One week after Christmas, on January 1, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, but it wasn’t always called that. It used to be the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus, although the Blessed Mother was often also celebrated on this day. Eight days after they were born, Jewish boys would be circumcised in accordance with the covenant with Abraham. They had to be circumcised in order to take part in the promises that God made to Abraham. In His circumcision Jesus begins to fulfill those promises that God had made with Abraham over 1,500 years earlier. As an aside, some people question why Catholics, and many other Christians, baptize infants, since they can’t profess the faith for themselves. Well, we got it from Judaism. Where do we find a community where newly born children must go through a ritual shortly after they’re born to be admitted to the convenanted people and the promises of God? We find it in Judaism, with circumcision, and Christianity, with baptism. God made three covenants with Abraham, and gave Him three promises. A covenant is an agreement that is made, not between equals, but between a greater and a lesser party. It is sealed with a sacrifice and includes something that the lesser party, Abraham and his descendants, agree to do, and something that the greater party, God, agrees to do. The covenant binds them together as one family. This is why the Bible is divided between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Testamentum is the Latin translation of Covenant. In the three covenants, God promises Abraham to give him the land on which he is living, i.e. the Promised Land, to give him descendants “as numerous as the stars in the sky,” and to make his descendant a blessing to the Nations. The first promise is partially fulfilled when the Israelites enter the Promised Land after being set free from slavery in Egypt, but they never inhabit the entire land that God had promised. The second promise is fulfilled through Abraham’s sons Isaac and Ishmael and through the three religions that still today claim spiritual descent from Abraham, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, together numbering over 4 billion people. The final promise is fulfilled by Jesus Christ, who united the gentiles and Jews together in the Gospel through the shedding of His blood on the Cross. In his circumcision, Jesus shows that He made Himself subject to the Law of God, even though He is God. This brings to mind what St. Paul said of Christ, “For this understanding in you was also in Christ Jesus: who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be seized. Instead, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and accepting the state of a man. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, even the death of the Cross” (Phil 2:5-8). The Feast of the Circumcision highlights the fact that Jesus humbled Himself for our sake. On the Cross Jesus fulfilled the promises of the old covenants and He sealed the New Covenant. Through the Cross Jesus makes us His brothers and sisters, adoptive children of God, offers us new life, and sends the Holy Spirit upon us. For our part, we must strive to live as children of God by doing just as He did.