On the first, we celebrate the Circumcision according to the flesh of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Verses
With Christ's circumcision, the law was cut off.
And with the law cut off, grace entered in.
The Circumcision according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He endured to receive for the love of mankind according to the decree of the ancient law,1 so that instead of the circumcision of the flesh by hand, He would institute for us the handless and spiritual circumcision, namely Holy Baptism. I call this the Lord's Circumcision, as we Christians have received it from the Holy Fathers, to celebrate it annually: so we celebrate it, considering it one of the Despotic feasts, by which we honor the Lord through it. Just as the Lord endured His Nativity in the flesh, and received all the features of human nature, all of which were irreproachable and blameless passions, so also the All-Good One was not ashamed to receive circumcision, for two reasons. First, He wanted to stop the mouths of heretics, who dared to say that the Lord did not truly receive flesh, but only so in appearance, such as the God-fighter Mani and his Manichean followers. For how was He circumcised if He did not truly receive flesh? And second, in order to bridle the Jews, who accused the Lord of not keeping the Sabbath. And how does He transgress the law, according to these false accusers of His, for He keeps the law with this His circumcision.2
