Postquam consummati sunt dies octo, ut circumcideretur puer: vocatum est nomen eius Iesus, quod vocatum est ab Angelo priusquam in utero conciperetur. (Gospel for the Octave of the Nativity, Luke ii, 21: "And after eight days were accomplished, that the Child should be circumcised: His Name was called Jesus, which was called by the Angel, before He was conceived in the womb.")
And so the Child was circumcised. Who is this Child, unless He of Whom it was said: "a child is born to us, and a son is given to us" (Isaias ix, 6). "He was made under the Law, that he might redeem them who were under the Law" (Galatians iv, 4-5). ... For He was circumcised with the "vices" (Galatians v, 24), and is judged worthy to be looked upon by the Lord: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the just" (Psalm xxxiii, 16). You see how every practice of the Old Law was a figure of that to come; for circumcision was a sign of the forgiveness of our sins.
But since by reason of a certain base inclination to sin, the fragility of the human body and soul is enfolded in a neverending maze of evil, the cleansing from all guilt that shall be at the time of the resurrection was prefigured by the circumcision on the eighth day. This was because of the saying: "Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord". By the words of the Law the Child of a Virgin was promised. And He was holy, because immaculate. Then, that it was He that was signified in the Law, the words that were spoken by the angel make clear: "The Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
He alone of all that are born of woman is Holy: the Lord Jesus Who, in the immaculate newness of His Birth, has received no contagion of our earthly corruption; nor has He put off his celestial might. For if we adhere to the letter: how would every male be holy, since it is plain that there have been many who were very wicked? Was Achab holy? Were the false prophets holy whom, at the prayer of Elias, the Avenger of offence against heaven consumed by fire? But He is Holy Whom the sacred precepts of the divine law presignified in the figure of the Mystery that was to come; in that He alone would open the hidden womb, of unblemished fruitfulness, of the Holy Virgin Church, so as to bring to life the people of God.
He alone therefore opened the womb, for Himself. Nor is that a wonder in Him Who had said to the prophet: "Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou comest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee" (Jeremias i, 5). He who sanctified another's womb, that a prophet might be born, He it is Who came forth out of the womb of His own Mother, that He might come forth Immaculate.
Saint Ambrose
