It was a father's duty to name their child. It was the father's way of claiming the child as his own. And Joseph must have been overjoyed to do so, yet apprehensive that he would be father to the Son of God. Wanting to scream it from the mountaintop, yet feeling incapable of merely whispering it. Not that this caused him anguish. That was reserved for the occasion of this awesome privilege, Jesus' circumcision.

All Jewish infant boys were to be circumcised on the eighth day. Circumcision was a requirement of God's covenant of the Old Testament. Those unfulfilling of this requirement of the Old Testament covenant were to "be cut off from [God's] people." [Genesis 17:14] How could God in the flesh be cut off from His own people? So, Jesus subjected Himself to the Old Covenant in order to transform our relationship with God in the New Covenant, where we are united together in the intimate familial relationship calling God Our Father.

And while circumcision was the Jewish law that Mary and Joseph followed, it would be heartbreaking for Mary and Joseph to know their Child, the Son of God, would be subject to such pains. In circumcision, the first part of the most intimate part of the flesh is sacrificed to God. However, as Mary and Joseph's hearts are sorrowed by Jesus' first bloodshed and the pains, their hearts are circumcised. "He chose you, their descendants, from all the peoples, as it is today. Circumcise therefore the foreskins of your hearts." - [Deuteronomy 10:15-16]

As we are told in Romans 2:28-29, "One is not a Jew outwardly. True circumcision is not outward, in the flesh. Rather, one is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not the letter." Mary and Joseph lived this circumcision of the heart in their lives, both in bearing the pains and sufferings, but especially in their love for God in all things. And while Joseph endured suffering while witnessing Jesus' circumcision, he was overjoyed to finally give Jesus His name and thus call Jesus, his Son.

Joseph, help us to live with a circumcised heart for God, the we might give to Him the first part of our most intimate inward being. Amen.