Friday of the Twelfth
Week in Ordinary Time
(Genesis 17:1.9-10.15-22; Matthew 8:1-4)
As a newly ordained priest, the biblical scholar Raymond E.
Brown told his pastor on January 1 that he intended to preach on the
circumcision. “Ah, you’re not going to do
that, are you?” the pastor replied as if even the circumcision of Jesus was a
sordid subject. “I most certainly am,”
Fr. Brown asserted. What he said that
day would no doubt be helpful in interpreting today’s first reading.
Circumcision is a custom older than Abraham. Pagan societies circumcised young men as a
sign of sexual potency and the coming of age.
But when Abraham and his descendants circumcise their infants, a very
different meaning is conveyed. The
principal characters are the father and mother of the circumcised, not the boy
himself. They demonstrate how carrying
out a rite mandated by God does not flaunt sexual prowess but restricts
it. The act indicates their intention of
raising the child in every way that the Lord commands. Indeed, circumcision implies that the parents
do not own their son but that he is a gift from God entrusted to their
care.
It may not seem fair that this sacred rite is reserved for
males. However, we need to take note
that the Bible is not concerned about equality in the same way as western
humanity. The sad fact is that men need
this reminder of duty and chastity much more than woman since nature allows
them to distance themselves from the actual birthing of children. Perhaps it is significant that Baptism, which
functions socially in ways similar to circumcision, is obligatory for female as
well as male Christians. We recognize
the tendency to sin in everyone and the way out of sin’s morass is not primarily
by reminding a person of his or her duty.
Rather it comes through the work of the Spirit given through the water
and the profession of faith.
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