The Ark of the New Covenant

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In the first reading, we are presented with that climactic confrontation between two seemingly poorly matched opponents. In one corner we have the cosmically enormous dragon that is able to sweep away the constellations and galaxies with its tail and in the other corner, a picture of abject haplessness and vulnerability, a pregnant woman in labour, notwithstanding that she is adorned with the sun, crowned with stars and is standing on the moon. If you were a bettor in the audience, you would put your every dollar on the lizard rather than the latter. This scene is so captivating that we often pay little attention or ignore entirely the paragraph that introduces this scene. Let me reread it if you have missed it: “The sanctuary of God in heaven opened and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it.”

This line seems unconnected with what follows and yet it is the very clue which introduces the following scene of the battle. The note that the “sanctuary of God in heaven opened” is a summary of the Book of Apocalypse - this is the awaited moment of revelation, a glimpse of hidden heavenly realities in the midst of the turmoil and chaos we are experiencing in this world. What is being revealed to us? It is the ark of the covenant! But what has the ark to do with the lady in the next scene? More importantly, what has the ark to do with today’s feast of our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Assumption?

Before we answer this burning question, let us now turn to the Gospel. In telling us the story of Jesus Christ, Luke presents Mary as our role model, the first Christian. But he drops hints to indicate something more. Mary is overshadowed by the power of the Holy Spirit when she conceives Jesus. Elizabeth questions, “Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?” Mary stays in the hill country of Judah for three months. In the Old Testament, one item is overshadowed by the cloud of God’s Spirit. It is the Ark of the Covenant. Elizabeth’s question echoes that of King David when he hesitated to bring the ark into Jerusalem, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” and so, he leaves the ark for three months in the hill country of Judah.

It’s easy to miss the parallel between the Ark of the Old Covenant as the dwelling place of God, and Mary as the new dwelling place of God. You see the Ark of the Covenant, strange as it may be, is a type or a prefiguration of Mary. God loved His people and wanted to be close to them. He chose to do so in a very special way and so God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle. Within the tabernacle he was to place an ark made of acacia wood covered with gold inside and out, and within it was placed a golden jar holding the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. In the Ark of the Old Covenant, God came to His people with a spiritual presence, but in Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant, God comes to dwell with His people not only spiritually but physically, in the womb of a Jewish girl.

Notice the amazing parallels: In the ark was the law of God inscribed in stone; in Mary’s womb was the Word of God in the flesh. In the ark was the urn of manna, the bread from heaven that kept God’s people alive in the wilderness; in Mary’s womb is the Bread of Life come down from heaven that brings Eternal Life. In the ark was the rod of Aaron, the proof of true priesthood; in Mary’s womb is the true High Priest. No wonder St. Gregory the Wonder Worker said that Mary is truly an ark—"gold within and gold without, and she has received in her womb all the treasures of the sanctuary."

You can clearly see how the Ark of the Covenant is tied to Mary’s role and identity, but it still doesn’t answer the question: what has this to do with her Assumption? The Temple, the sacred place of Israel’s worship and the dwelling place of God, is no longer. When the Temple was destroyed, the Ark of the Covenant was lost. By the time of the Third Temple, Herod’s Temple, the building was merely an empty shell and the inner chamber called the Holy of Holies where the ark used to be housed was now vacant. But there is a new dwelling place of God. Scripture affirms that Jesus is the New Temple—the place where God and humans meet is Jesus (John 1:14; 2:22). Jesus, after His resurrection, ascended into heaven. The Lord sits in heaven “at the right hand of the Father.” But the Temple would not be complete, it would only be a hollow shell of a building, without its most defining content - the ark of the covenant.

The Virgin Mary, the new Ark of the Covenant, could not be separated from the dwelling place of the Most High. Just as Israel longed to carry the Ark to the holy city, where it could be placed in the temple, the new Ark must be taken to the presence of God. She who bore the presence of God into the world, would herself be taken into His presence once and for all.

So, the scene described in the first paragraph of our first reading is not just an editorial prelude to the battle scene between the dragon and the mysterious lady. The former scene provides the necessary interpretation for the latter. Mary, the woman adorned with the Sun, crowned with stars and standing on a moon is an apocalypse, a revelation, of that very ark of the covenant which is now brought up to the sanctuary of heaven.

As the Ark of the New Covenant assumes its rightful place in heaven, we celebrate that Christ has given us victory over death. Before we receive the bread from heaven from the hands of the priest who acts in the person of Christ once again, we will declare together that we believe in the resurrection of our bodies and our life in the world to come. What assurance can we have that this is true? Well, Mary, the New Ark of the Covenant is proof of this. It is not only her spiritual soul which is taken up to heaven but her body too - for that same body was the tabernacle which contained not just symbols or representations of God. The tabernacle of her womb contained God Himself. As St Augustine rightly sang her praises: “Him whom the heavens cannot contain, the womb of one woman bore.” For that reason, it is not hyperbole, that Mary, the new Ark of the Covenant, is larger than the heavens.