Hard to Hack

Coming up with Christian codes to protect our faith

12/08/2022

Lk 1:26-38 The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

When I was first ordained a priest, I was assigned to Christ the King Church in Little Rock. My pastor was Msgr. Gaston Hebert, who was like the “Msgr. Galvin” of Little Rock. He was a big deal. As he was showing me around the rectory, my first home as a priest, he told me the garage door code. It was 1208. He asked me if I could guess what the numbers stood for. Can YOU guess what 1208 stands for? Don’t worry, I could not guess either. He said, “Well, 1208 is December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. And so it should be easy to remember the garage door code.”

He was right! I not only remembered the garage door code, but I use 1208 for many of my other passwords. Don’t tell anyone. Whenever I create a new account I try to put 1208 into the password. Now, not only is that 4-digit code easy to remember, but it is also hard to hack. Why? Well, because most people’s passwords use their name or their children’s names, or their dog’s name, or their birthday, or some other memorable number. But hackers know all that and so they can crack the codes of our passwords easily. But guess what hackers never think of: spiritual codes, saints feasts, our patron’s name, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just like you and I could not guess what 1208 means, so it is hard for hackers, too.

Now, being hacked was not just a problem for us modern Christians. It was a problem for the early Christians, too. The early Christians did not want to protect their log-in passwords, but they did want to protect their Christian identity. Why? Well, if people found out someone was a Christian, they would throw you into prison, persecute you, and probably feed you to the lions. That is a lot worse than having your computer hacked!

And so, the early Christians came up with a code, kind of like Msgr. Hebert’s 1208, to protect themselves. Their Christian code was the word fish in Greek, which is ICHTHUS. In the Roman Empire streets were often made of sand. If one Christian approached another and wanted to see if they were both Christians, one made an arc with his sandal. If the other person was also a Christian, he completed the arc with another, upside down arc, which formed the outline of a fish in the sand, an ICHTHUS. And that is why Catholics are called fish-eaters, not just because we eat fish on Fridays.

But the fish symbol goes a lot deeper than that. The letters of fish in Greek, ICHTHUS, spell out the whole Christian faith. The I is for Jesus (I’s and J’s are virtually identical), the “CH” is for Christ. The “TH” is for theus, the Greek word for God. The “U” is “huius” meaning son. And the final “S” is for soter, meaning savior. Did you catch all that? Well, that’s kind of the point. But if you put all that together you get: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior” – the whole Christian faith in a nutshell, or better, in a little fish. And no ancient hacker could crack that code.

My friends, we are constantly coming up with codes and passwords and logins. Well, why don’t we use Christian signs, saints, and the Immaculate Conception 1208 to protect our privacy like Msgr. Hebert and the early Christians did? For example, when I pump gas, I always tap the nozzle at the pump three times. Instead of counting, “I, 2, 3” I say, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” When I turn the portable mic off at the end of Mass, I have to hold the button down for a few seconds. Instead of counting to three, again I say, “Father, Son, Holy Spirit.” This is why almost all Hispanic men are named “Jose” for St. Joseph, and why Hispanic women are frequently called “Maria,” for Mother Mary.

In other words, when we think of Christian numbers for garage door codes, when we name our children for Mary and the saints, and even how we pump gas, we are transforming the temporal order with our faith. Nothing is left outside the Kingdom of God. And that transformation began with Mary in the womb of her mother, St. Anne. She was the first person touched by faith, and she was immaculately conceived. She was the first Christian code in this world that changed it forever, and prepared the way for her Son.

In other words, we are making the whole world we live in part of the Kingdom of Christ, one garage door code at a time. And the best part is: Christian coding always has been and always will be, hard to hack.

Praised be Jesus Christ!