Our Lady of Advent: Mary, Ark of the Covenant

Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy writes : 

“Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the Ark of the Covenant, the place where the glory of God dwells. She is ‘the dwelling of God […] with men.'” CCC# 2676

Both Catholics and Orthodox, as well as some other Churches, use the title, Ark of the Covenant, for Miriam of Nazareth, Jesus’ mother. Ark of the Covenant is used in presenting Mary to Christians and to the world because Mary’s formal designation by the Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431 is “Theotokos,” which means “God bearer.” However, the term Ark of the Covenant as a designation for Mary was used long before this in the Church and its liturgies, e.g., Origin employs it in 254. A close paraphrase of Theotokos would be “she whose offspring is God,” or “she who gave birth to the One who is God.”

So, it is obvious why the place where the Presence of God dwelt for the Jews in Old Testament times, i.e., the Ark of the Covenant, is employed in Christianity as a name for Mary from the moment of Jesus’ conception in her womb until His birth. She is the dwelling place of the Word of God “made flesh,” God Incarnate.

However, the Covenant for which Mary is the Ark is the New and Eternal Covenant created and proclaimed by her Son, the Nonviolent Jesus in the Gospels; ratified and sealed by His blood, the voluntary nonviolent gift of His life in the Holy Spirit of love for the salvation of “the lost sheep of the House of Israel” and for all people, on Golgotha. 

Every aspect of the existence of Miriam of Nazareth is ultimately significant in Christianity because it points to and brings us in contact with the infinite mystery of Jesus and with the love that is God, which He reveals and to which He gives humanity awareness and access. Advent should be the time when Christians and their Churches focus on the richness and infinite mystery of Divine love put before us in the ineffable mystery of Mary’s pregnancy, of Mary as Ark of the Covenant.

As with all events in the Gospels that concern Jesus and Mary, there is more grace and truth in the appellation, “Mary, Ark of the Covenant” than meets the eye on the surface. For example, one Gospel truth it proclaims is this: “He whom the entire universe cannot not contain is contained in your womb, Mary.”

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.