Article from Catholic Answers: Regular contributor Steve Ray is a frequent guest
on "Catholic Answers Live." He also has led Catholic Answers
pilgrimages to Rome and the Holy Land. This article was featured in October
2005.
Why do Catholics call Mary the Ark of the New Covenant?
Answering that question will take us on a thrilling journey through the Old and
New Testaments.
For example, Luke wove some marvelous things into his
Gospel that only a knowledgeable Jew would have understood—a Jew who knew
Jewish Scripture and had eyes to see and ears to hear. One of the things he
would have understood is typology.
We all know that the Old Testament is full of stories,
people, and historical events. A type is a person, thing, or event in
the Old Testament that foreshadows something in the New Testament. It is like a
taste or a hint of something that will be fulfilled or realized. Types are like
pictures that come alive in a new and exciting way when seen through the eyes
of Christ’s revelation. Augustine said that "the Old Testament is the New
concealed, but the New Testament is the Old revealed" (Catechizing of
the Uninstructed 4:8).
The idea of typology is not new. Paul says that Adam was
a type of the one who was to come—Christ (Rom 5:14). Early Christians
understood that the Old Testament was full of types or pictures that were
fulfilled or realized in the New Testament.
Here are a few more examples of biblical typology:
•
Peter uses Noah’s ark as a type of
Christian baptism (1 Pt 3:18-22).
•
Paul explains that circumcision
foreshadowed Christian baptism (Col 2:11-12).
•
Jesus uses the bronze serpent as a
type of his Crucifixion (Jn 3:14; cf. Nm 21:8-9).
•
The Passover lamb prefigures the
sacrifice of Christ (1 Cor 5:7).
•
Paul says that Abraham
"considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead; hence,
figuratively speaking, he did receive him back" (Heb 11:19).
The Ark of the Old Covenant
God loved his people and wanted to be close to them. He
chose to do so in a very special way. The Catechism of the Catholic Church
says, "The prayer of the people of God flourished in the shadow of the
dwelling place of God’s presence on earth, the ark of the covenant and the
temple, under the guidance of their shepherds, especially King David, and of
the prophets" (CCC 2594). God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle
surrounded by heavy curtains (cf. Ex 25-27). Within the tabernacle he was to
place an ark made of acacia wood covered with gold inside and out. Within the
Ark of the Covenant was placed a golden jar holding the manna, Aaron’s rod that
budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant (cf. Heb 9:4).
When the ark was completed, the glory cloud of the Lord
(the Shekinah Glory) covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the
Lord filled the tabernacle (Ex 40:34-35; Nm 9:18, 22). The verb for "to
cover" or "to overshadow" and the metaphor of a cloud are used
in the Bible to represent the presence and glory of God. The Catechism
explains:
In the theophanies of the Old Testament, the cloud, now obscure,
now luminous, reveals the living and saving God, while veiling the
transcendence of his glory—with Moses on Mount Sinai, at the tent of meeting,
and during the wandering in the desert, and with Solomon at the dedication of
the temple. In the Holy Spirit, Christ fulfills these figures. The Spirit comes
upon the Virgin Mary and "overshadows" her, so that she might
conceive and give birth to Jesus. On the mountain of Transfiguration, the
Spirit in the "cloud came and overshadowed" Jesus, Moses and Elijah,
Peter, James and John, and "a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This
is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’" Finally, the cloud took Jesus out
of the sight of the disciples on the day of his Ascension and will reveal him as
Son of Man in glory on the day of his final coming. The glory of the Lord
"overshadowed" the ark and filled the tabernacle. (CCC 697)
It’s easy to miss the parallel between the Holy Spirit
overshadowing the ark and the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary, between the Ark
of the Old Covenant as the dwelling place of God and Mary as the new dwelling
place of God.
God was very specific about every exact detail of the
ark (Ex 25-30). It was a place where God himself would dwell (Ex 25:8). God
wanted his words—inscribed on stone—housed in a perfect container covered with
pure gold within and without. How much more would he want his Word—Jesus—to
have a perfect dwelling place! If the only begotten Son were to take up
residence in the womb of a human girl, would he not make her flawless?
The Virgin Mary is the living shrine of the Word of God, the Ark
of the New and Eternal Covenant. In fact, St. Luke’s account of the
Annunciation of the angel to Mary nicely incorporates the images of the tent of
meeting with God in Sinai and of the temple of Zion. Just as the cloud covered
the people of God marching in the desert (cf. Nm 10:34; Dt 33:12; Ps 91:4) and
just as the same cloud, as a sign of the divine mystery present in the midst of
Israel, hovered over the Ark of the Covenant (cf. Ex 40:35), so now the shadow
of the Most High envelops and penetrates the tabernacle of the New Covenant
that is the womb of Mary (cf. Lk 1:35). (Pontifical Council for the Pastoral
Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, The Shrine: Memory, Presence and Prophecy
of the Living God)
King David and Elizabeth
Luke weaves additional parallels into the story of
Mary—types that could be overlooked if one is unfamiliar with the Old
Testament. After Moses died, Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River
into the Promised Land. Joshua established the Ark of the Covenant in Shiloh,
where it stayed for more than 200 years. One day the Israelites were losing a
battle with the Philistines, so they snatched the ark and rushed it to the
front lines. The Philistines captured the ark, but it caused them great
problems, so they sent it back to Israel (1 Sm 5:1-6:12).
