In the services for today’s feast, Christ’s Circumcision is seen, first and foremost, as a sign of his divine humility, prefiguring the humiliation of his Passion. Though he is “all-beneficent God,” “beginningless with his Father,” he is neither ashamed of Circumcision nor does he abhor it. We also sing of Christ’s swaddling bands, which are a sign beforehand of his plaschanitsa, his burial clothes. Finally, just as the Circumcision this took place on the eighth day after Christ’s birth, we know that the path of humility is the only way to the eighth and eternal day of the resurrection unto life. If the Son of God, who himself is God everlasting, agreed to accept circumcision and swaddling, death and the grave, then who are we to dispute over petty honors, minor slights, and other pointless considerations of the fallen ego?
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