It seems strange that the spotless Lamb of God should have been subjected to a rite which is usually supposed to have been the occasion on which Jewish boys were freed from original sin. Was it not derogatory to Jesus, and calculated to produce the false impression that He was not the Son of God, born of a Virgin Mother, but a sinful son of Adam, like those around? Sometimes it is not only lawful, but a duty, to do what is calculated to mislead others, when God enjoins it or some higher motive exists for it.

What was this higher motive in the case of the Circumcision of Jesus? It was that He might become like us in all things, sin only excepted; that He might be made sin for us, i.e., might bear all the consequences of sin, and the suffering that is the result of sin. O merciful Savior, may my heart be ever full of gratitude to Thee for this Thy Divine condescension!

Our Lord also was circumcised because He came to fufill all the Jewish Law, with all its rites and ceremonies. He exalted it by His obedience and exact accomplishment of all its details. So I ought to love and obey every enactment of the Church, every ceremony and every detail of her ritual and discipline.