Point I.—The Circumcision After one week of peace and joy, Mary is called upon to suffer with, and on account of, her Son. The Law of God is clear. "On the eighth day, the infant shall be circumcised." (Lev. xii. 3.) And there is no doubt in the minds of Mary and Joseph, that, though the Holy Child has no need of the rite which probably cleansed away original sin, He must nevertheless submit to it, as being part of His Father's law, every jot and tittle of which He has come to fulfil. So Jesus, of His own free will, classes Himself with sinners, and offers to God the firstfruits of that Blood which He will shed for them on Calvary. The Circumcision of her Son means much to Mary; she sees Him suffer; she hears His cry of pain; she sees the Blood flow; and she understands that to be the Mother of God means being the Mater Dolorosa; and now she has fresh matter for her Meditations. Her Son is to be the Victim for sin, and she unites her sacrifice to His. The rite of Circumcision was to the Jew a sign of the Covenant that God had made with his nation—it marked him out as one of God's own people; it was a mark of his dependence on God, and also of his slavery to sin till God set him free. "Circumcision is that of the heart," St Paul tells us, "in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Rom. ii. 29.) By assisting with Mary Point II.—His Name—JESUS His Name was chosen by His Heavenly Father, and revealed both to Mary and Joseph before His birth—to Mary by the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation, and to Joseph by the Angel who was sent to allay his suspicions about his wife. Jesus—the "name which is above every name"! God gave it Him because "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death—even the death of the cross." (Phil. ii. 8.) He earned His Name by the Cross, and it was given Him at the moment when He shed the first drops of His Precious Blood. He could have allowed this first shedding of His Blood to redeem the world, had He so willed. He could have made it the redeeming Blood, but it was not yet His Will; His time had not yet come; He wished to live and to suffer long years on earth before He shed the Blood which He intended to be efficacious for the Redemption of the world. "Thou shalt call His Name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." (St Matt. i. 21.) And when at length He did shed His redeeming Blood on Calvary, there was a title nailed to the Cross, proclaiming His Name to all: "This is Jesus," the Saviour. He is saving His people from their sins. It cost Him much to be the Saviour, and it cost Mary much to be the Mother of the Saviour; but both cheerfully
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