BEDE, in Hom. de Circum. Domini: Having told of the Lord's birth, the Evangelist continues, and says: And after eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised. AMBROSE, Bk. 2 in Luke, de Cir.: What Child, save He, of Whom Isaias has said, a Child is born to us, a Son is given to us (Is. ix. 6). He was made under the Law, that He might redeem those who were under the Law (Gal. iv. 4, 5).
EPIPHANIUS, Adv. Heresa. 30: For many reasons was Christ circumcised. In the first place to prove the reality of His flesh [...]. Then to make plain that His body was not consubstantial with the Deity, [...] and that he did not bring it down from heaven, [...]; and also that He might confirm circumcision, which of old He had instituted, and which served until He should come, and also that no pretext might be offered to the Jews: for if He were not circumcised, they could have objected that they could not receive an uncircumcised Christ. BEDE, as above: That He might commend to us by example the virtue of obedience, and also that those who were subject to the Law, yet were unable to sustain its burdens, might be helped by His suffering with them. Also, that He would come in the likeness of sinful flesh, might not despise the remedy whereby sinful flesh was wont to be cleansed. In the Old Law circumcision achieved the same relief of salutary healing against the wound of original sin (Cf. Rom. viii. 3), as Baptism now achieves in this time of revealed grace, except that they, in the former time, could not yet enter the gates of the heavenly kingdom, but after death, solaced in blessed repose in the bosom of Abraham, they awaited in serene hope their entry to eternal peace.
ATHANASIUS, in sermon Omnia mihi tradita sunt: Circumcision expressed nothing more than the despoiling of the old man, by this, that that part of the body was circumcised which serves as the instrument of corporal generation. This was then done in sign of the future baptism in Christ. And so when that which was prefigured had come, the figure became void; for where all that was the old man is taken away by baptism, that is now superfluous which prefigured it, through the cutting away of a part.
CYRIL, ex Hom. 17 in Catena G.F.: It was customary on the eighth day to celebrate the carnal circumcision. On the eighth day Christ rose from the dead, and wrought in us a spiritual circumcision, saying: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them... (Mt. xxviii. 19).
BEDE, as above: In His resurrection is prefigured our own twofold resurrection, of the body and of the spirit. For Christ circumcised teaches our nature, that now through the resurrection we are to be cleansed from the blemish of sin, and that on the last day we shall be delivered from the pestilence of death. And as the Lord rose from the dead on the eighth day, that is after the seventh, which is the sabbath, so also shall we, after the six ages of the world, and after the seventh of the sabbath of our souls, which is in the meanwhile passed in another life, shall rise again as it were on the eighth day.
Source: "The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers," Volume II; Sunday Outside the Octave of Christmas - Catena Aurea, pages 186 & 187; Henry Regnery Company (copyright 1958); Imprimatur: E. Morrogh Bernard, Vic. Gen. Westmonasterii; Nihil Obstat: Hubertus Richards, S.T.L., L.S.S., Censor Deputatus
Photo by Josh Applegate