Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

“For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  And ye are complete in Him, . . . .”

“And ye are complete in Him, . . . .”  Hear that, beloved.  “Ye are complete in Him.”  Holy Church gathers on this first day of the new year to remember that on the eighth day of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ’s Nativity according to the Flesh, He was circumcised in His flesh thereby becoming a son of Abraham and a partaker of God’s Covenant.  In other words, salvation is in the flesh, not apart from it, albeit this flesh must be tamed by the hand of God due to sin.  Our Lord, born of the Virgin and laid in a manger, was like us in every respect, except He alone is without sin (Hb. 2:14, 17; 4:15).  We, on the other hand, whom our Lord does not hesitate to call His brethren (Hb. 2:11-13), nevertheless must of necessity likewise undergo a circumcision, though ours must be a circumcision not made by hands.  His circumcision in the flesh prefigures our own circumcision of the heart and soul (Dt. 10:16), a cutting off of our sins in this body, a putting to death in us all that is hostile to God and contrary to His holiness (Rm. 8:13; Co. 3:5).  We have been baptized, says the Apostle, buried with Jesus, dead with Him – crucified – and we have been raised up with Him by the very hand of God’s power “through the faith wrought by the operation of God.”  “This,” beloved, “is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Ps. 117 [118]:23). 

Ours, then, if you will, is an eighth day circumcision – a circumcision of the eighth day of God’s New Creation in Jesus Christ.  In Him we are made new creatures – a new creation fashioned by the very hand of God (2 Cr. 5:17; Ga. 6:15).  In Christ God, all things are made new and are being renewed by the very Spirit of the living God – the Spirit of regeneration – Who has raised up our Lord from death – even us together with Him, so that, together with Him, we might be glorified (Rm. 8:1-17; Ts. 3:4-7)!      

This is the image St. Paul sets before us – paints for us – in his apostolic Epistle to the Colossians.  In Christ, by virtue of our Baptism into Him and in the eating and drinking of the divinized Bread and Wine of the Holy Eucharist, that is, His very Body and true Blood, we are whole and complete, lacking nothing for our salvation and sanctification, except to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling” (Pp. 2:12).  This truth of the Faith is what is the foundation of this new year in Jesus Christ.  It will set the tone for the next 52 weeks for Jesus Christ fills each and every one of these days!  “For in [Christ God] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”  And this is the Father’s good pleasure that “all fullness” should dwell in His Son, the Child of Bethlehem (Co. 1:19).  Everything we need is in Christ.  In Him, we are complete and whole.  From His fullness we are made full!  “And of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace” (Jn. 1:16).

But, lest we think otherwise, this is not some nebulous, disassociated spiritualized theology or philosophy so often found in non-Orthodox circles.  In keeping with the Incarnation of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, that is, “according to the flesh,” the locus of all this fullness of the Godhead bodily is in the visible Church: “the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church” (Nicene Creed).  When we are baptized into Christ we are united with Him in His Church – that touchable, physical, spiritual Body of believers gathered around the Bishop or the Bishop’s delegate.  “Wherever the Bishop appears [or his designee], there let the congregation be; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic Church” (St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans 8:1-2).  The Bishop and Jesus Christ are inseparable.  These are not my words, but those of the God-bearer and holy Hieromartyr, St. Ignatius of Antioch.  The Church is the very Body of Jesus Christ.  Real. Tangible.  Fleshly.  Spiritual.  Indeed, as St. Paul the Apostle dares to say, the Church as the Body of Jesus Christ Who is Her Head, is “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (Ep. 1:22-23; Co. 1:18)!  “The fullness of Jesus Christ.”  Why?  Because “in [Christ] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”  To be in Jesus Christ, therefore, is to be in the Church; to be in the Church is to be united to Christ. 

Make this new year a blessing, beloved.  Stay rooted in Jesus Christ and all His fullness by being rooted and built up in His Body, the Church, partaking of His divine nature through the Mysteries of His divine grace entrusted to the Church’s keeping until the Day of Jesus Christ.  For in Him and in His Church, we are complete, whole, and being perfected.   

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the Faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Co. 2:6-7).    

Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

          Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

VIGIL PROPERS:                               PROPERS:

Gn. 17:1-2, 4, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 14             Co. 2:8-12

Pr. 8:22-30                                                      Lk. 2:20-21, 40-52

Pr. 10:31-11:12