New Circumcision

Sunday | Easter | 6th | C
 
Vancouver, May 26, 2019
 
Have you noticed people like rituals? If we don’t have rituals, we will create them. Rituals are like traditions. Think of the rituals or traditions you have. Maybe on special occasions you are all united for a big family dinner. Summer picnics or BBQs on someone’s birthday or saint’s day.
 
Or traditions you don’t even think of as traditions such as going to the same restaurant with a friend or family member just before Advent or Lent. To be a tradition the event needs to be repeated otherwise it’s not a tradition. And the tradition is something special. It’s an expression of the meaningfulness of the occasion and/or person. Now, think of breaking a tradition. You are no longer getting together for the big family dinner that only occurs once a year or you are no going on that same summer BBQ with your family. There is the question: Why not? What happened? Why did this change?
 
The more a tradition is ingrained in the individuals, people, a community or culture the more difficult it is to let go. When traditions are religious observances this means they are asked of us by God  – or what we might call a pious tradition, that gives a different angle to the tradition. The tradition must be kept because it’s of a religious nature.
 
What about letting go of religious traditions or observances? Has God changed His mind. What was required no longer is required. How can this be?

---

In fact, when it comes to the sacred, people are generally very touchy about changes. And the reason is the faithful willingly accept rituals performed for God – since this is part of worship.
 
The religious act performed by an individual points to God. It is quite inconceivable that something that has been practised for centuries could be abandoned when this practise is mandated by God. This kind of change in religious practise is always controversial.
 
Change in the religious sphere is questioned: God does not change His mind and our actions of a religious nature are directed towards God and we believe their source is in God. And we want to honour God. We have here in the Acts of the Apostles the controversy of circumcision in the Apostolic era of Christianity. The Jewish practise of circumcision goes back to Abraham, so almost two thousand years before Christ. God commands in Abraham in Genesis, 17:9 that Abraham and all his male descendants and all subsequent generations must be circumcised. This is a sign, God says, of Abraham’s covenant with God, and Abraham’s descendants with God.
 
The Jews who have accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, have to address the issue as to whether the Gentiles who are not circumcised have to be circumcised to show this covenant relationship with God. It’s not that simple. Do we bring to an end 2000 years of religious observance of the Old Covenant? And what are the signs the New Covenant with God? What do we hear that is being taught, in the Acts of the Apostles? “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
 
The fact that Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to discuss the matter with the Apostles tells us that it was a difficult matter to resolve. What is the decision of this meeting in Jerusalem? For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials.
 
First, take note, it comes from the Holy Spirit, and they are addressing Christian believers of Gentile origin who are not circumcised. Second, they do not want to impose on them any further burdens meaning that, they are not to perform rituals such as circumcision that are not necessary. And third, the Gentiles are also to refrain from the unacceptable.
 
The Jewish observance of circumcision is no longer mentioned as a necessity. And the Gentile practises that must be discontinued, include abstaining from foods sacrificed to idols which was part of idolatry as well as the blood from strangled animals since the blood needs to be properly drained as in the Jewish custom; this discipline served to keep unity between Jewish and Gentile converts over how meat was to be prepared.Besides not requiring circumcision, putting an end to idolatrous practises, there is still another essential, abstaining from fornication. The Gentiles, that is the pagans, had a reputation for fornication which meant adultery, incest and homosexual activity which were unacceptable in Judaism and Christianity.
 
So, we are left with in this development of the early Church the radical departure from the practise of circumcision required by the Abrahamic covenant, indicating that Christianity is truly a new religion. Christianity grew out of Judaism but it is not Judaism. And at the same time, the Gentiles also needed to make changes in their own practises of abandoning idolatry and their pagan sexual practises. In St. John’s Gospel Jesus tells that that if we truly love him we will keep his commandments and his father will love so that we can come to the Father and make our home with the Father.
 
But this happens as long as we are faithful in keeping the word of our Lord. We also hear that the Father will send the Advocate, that is, the Holy Spirit, when the Incarnate Jesus is no longer present, after he is ascended, so that we can keep the words of Jesus and remind us of all that Jesus taught. Until now, the focus has been Jesus Christ talking to us, teaching us, and Jesus opens the way to the Advocate whom the Father will send after the Ascension of Our Lord.
 
We are now in the sixth week of Easter. Which means we are approaching Pentecost. In two Weeks, the 8th week of Easter, is Pentecost Sunday.  So, our readings are also preparing us for this supernatural event where the Holy Spirit descends upon the Church, the Church becomes a distinct Christian community. St. John’s Gospel is already a preparation for the work of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel highlights the intimate bond between the Father and the Son, 1st and 2nd person of the Trinity, and now we are being prepared for God sending us the 3rd person of the Trinity, the Advocate. The peace Jesus offers us is fundamental to his message of love and joy, but also central to his message of self-offering and sacrifice. He offers not a worldly peace, but a peace built on His teachings, the Son of God. A peace that transcends human worldly objectives but a supernatural peace that has Christ at the centre, and Eternal Salvation as the End.
 
May the Mother of God keep us united to our Saviour.