Feast of the Circumcision: "the Word ... further abbreviated"

In flesh the Word was abbreviated, and he was further abbreviated when that flesh received circumcision.  Made a little lower than the angels, the Son of God put on human nature; yet now, lest he reject the medicine for human corruption, clearly he becomes much lower than they ...

The child who is circumcised is the Lamb without blemish; even though he did not require it, nevertheless chose to be circumcised.  Without any trace whatever of the wound, he did not flee the bandaging of the wound ...

What a great and wonderful mystery!  The boy is circumcised, and he is called Jesus.  What does this connection mean?  Circumcision seems to pertain more to the one being saved than to the Saviour, and for the Saviour to circumcise is more appropriate than for him to be circumcised.  But recogize the mediator between God and humankind who from the very beginning of his birth joins what is human to what is divine, the lowest to the highest ... He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, but those very clothes are honored by angelic praises.  He is hidden away in a manger, but a start shining from heaven proclaims him.  Similarly, his circumcision proves the reality of the human nature he has taken on, and the name which is above all names declares the glory of his majesty.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux - from a sermon on the Feast of the Circumcision, "On the medicine of circumcision and its value".