David went out to retrieve the ark (1 Sm 6:1-2). After a
man named Uzzah was struck dead when he touched the ark, David was afraid and
said, "How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" He left the ark in
the hill country of Judea for three months. We are also told that David danced
and leapt in front of the ark and everyone shouted for joy. The house of
Obed-edom, which had housed the ark, was blessed, and then David took the ark
to Jerusalem (2 Sm 6:9-14).
Compare David and the ark to Luke’s account of the
Visitation:
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill
country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted
Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in
her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with
a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your
womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my
womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a
fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." (Lk 1:39-45)
•
Mary arose and went to the hill
country of Judea. I have been to both Ein Kerem (where Elizabeth lived) and Abu
Ghosh (where the ark resided), and they are only a short walk apart. Mary and
the ark were both on a journey to the same hill country of Judea.
•
When David saw the ark he rejoiced
and said, "How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" Elizabeth uses
almost the same words: "Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me?" Luke is telling us something—drawing our minds back to
the Old Testament, showing us a parallel.
•
When David approached the ark he
shouted out and danced and leapt in front of the ark. He was wearing an ephod,
the clothing of a priest. When Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant, approached
Elizabeth, John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb—and John was from the
priestly line of Aaron. Both leapt and danced in the presence of the ark. The
Ark of the Old Covenant remained in the house of Obed-edom for three months,
and Mary remained in the house of Elizabeth for three months. The place that
housed the ark for three months was blessed, and in the short paragraph in
Luke, Elizabeth uses the word blessed three times. Her home was certainly
blessed by the presence of the ark and the Lord within.
•
When the Old Testament ark
arrived—as when Mary arrived—they were both greeted with shouts of joy. The
word for the cry of Elizabeth’s greeting is a rare Greek word used in
connection with Old Testament liturgical ceremonies that were centered around
the ark and worship (cf. Word Biblical Commentary, 67). This word would
flip on the light switch for any knowledgeable Jew.
•
The ark returns to its home and
ends up in Jerusalem, where God’s presence and glory is revealed in the temple
(2 Sm 6:12; 1 Kgs 8:9-11). Mary returns home and eventually ends up in
Jerusalem, where she presents God incarnate in the temple (Lk 1:56; 2:21-22).
It seems clear that Luke has used typology to reveal
something about the place of Mary in salvation history. 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 specially prepared Jewish girl.
The Old Testament tells us that one item was placed
inside the Ark of the Old Covenant while in the Sinai wilderness: God told
Moses to put the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments inside the ark (Dt
10:3-5). Hebrews 9:4 informs us that two additional items were placed in the
Ark: "a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded."
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 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 priest. In the third century, 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."
While the apostle John was exiled on the island of
Patmos, he wrote something that would have shocked any first-century Jew. The
ark of the Old Covenant had been lost for centuries—no one had seen it for
about 600 years. But in Revelation 11:19, John makes a surprising announcement:
"Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was
seen within his temple."
At this point chapter 11 ends and chapter 12 begins. But
the Bible was not written with chapter divisions—they were added in the 12th
century. When John penned these words, there was no division between chapters
11 and 12; it was a continuing narrative.
What did John say immediately after seeing the Ark of
the Covenant in heaven? "And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman
clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of
twelve stars; she was with child" (Rv 12:1-2). The woman is Mary, the Ark
of the Covenant, revealed by God to John. She was seen bearing the child who
would rule the world with a rod of iron (Rv 12:5). Mary was seen as the ark and
as a queen.
But does this passage really refer to Mary? Some say the
woman represents Israel or the Church, and certainly she does. John’s use of
rich symbolism is well known, but it is obvious from the Bible itself that the
woman is Mary. The Bible begins with a real man (Adam), a real woman (Eve), and
a real serpent (the devil)—and it also ends with a real man (Jesus, the Last
Adam [1 Cor 15:45]), a real woman (Mary, the New Eve [Rv 11:19-12:2]), and a
real serpent (the devil of old). All of this was foretold in Genesis 3:15.
John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote about this passage in
Revelation:
What I would maintain is this, that the Holy Apostle would not
have spoken of the Church under this particular image unless there had existed
a Blessed Virgin Mary, who was exalted on high and the object of veneration to
all the faithful. No one doubts that the "man-child" spoken of is an
allusion to our Lord; why then is not "the Woman" an allusion to his
mother? (On the Blessed Virgin Mary)
Later in the same chapter we read that the devil went
out to persecute the woman’s other offspring—Christians—which certainly seems
to indicate that Mary is somehow the mother of the Church (Rv 12:17).
Even if someone rejects Catholic teaching regarding
Mary, he cannot deny that Catholics have scriptural foundations for it. And it
is a teaching that has been taught by Christians from ancient times.
rcdow.org.uk/news/cardinal-vincent-ordains-bishop-nicholas-auxiliary-bishop-/
