Feast of the Name and Circumcision of Jesus

Today within the Church Year is the celebration of the feast of the “Name and Circumcision of Jesus,” sometimes simply called the “Circumcision of Jesus.”

The Gospel reading for the feast is really short, one sentence in fact. It’s from Luke 2:21: “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” It’s the next thing that happens in Luke’s Gospel after the shepherds come to see Jesus and return to thei...