Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo

We are the circumcision, 
we who worship through the Spirit of God…

Saint Paul, the self-described apostle of the gentiles, responds defensively to those “judaizers” who would require his Christians to be circumcised. Paul regarded the requirement as worse than burdensome and unnecessary; it would contradict and annul Jesus’ mission.

Many centuries earlier, the Prophet Jeremiah had expressed serious reservations about the rite of circumcision:

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or else my wrath will go forth like fire,
and burn with no one to quench it,
because of the evil of your doings. 

It was too easy to claim title to God’s favor based on one’s circumcision. With that attitude one could ignore the just demands of aliens, the orphaned, widowed and poor. Worse, the attitude ignores the just claims of God who should take possession of one’s heart. This attitude may be called Pharisaism but it is typical of every religion that claims a special relationship with God, and goes by many names.

Saint Paul invited people to covenant with God through Jesus Christ. Initiation into the life of faith would effect a circumcision of the heart. Leaving no physical scar, its only proof is a life of witness (i.e. martyrdom.) Faith must be practiced daily, hourly and with each breath.

There is a kind of defensiveness in his statement, “We are the circumcision.” It resembles that of a Catholic who is told he is not Christian. Some Christian denominations, struggling to identify themselves beneath the enormous shadow of the Catholic Church will insist theirs is the only true Christian faith. Sometimes, too, people who’ve not darkened the lintel of a church in forty years will claim to be Christian, though they pointedly shun the Body of Christ. Personally, I’m inclined to avoid the name of Christian, as the first Christians apparently did. It appears only three times in the Bible and never in a positive light. But we are, nonetheless, the Christians and should be willing to pay the price. As Saint Peter said:

Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.

But to return to Saint Paul’s point: to make too much of circumcision or of being Christian nullifies Jesus’ mission. We live by faith and by no other claim. Our faith trusts in the mercy of God who has given knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. If you would prove your heart is circumcised, confess your sins and show kindness to strangers who have no claim on you.

From the cross Jesus’ circumcision was evident; but cursed is anyone hanged on a tree. His circumcision meant nothing. It could not save him, Only his fidelity to God could save him; and that was invisible except to those like the centurion who saw with the eyes of faith. Standing before God on the Day of Judgment, the Christian can only hope that God sees what no one sees, a circumcised heart.