Saint Paul in the Epistle reading today writes about the rite of circumcision. The rite of circumcision, as we know, was central to the observance of the Old Covenant. It was to be a sign in the flesh, which claimed the People of Israel for their God. The sign of circumcision attached them to God and His Law. Any man who was circumcised was required to observe the entirety of the Law of Moses and, in return, he had an inheritance in Israel, God's special people and the land possessed by them.
To this "sign in the flesh" Paul sets up a contrast. Paul is arguing that there is a new circumcision, a fulfilled circumcision. By this circumcision a little bit of skin is not removed. No, the entire old man is removed and the human being becomes a new creation. He is a new creation because he shares in the identity of Christ the Lord. He is a child of God, because the Christ is the Divine Son of God. The death to which the Old Adam was condemned is stripped off, and the everlasting Life of the New Adam is put on.
As Saint Paul tells us, "Neither circumcision or uncircumcision are of any importance, but only "becoming a new creation." What Paul is talking about is the Mystery of Baptism. It is in the baptismal fount that the old man is stripped off and the new man is put on. After the sin of Adam and Eve, human beings were stripped naked of divine grace, but in baptism the "robe of glory" is restored to us. Paul is speaking about Baptism, but he speaks about Baptism in a very particular way. Baptism is the beginning of a life that is conformed to the sufferings of Christ. Paul says that through Christ the world has been crucified to him, and he has been crucified to the world. In simpler terms, the world has been killed in reference to him, and he has been killed in reference to the world. In Christ, he is no longer alive to the deceptions of Satan, and the temptations of the world no longer have any allurement to him.
Far from arguing that there is no longer any "sign in the flesh" that corresponds to the "sign in the flesh" required by the Old Covenant, Paul asserts that he "bears the marks of Jesus in his body." Paul's baptism into Christ was the beginning of his sanctification, but, after that, his sufferings, the many times he was flogged and stoned and shipwrecked became his participation in the sufferings of Christ. These sufferings were transformative experiences that continually made Paul grow in the likeness of Christ. Through his sufferings, Paul was becoming deified by God's grace. Bearing the marks of Jesus in his body meant that he was becoming impervious to harm, because his Master had endured suffering and death, and yet had risen from the dead to never die again. Saint Peter tells us, "[Christ] was put to death in so far as fleshly existence goes, but was given life in the realm of the Spirit." In Christ, Peter could easily have written the same thing about himself and his fellow-apostle Paul. Due to their baptism into Christ, their sufferings were transforming them "from glory to glory." In this spirit, the Early Christians who used the Divine Liturgy of Saint James of Jerusalem always sang the following stanza after the dismissal of the service: "From glory to glory we advance, praising the salvation of our souls: Father, Son and Spirit, now and evermore. Unto ages that never end, we praise the salvation of our souls."
In our baptism, we have received the fulfillment of the Old Testament rite of circumcision. The old man has been stripped off and the new man (Christ) has been put on us in that great Mystery. Later in our lives, after our baptisms, the Mystery of Baptism reveals itself as a "sign in the flesh," because the sufferings we endure become real participation in the saving sufferings of Christ. Little by little, through our participation in the cross of Christ, we are being crucified to the world and the world is being crucified to us.
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