Abstract / DOI
Should the feast of Jesus' circumcision be restored? An answer from the thinking of Thomas Aquinas
In the course of the liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council, the title "Circumcision of the Lord" was deleted from the ecclesiastical name of New Year's Day. What remained was the designation as the eighth day (octave) after Christmas and as the feast of Mary the Mother of God. Since then, this has been perceived by many as a deficit. In 2018 the Viennese dogmatist Jan Heiner Tück once again put forward the proposal of a »restoration of the feast of the circumcision of the Lord”. Regarding this concern, it is interesting how detailed and how knowlegable Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa theologica, describes Jewish circumcision qualifying it as a genuine sacrament in which true faith is expressed. In the wide expanse of his thinking also the life of Thomas and his stays in Paris become more relevant. Christology is complete only when the figure of Christ is visible also to Christians as a Jewish figure.