He done in His mercy. He has substituted for the hardness which suited hardened slaves, the mildness which is proper to children ; so that the rust of original sin which the knife of circumcision could only with difficulty scrape away, shall be easily washed out henceforth with water and the unction of grace. It is indeed nothing wonderful that the remedies for sin should change according to the change of dispensation, and that each era should be offered what suited it best. But Christ submitted Himself to the

CHRIST WILLED TO BE CIRCUMCISED 31 remedies of both dispensations * to the end that He might be as the corner-stone which is united to the two walls (Ephes. ii. 14), and that He might connect together, as if with a needle, the ends of the two shoelachets (Luke iii. 16). It was in the same way that, after completing the typical Pasch, He immediately instituted the true.

Another reason why He willed to be circumcised was this: in order to show that the Old Testament as well as the New came from Him as its Author. For He Who declared in His own proper Person, “‘ Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John iii. 5), said previously by His Prophet, “The male, whose flesh of his foreskin shall not be circumcised, that soul shall be destroyed out of his people ”? (Gen. xvii. 14). For had He submitted to baptism alone, He might have appeared to have refused circumcision, as in nowise appertaining to Him. But if, on the contrary, He had accepted circumcision without baptism, how could I be persuaded to prefer baptism to circumcision ? As a matter of fact, however, He sub-mitted both to baptism and to circumcision, but to baptism after circumcision, in order that I might be taught to choose what was last administered to Him.

There was yet another reason why the Lord should suffer Himself to be circumcised. How could He Who so dearly loves and so earnestly enjoins community of religious observance, “ Who maketh men of one manner to dwell in a house ” (Ps. lxvii. 7) : how, I ask, could He depart from uniformity and so scandalise others ?

For, unquestionably, the neglect of circumcision would have been a cause of scandal to all to whom the fact became known, in the same way as the Church would be scandalised now were a child of Christian parents to be left without baptism. But besides recommending unity and common observance, He wished also to give us an example of humility. Consequently He Who alone was without a wound disdained not the bandages worn by the wounded. Hence it is that the Apostle says of Him, “ God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law’”’ (Gal. iv. 4).

But lest someone should say that He was circumcised simply because His parents willed it, He being then only a little Child: therefore, when He had attained His thirtieth year, He came Himself to be baptised in the Jordan, and bowed beneath the hands of John that venerable Head Which the Powers behold with trembling awe, which the Principalities honour with humble adoration. Was it any wonder, my brethren, that the Baptist shook with fear? Oh, how high shall that Head be raised at the judgment Which you now see bent so low! And that Brow Which is here so meek and humble, oh, how glorious and exalted It shall then appear! “Suffer it to be so now,” said the Lord, “for so it becometh us to fulfil all justice.” Thus fulness characterises all that appertains to Him Who came in the fulness of time (Gal. iv. 4), and in Whom “ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead”’ (Col. ii. 9). And the law also He came, as He Himself declares, not “ to destroy but to fulfil” (Matt. v. 17). There are different degrees of justice, my brethren. The first is extremely rigorous and narrow, so that one step aside means a fall into

CHRIST WILLED TO BE CIRCUMCISED 33 the pit of sin: it neither allows us to prefer ourselves to our equals or to compare ourselves to our superiors, and is defined as the virtue which prompts us to render every one his due. The second degree of justice is wider and fuller, going beyond what is of strict obligation and not permitting us to compare ourselves to our equals or to prefer ourselves to our inferiors. For just as it is a proof of great and perilous pride to prefer oneself to one’s equals, or to compare oneself with one’s superiors, so is it a mark of profound humility to put oneself on a level with one’s inferiors and below one’s equals. But the fulness and perfection of justice consists in subjecting oneself even to one’s inferiors. As it is supreme and insufferable pride for a man to prefer himself to those above him, so, on the contrary, a man shows himself supremely and perfectly just by placing himself below his inferiors. Thus John gave us an instance of the first degree of justice when he said, “I ought to be baptised by Thee,” because he subjected himself to his Superior ; whereas Christ set us an example of the justice that is full and perfect by stooping beneath the hands of His own poor servant.

Every man should now make up his mind as to whom he shall take for his model, whether the humble Jesus or him “ who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped ”? (2 Thess. ii. 4). But as for ourselves, my brethren, let us, I beseech you, endeavour to imitate the Lord by fulfilling all justice. For that is the way which leads to joy. Joy is the reward, but justice it is that merits joy, yea, it is the very source of joy. I call it the source of joy, because

“when Christ shall appear, Who is our Life, and we 1 4 also shall appear with Him in glory ” (Col. iii. 4), then our joy shall spring from Justice Itself, since He is the Same “ Who of God is made unto us Justice,” as the Apostle speaks (x Cor. i. 30). But blessed are they who even now make justice the source of their joy, and are cheered by the testimony of their own conscience, “ sucking honey out of the rock and oil out of the hardest stone’’ (Deut. xxxii. 13). At present, indeed, justice appears to involve much pain and labour. The time will come, however, when it shall be desired and possessed, loved and acquired, with all sweetness and gladness, without any toil or trouble, when, namely, it shall be given us to enjoy Justice in its pnrity. But alas for those who wander out of the way, for those who, renouncing the joy of justice, pursue a joy that is transitory and vain! For since they place their joy in transitory things, that joy must pass away with the passing of the things which are its source. Just as the fire goes out when the fuel fails, so undoubtedly shall all earthly joys vanish when this “world passeth away and the concupiscence thereof ”’ (x John ii. 17).