Sunday After the Nativity - Sunday of King David,Joseph and James
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
Sunday After the Nativity; Sunday of King David, Joseph, and David
December 29, 2024
Sat 12/28/24 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Jerry Tincha by Ann Hoszwa
Sun 12/29/24 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Gertrude Flick by Matt and Darlene Callihan
Wed 1/1/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy Circumcision +Michael Dancisin by son Michael Dancisin
Fri 1/3/25 7:00pm Moleben to Jesus
Sat 1/4/25 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Susan Herman by Bob and Betsy Sychak
Sun 1/5/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Deceased members of the Herbert & Pribus Families
Sun 1/5/25 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy Theophany
Variable Parts Tone 7 - Pages 156 - 158 Sunday After the Nativity - 302 - 305
Epistle Galatians 1:11-19
Gospel Matthew 2:13-23
Memorial Candle Request - +Joseph Baysura by Linda Mueller
Epistle Readers 28-Dec Annabelle Bistransin 29-Dec Eva Babick 4-Jan Mary Troyan 5-Jan Liz/John Pocchiari
Please Pray for: Liz Moyta, Fr. Michael Huszti, Fr. Laska, Susie Curcio, Robert Zera, Teresa Milkovich, Robert Saper, Anna Habil, Martha Sapar, Mike Dancisin, Karen Smaretsky Vavro, Diane Sotak, Anna Pocchiari, Larry Hamil, Beverly Jones, Marilyn Book, Maryann Russin Schyvers, Nick Russin, Ken Konchan
Attendance: 12/21 — 14, 12/22 — 80, 12/24 - 105, 12/25/24 - 38, 12/26/24 - 15 Collection: 12/21 & 12/22 — $1.494.00
Parish Theophany Supper: On Sunday, January 5th we will have a Vigil Liturgy for the Thcophany followed by supper. Please bring a meatless side or desert. The GCU will donate fish. There will be NO morning coffee social on this day.
Ladies Guild: The Ladies Guild will hold a meeting on Sunday, January 5th after the morning Liturgy.
The circumcision of Christ has an interesting origin and symbolism. It dates back to the time of Abraham, around 1900 BC. The book of Genesis records that when Abraham was 99 years old, God made a covenant with him, promising to multiply his offspring and to give them the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.
At the same time he changed his name from Abram to Abraham (cf. Genesis 17:1-8). God told him: "This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your descendants after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He that is eight days old among you shall be circumcised ... So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant" (Genesis 17:10-13).
Ever since, as a sign of the covenant, every male child was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, and this became the means of incorporation into the people of the covenant, just as Baptism is for Christians today. The Scriptures insist repeatedly that it is through circumcision that one is set apart as a true Israelite. In fact, there is a rather ominous reference in the fourth chapter of the Book of Exodus in which Moses suffers violent consequences for the failure to have his son circumcised and it is only his wife's quick action and poor son's blood that saves the prophet from the full force of God's wrath.
St Paul himself would boast of having been "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews" (Philippians 3:5). Circumcision distinguished the Jews from the Gentiles, who were peoples of the uncircumcision.
Our Lord's circumcision thus manifests that he is truly man, born of a woman into the Jewish nation, whom he had come to redeem. God had chosen his people of the Old Testament to prepare the way for the Incarnation of his Son, who would be their Messiah, their anointed one, who would free them from their sins and establish a new and definitive covenant with them.
I also think that commemorating the Circumcision of Christ is also the antidote to the lingering temptation to Docetism. God's humanity in Christ is not an abstraction or merely a symbol. It is real. The baby bleeds red, human blood. The man would bleed too. Not only that, but the bleeding baby is a real baby, not some kind of heavenly simulation. We might prefer to keep the Holy Child covered up, but he is a real boy who will grow into a real man. Some insist that it is a scandal that God does this to himself. Others insist that it is impossible. The Church insists, despite any objections, that this is in actual fact what God has done.
Christ's circumcision also has great symbolic value. It was in his circumcision that he first shed his blood, foreshadowing the piercing of his side by a soldier as he hung on the cross (cf. John 19:34). It prefigured the water of Baptism through which Christians enter the new Covenant. Pius Parsch notes that the Circumcision of the Lord is remembered by the Church as the first sacrifice of blood that flows in redemption. There is scandal in this statement as well. We live in a culture that feigns that it can have love without sacrifice, and narrows its vision of love to accommodate this prejudice. It is in the cramped confines of this narrow vision that the risk of true love is diminished, as well as its power to redeem. The Incarnation is essentially an act of love, and though we try to convince ourselves otherwise, there is no real love in this world without a sacrifice of some sort. The Circumcision of Christ is the foreshadowing of the greater sacrifice that will inevitably come. The greater the love, the greater the potential for suffering — and the love of God in Christ is the greatest love of all.
St Paul writes: "In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism" (Colossians 2:11-12). When Christ was circumcised, he was given the name Jesus, which the angel had announced both to Joseph (cf. Matthew 1:2) and to Mary (cf. Luke 1:31). The name Jesus means saviour and so the angel had told Joseph that the child was to be named Jesus "for he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). The feast of the Circumcision was celebrated on the eighth day after Christmas, and therefore on January 1, from the very early centuries.
The Gospel of Luke describes the shepherds' encounter with the Holy Family and how they saw the infant Jesus "lying in the manger." "This verb 'to lay' means to carefully place, and tells us that the language proper to Mary is maternal: She tenderly takes care — this is the language of Mary — to tenderly take care of the Child. This is Mary's greatness. St - Luke described a noisy scene: the angels celebrating Christ's birth and the shepherds running to meet Jesus loudly praising God. Instead, "Mary does not speak! On the contrary, she puts the Child in the center, she lovingly takes care of him. All mothers do the same. The Mother of God's language is "a language of a mother. Mary, reminds us that, if we truly want the New Year to be good, if we want to reconstruct hope, we need to abandon the language, those actions and those choices inspired by egoism, and learn the language of love, which is to take care."
