by Br. Alexis Bugnolo
Many Catholics forget what today is all about. We do not celebrate a New Year, on January 1st. Rather, Today, in this year of Our Lord, 2020, we celebrate the 2020th anniversary of the Circumcision of the Lord, the naming of the Child Jesus, the ritual event according to the Mosaic Law which made the Child of Bethlehem a member of God’s Chosen people according to the Torah. For today is the 8th day after the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and according to the Mosaic Law, the first born male child was to be circumcised and consecrated to the Lord on the 8th day after his birth (Exodus 13:2).
This Feast of today was named properly in the traditional Roman Calendar, as the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord. The revolutionaries after Vatican II, without any authorization of the Council, changed it to the Solemnity of the Mother of God, a thing that served to deny the truths which Catholics celebrated on this day for nearly 2000 years.
But the eternal truth is, that Today in the year 1 B.C.,* the Eternal God of Israel, now incarnate, was circumcised and given the Name revealed by the Archangel Gabriel, to Our Lady (Luke 1:31) and to Saint Joseph (Matthew 1:21): Yeshua, or “Jesus”, in English: a Name which in Hebrew means, “Yahweh saves!”.
This simple act has a profound signification both then and now.
Then, because by it there was fulfilled all the prophecies of the Old Testament, that God Himself would come to save His people (Isaiah 43:11), and that lo, the Angel of the Covenant, the Messiah, would come suddenly into His Temple (Malachi 3:1). This Feast also testifies to the the Virgin Birth of Our Lord from our Lady and thus also to the Virginity of Our Lady, since that Woman so young, so soon after birth, was able to accompany Joseph to the Temple for the ritual (Isaiah 7:14, quoted in Matthew 1:23). And finally, this event foreshadowed in the figure of circumcision, in which blood was shed, that the Messiah would save His people through a blood sacrifice, as foretold by the Prophet Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 42:1–4; Isaiah 49:1–6; Isaiah 50:4–7; and Isaiah 52:13–53:12).
And now, because this Feast shouts out that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah promised Israel and was and is a true Son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And in this way this Feast contradicts all the lies of the Talmud which say He was not a Jew, but the bastard of a Roman Legionnaire and Mary of Nazareth.
Thus this is a feast for true Evangelization. It goes directly against all the false talk about religious dialogue and ecumenism, terms which now mean something very different from what they meant before the Council.
But the truth I want to emphasize today, is that this wonderful Feast testifies to another amazing historical fact, namely, that God, Who is the Omnipotent Lawgiver of all creation, humbled Himself, not only to become a little babe, but a little babe who observed the Law, and the laws of His age.
In this way, this Feast speaks to our age in a most eloquent way, because the culture being promoted by the enemies of humanity today is the culture of law-breaking. And a lot of Christians are eating it up.
Fake Christians
From the very beginning there have been fake Christians. The ones who were converts from Judaism wanted to keep the Mosaic Law and add Jesus’ teachings on as an appendix. And since the time Saint Paul preached the Gospel of Salvation to the people of Corinth, the Church has been plagued by another kind of fake Christian: the anomian.
These Pharasees and Anomians are two kinds of spiritual extremism and idolatry.
The former wants to put the Law which Moses wrote on the Altar and put God Incarnate on the side of the Sanctuary.
The latter wants God Incarnate merely as a license to do whatever they want. (Anomian comes from the Greek word, ἀνομίαν, meaning “lawless” or “without a law”.)
Both do not worship God, both worship their spiritual preferences. Both are thus involved in idolatry.
Anomians
Anomianism which was first mentioned as an error among the Greek converts at Corinth, by Saint Paul, consists in holding that the salvation offered in Christ frees us from the need to follow the Mosaic Law and all other laws. Anomians, thus, might be called the first libertarians. They want to be free from any constraint and want to be able to do all the evil they want.
Recognizing how evil this error is, is important today. It is an error which the example of the Child Jesus speaks directly against. Because God has the right to do whatever He wants. He is bound by no law. Yet, God when He became a man, did not do whatever He wanted. He did only what God His Father had commanded and that included observing the Mosaic Law.
From the example of the Child Jesus, we can be sure Jesus wants us to observe the laws of His Church. Because, His Church is His immaculate Bride. Thus if He was willing to observe the lesser laws of Moses and the Roman Empire, how much more would He want us, whom He called to imitate Himself, to follow Church law.
All “Benedict is certainly not the pope” Folk are anomians
This is so, so evident. Because Canon Law says to resign the papacy, you need to resign the petrine munus (cf. Canon 332 §2). And Pope Benedict XVI never did any such thing. He never even said he intended to do such a thing. And his personal secretary in 2016 made it clear that he never did or intended to do such a thing. But the BICNOTpope people do not care in the least what the laws of the Church require or say or mean. It is enough for them that journalists and Cardinals and Bishops, whom the Church teaches are NOT infallible in anything, let alone in knowing historical facts or in interpreting the laws of the Church, say something which is contrary to the Laws of the Church. They are true revolutionaries and Modernists. Truth is relative, it depends on opinion, not the law or Divine Revelation.
And yes, I mean all the BICNOTpope folk, whether they also say, “Pope Francis is leading a needed fundamental change” or whether they say, “Recognize him as Pope, but resist him as a revolutionary”.
That they deny Pope Benedict, the Vicar of Christ, does not mean that all of them are liberals, apostates or heretics. No, some want a Latin Liturgy, orthodoxy in faith and morals. They just think that it is childish to insist on keeping Canon Law; they think a mature Catholic should be above such pettiness. They may present themselves as Traditionalists, but no Catholic before Vatican II would have even recognized them as faithful Catholics.
Before the Council, until Pope Pius XII changed the laws, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass could not be offered after noon, local time! Saints with great love for the Eucharist, and who were priests, had to forego offering the sacrifice of the Mass, when traveling at sea, when their ship did not stop at a port before noon of each day (Mass was not said on board ships on account of the rocking of the seas).
This shows us that pre-Vatican II Catholics were lovers of the laws of the Church. And they showed it even to the point of omitting the celebration of the Mass for the day, to keep the laws of the Church!
THEY UNDERSTOOD RIGHTLY THAT our OBEDIENCE TO THE LAWS OF THE CHURCH IS MORE IMPORTANT to God THAN our CELEBRATING THE DIVINE SACRIFICE!
In this way they fulfilled what is said in Scripture, that God prefers obedience to ritual sacrifice (Hebrews 10:7 ff.), a scriptural doctrine which Saint Paul recalls to explain the very Incarnation of Our Lord.
The Feast of Circumcision of our Lord
… therefore is a feast which is eminently in need of celebrating. It is a feast for true Catholics and for all the enemies of Bergoglio. It is also a feast for all Catholics in communion with the true Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, because they rightly recognize that we must follow the laws of the Church, even if all others do not, and even if the Pope, as a man, might be confused about them.
May the Holy Name of Jesus be your blessing, your ensign and your glory!
And May the Child of Bethlehem, today, bless us all with the Salvation promised in His Most Holy Name!
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* For an explanation of why I say, 1 B.C., see the Article on the date of the Birth of Christ.