Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ

[Saint Augustine, Bishop, Doctor and Father of the Church]

And so the Child is circumcised. Who is this Child but He of Whom it was said, “A Child is born to us, a Son is given us”? He became as one under the Law that He might gain those under the law. “… to present Him to the Lord.” I would speak on the significance of His being presented to the Lord in Jerusalem if I had not already discussed it in my commentary on Isaias. In the Lord’s eyes, one circumcised of vices is judged worthy; for “The Lord has eyes for the just.” You can see that the whole course of the Old Law was a type of what was to come. So with circumcision too: it signifies the purification from sin.

We know that man, weak in both body and soul, has a certain proclivity for sinning, and gets inextricably entangled in various vices. Our Lord’s circumcision on the eighth day, then, signified that the purging of all sin would take place at the time of His Resurrection. To continue, the meaning of the text “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord” is that by these words of the Law the Virgin’s childbearing was promised. For He who was sinless was certainly holy. Moreover, it was shown that this really was He Whom the Law foretold when the Angel repeated the equivalent of these words. ” The Holy One to be born,” he said, “shall be called the Son of God.”

For all those born of woman, only the Lord Jesus is perfectly holy. As a result of His unique and unblemished Birth, He did not feel the damaging effects of earth’s corruption; in fact, He destroyed those effects by His heavenly splendor. Indeed, if we would take the text in question literally, how could we call every male offspring holy when it is obvious that many have been most infamous? Achab could not be called holy, could he? Nor could those bogus prophets whom the avenging fire of an outraged heaven annihilated at Elias’ request. No; the Holy One is He to whom the sacred prescriptions of the Old Law were pointing when they outlined in figure the mystery that was to come. For He alone opened the secret, immaculate, fruitful womb of the Holy Virgin Church to bring forth the people of God.