First reading: Genesis 17:9-14
Psalm: Ps. 19:8-11
Epistle: Galatians 5:3-6
Verse Philippians 3:3
Gospel: Luke 2:21

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Today we observe the Solemnity of the Circumcision. In accordance with Mosaic law, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day after His birth. As we read in Genesis: An infant of eight days old shall be circumcised among you.

Eight days is often called, within the context of the Church, an Octave.

The Church calls us to observe the eight days following Christmas as an “Octave” or eight consecutive holy days. These days allow us the time needed to contemplate the mystery of Jesus’ coming as man in a special way.

The eight days between the Solemnity of the Nativity and the Circumcision are as much a celebration of Christmas as Christmas day itself. In the Church’s wisdom, She knows that we cannot possibly celebrate the unfathomable mystery of Jesus’ birth in just one day. These eight days of contemplation help us to prepare and conform ourselves to a life where we continually observe the Christmas feast. We train to make it a constant in our lives.

Each of our Octave days are to be filled with praise, reflection, and profound contemplation of the richness we have as Christians – a richness that starts in Jesus’ birth. By observing these eight days, this Octave, we can re-order and better practice our observance of Christmas as a continuum. It helps us to move further away from the worldly practice of celebrating Christmas in one chaotic morning, throwing it all out the day after. We move away from observing and being slaves to a commercial calendar to the calendar that reveals God’s love.

The practice of observing a celebration for eight days is as ancient as the Old Testament. The Hebrew people observed many of their feasts for a period of eight days. The “Feast of Tabernacles” and the “Dedication of the Temple” are two of the more notable. Later, in the Christian era, the Church continued the tradition by celebrating very special feasts for the same length of days. Today we celebrate several feasts with Octaves: Christmas, the Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, and Corpus Christi.  The Church offers these eight days periods in order to allow us ample time to contemplate the richness of these mysteries. 

These observances take us away from being overly simplistic in celebrating the greatest and most profound Holy Days – days that mark God’s most powerful interventions in human history. It helps us to see, in a deeper way, how powerful God’s saving work is. It helps us to more fully integrate these great and powerful truths into our own lives.

The powerful truth we celebrate in a particular way today, on this eighth day of Christmas, is the Lord’s circumcision. On this occasion we are given a profound lesson concerning Jesus’ humanity. On this day our Savior first shed His precious blood. The Cross, and suffering that was to come, overshadowed the Lord Jesus even while He lay in a crib by swaddling cloths. The knife which cut the Lord’s flesh on that day foreshadows the centurion’s spear which would pierce His side, releasing the saving flood of blood and water. In that blood and water we have been made new – we have been regenerated into His image.

The Spirit-blade of baptism’s waters and our communion in the blood of Christ marks the soul and body of each and every Christian with the “Seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit.” We become children of the new Covenant, and rather than circumcise our flesh, we circumcise our hearts.

Consider that Jesus first came in a world that did not have television, computers, sports, cell phones, fast food, automobiles, careers and newspapers. Yet our ancestors too were distracted by daily life. They needed time to take stock of God’s great work, to circumcise their hearts anew. How much more do we need the time to enter more deeply into God’s mysteries, to circumcise our hearts in these hectic days. How much more do we need to be reminded to take time off from work, visit family, feast, attend Holy Mass more regularly, praise God, care for the poor, do charitable works, and most of all be humbled by all God has done for us.