It is Matthew and Luke who tell the story of how the angel instructed that Mary’s baby was to be named Jesus – a common name meaning ‘saviour’. The Church recalls the naming of Jesus on 1 January – eight days after 25 December (by the Jewish way of reckoning days). For in Jewish tradition, the male babies were circumcised and named on their eighth day of life.
Rowan Williams says “When we read of the first institution of circumcision we find there the phrase “this shall be a covenant in your flesh”….so the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ is very important as a Feast of the Covenant; the covenant in our flesh in a very strong sense indeed…..Covenant is the promise of God’s faithfulness, and covenant is our response to that faithfulness.”
The Book of Common Prayer celebrated this day as The Circumcision, Common Worship amended it to the Naming and Circumcision, the Roman Catholic Church made it a Solemnity of Mary and, since 1974, has made it a World Peace Day.
For early Christians, the name of Jesus held a special significance. In Jewish tradition, names expressed aspects of personality. Jesus’ name permeated his ministry, and it does so today: we are baptised in the name of Jesus (Acts 2:38), we are justified through the name of Jesus (1 Cor 6:11); and God the Father has given Jesus a name above all others (Phil 2:9). All Christian prayer is through ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’, and it is ‘at the name of Jesus’ that one day every knee shall bow.
January begins with The Naming and Circumcision of Jesus