Today’s reading from the Book of Revelation mentions the number of the beast: 666!! I even have a bit of fear writing out those three, consecutive 6’s. Superstitious??? Perhaps, but its meaning embedded in our cultural landscape.
But numbers are important and have meaning: the number “3” signifying Trinity; “2” the Teo natures of Christ; “4” the gospel writers and the “ends of the earth “; “7” completion; “8” total fulfillment, never ending, eternity. I love the number “8” because it is a reminder of the “8th Day of creation” when all will be made new in Christ. Sunday is BOTH the 1st day and the 8th day of the week: completion and re-creation.
Our baptismal font is eight sided, the stars in our beatitude(eight of them)windows and the one above Mary have eight points, our altar has eight crosses etched around its borders. On the Camino, a number of buildings are built with eight sides. All
these numbers are not about counting or measuring, but about mystery, the mystery of transformation.
The number 8 completely overwhelms and obliterates those three 6’s… at least what they symbolize. That “beast” is absolutely powerless, for we are “marked” in baptism, placing us in the center of the 3 Persons of the Trinity, as the 2 Natures in Christ draw us together in His Incarnation, as we are nourished by the writings of the 4 Evangelists, as we are placed firmly on the foundation of the 12 Apostles, as are slowly being re-created in the New Creation..,, the EIGHTH DAY.