The holiest object in the Old Testament—by far—was the Ark
of the Covenant.
To
understand how important the Ark was, it is important to know that many parts
of the Old Testament were dedicated to following the history of the Ark itself. God commanded that it be constructed in
the book of Exodus out of precious wood and gold as the place where He would be
present.
The
Israelites carried the Ark throughout their journeys in the wilderness. It was housed in a tent—the Tent of
Meeting—and this was where Moses spoke to God “as a man speaks to his friend.” By mystical events—the cloud and fire—God directed the
Israelites when to camp and when to journey.
Eventually
the Ark was housed in a permanent structure—the Temple of Solomon. The sole purpose of the temple was to
house this holy object. It was
placed within the holy of holies which was only entered by the high priest once
a year.
The
most devastating moments in salvation history came when the Ark was lost. It was lost for a period to the
Philistines and has been lost forever before the Israelites were destroyed and
deported by their enemies. The
scriptures record that Jeremiah hid the Ark in order for it to be preserved in
a cave, and to this day it has never been found.
With
all this in mind, consider how an early Jewish-Christian would have responded
to the first reading—they would have been at the edge of their seats! “God’s
temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the
temple. A great sign appeared in
the sky, 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…”
The Ark, which had been
lost, is now found! And she has a
name—Mary. She is the New Ark of the Covenant.
The reason why the old Ark
of the Covenant was the object of all Jewish religion was for what it
contained. It held three
items. The first was the rod of
Aaron which caused many miracles during the plagues and escape in Egypt. At one point it budded to prove the
genuine priesthood of Aaron. This
was held to remind the Jews of the priesthood of the covenant instituted by
God.
The second item was the Ten
Commandments, written by the hand of God.
This served as a reminder of the Law of God which was to keep God’s
people in relationship with Him.
Finally, a jar of manna was
housed. The manna—miraculous bread
from God—fed the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years.
Mary is rightly called the
New Ark. Consider what Mary
contained within her—Jesus Christ.
She housed the savior of the world who fulfilled all that was old and
ushered in the New. Where the Ark
of the Old Testament held Aaron’s staff, Mary held Jesus. Jesus was the new priest—the priest—who
did not offer the blood of bulls and calves, but his own blood.
Jesus announced, “I have come not to abolish the law, but to
fulfill it.” Thus, within Mary’s
body was to be found the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments—Jesus.
Finally, Mary was with child—the
child who would feed his children with bread from heaven. Jesus, as
the bread of life, would one day offer himself as food for his children. She was the first recipient of holy
Communion—Jesus’ Body and Blood!
Today we celebrate the
Assumption of Mary into heaven. At
the end of her life, Mary was taken body and soul into heaven. This was fitting. She was without sin her whole
life. She was conceived without
sin. She was pregnant without
sin. She raised an infant, toddler
and teenager without sin. And she
watched her only son die—without sin.
Grow in devotion to our
Lady. She is the Mother of the
Church. She is the Mother of you
and I. The closer we grow to Mary,
the closer we will grow to her son, Jesus Christ.
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