Mother of Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin
Too many years, I did not pay her much mind. That, I regret.
To better understand Mary, it is important to know something about the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat of God, in the Old Testament.
God provided detailed specifications for the construction of the sacred chest (Exodus 25:10-22); its dimensions, materials, ornamentations, locomotion, and function.
Exodus 25:16, 22
“In the Ark you are to put the covenant which I will give you.”
“There I will meet you and there, from above the cover, between the two cherubim on the ark of the covenant, I will tell you all that I command you regarding the Israelites.”
“Hail, kecharitomene” the angel of the Lord said to Mary. That is, Hail, full of grace. (Charis, in the Greek, means grace.)
To be full of something, by definition, means there is no room for anything else. To be full of grace leaves no room for sin. For if there were room for sin, the angel misspoke.
Parallels between Mary and the Ark of the Covenant
The Ark was three months in the hill country of Judah in the house of Obed-edom. (Samual 6:1-11)
Mary was three months in the hill country visiting her kinswoman, Elizabeth. (Luke)
Dressed in a priestly ephod, King David approached the Ark and danced and leapt for joy. (2 Samuel 6:14)
John the Baptist, son of a priest, leapt for joy in his mother's womb at the approach of Mary. (Luke)
David asked, “How is it that the Ark of the Lord comes to me?” (2 Samual 6:9)
Elizabeth asked, “How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke)
The Ark contained the stone tablets from Mt. Sainai, Manna from the desert, and Aaron’s priestly staff which budded.
Mary’s body contained the Word Incarnate, the Bread of Life, and the High Priest who would die and come to life again.
What in the world was Luke telling his readers, who would have been knowledgeable about the Ark of the Covenant?
Whether Luke portrayed Mary as a new Ark to indicate Jesus’s divinity, or to establish her as possessing all the same characteristics of the Ark of the Israelites, is not explicit.
Some of the characteristics we might reasonably expect in a new Ark:
That the new Ark, as was the old, is meticulously made; pure, incorruptible, belonging to God, not to be defiled.
That there is a corresponding new Covenant being established.
That the new Ark is the new Mercy Seat of God.
That, like the old, the new Ark is powerful for victory in battle.
Mary, the new Ark, is forever called Blessed.
Luke 1:46, 48
And Mary said:
“For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.”
More than being blessed, all generations are to call her so. That is why we say Blessed Virgin Mary, not as a title but in recognition of her state of being.
Mary always points to Jesus.
As the new Ark, she points to his divinity. From the wedding feast at Cana, she points us to him, the doer of miracles. “Do whatever he tells you.” is her constant refrain.
At the foot of the Cross, Jesus said to her, “Woman, behold your son.” And to the beloved disciple, “Behold, your mother.”
In the last verse of Revelation 11 and the first verse of Revelation 12, we see heaven opened, a violent storm, and the Ark appearing as a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, a crown of twelve stars on her head. A heavenly queen.
She is the new Ark, powerful in spiritual battle. She is the woman, the Queen of Heaven.
And she is the Mother of God. Many non-Catholics are as uncomfortable hearing that phrase as they would be saying it themselves.
But if they understand the Trinity, and she is mother of the second person, the Son, then she is mother of God. Said another way, if Jesus was God in the flesh during his earthly ministry, and he was God as a boy in the Temple, and he was God in his mother’s womb (remember, John leapt and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit), then she literally gave birth to God.
There’s so much more, but I will leave you with one more nugget to explore.
Joseph, first-born son of Rachel, prefigures Jesus, the first-born son of Mary. Against one, Judah plotted; the other, Judas betrayed. One ascended in authority as viceroy to Pharoah; the other ascended to the right hand of The Father.
The parallels are plenty. Rachel, too, prefigures Mary. The gravesite of Rachel, the suffering mother of Israel, became a place of prayer, and she an intercessor. So Mary, the mercy seat, the queen, is our intercessor.
Why does any of this matter? So what if Mary is blessed, the new Ark, the woman, the heavenly queen, the mother of God?
Here’s what. If we do not know Mary, can we be sure we really know Jesus? If we do not love Mary, can we say we really love Jesus?
If we do not want to honor the mother, how much do we really want to worship the son?
Mary was the first believer, the first Christian saint. Jesus loves her; do you?
Hail, holy Queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and, after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray For Us, O Holy Mother of God, That We May Be Made Worthy of the Promises of Christ. Amen.
To better understand Mary, it is important to know something about the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat of God, in the Old Testament.
God provided detailed specifications for the construction of the sacred chest (Exodus 25:10-22); its dimensions, materials, ornamentations, locomotion, and function.
Exodus 25:16, 22
“In the Ark you are to put the covenant which I will give you.”
“There I will meet you and there, from above the cover, between the two cherubim on the ark of the covenant, I will tell you all that I command you regarding the Israelites.”
“Hail, kecharitomene” the angel of the Lord said to Mary. That is, Hail, full of grace. (Charis, in the Greek, means grace.)
To be full of something, by definition, means there is no room for anything else. To be full of grace leaves no room for sin. For if there were room for sin, the angel misspoke.
Parallels between Mary and the Ark of the Covenant
The Ark was three months in the hill country of Judah in the house of Obed-edom. (Samual 6:1-11)
Mary was three months in the hill country visiting her kinswoman, Elizabeth. (Luke)
Dressed in a priestly ephod, King David approached the Ark and danced and leapt for joy. (2 Samuel 6:14)
John the Baptist, son of a priest, leapt for joy in his mother's womb at the approach of Mary. (Luke)
David asked, “How is it that the Ark of the Lord comes to me?” (2 Samual 6:9)
Elizabeth asked, “How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke)
The Ark contained the stone tablets from Mt. Sainai, Manna from the desert, and Aaron’s priestly staff which budded.
Mary’s body contained the Word Incarnate, the Bread of Life, and the High Priest who would die and come to life again.
What in the world was Luke telling his readers, who would have been knowledgeable about the Ark of the Covenant?
Whether Luke portrayed Mary as a new Ark to indicate Jesus’s divinity, or to establish her as possessing all the same characteristics of the Ark of the Israelites, is not explicit.
Some of the characteristics we might reasonably expect in a new Ark:
That the new Ark, as was the old, is meticulously made; pure, incorruptible, belonging to God, not to be defiled.
That there is a corresponding new Covenant being established.
That the new Ark is the new Mercy Seat of God.
That, like the old, the new Ark is powerful for victory in battle.
Mary, the new Ark, is forever called Blessed.
Luke 1:46, 48
And Mary said:
“For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.”
More than being blessed, all generations are to call her so. That is why we say Blessed Virgin Mary, not as a title but in recognition of her state of being.
Mary always points to Jesus.
As the new Ark, she points to his divinity. From the wedding feast at Cana, she points us to him, the doer of miracles. “Do whatever he tells you.” is her constant refrain.
At the foot of the Cross, Jesus said to her, “Woman, behold your son.” And to the beloved disciple, “Behold, your mother.”
In the last verse of Revelation 11 and the first verse of Revelation 12, we see heaven opened, a violent storm, and the Ark appearing as a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, a crown of twelve stars on her head. A heavenly queen.
She is the new Ark, powerful in spiritual battle. She is the woman, the Queen of Heaven.
And she is the Mother of God. Many non-Catholics are as uncomfortable hearing that phrase as they would be saying it themselves.
But if they understand the Trinity, and she is mother of the second person, the Son, then she is mother of God. Said another way, if Jesus was God in the flesh during his earthly ministry, and he was God as a boy in the Temple, and he was God in his mother’s womb (remember, John leapt and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit), then she literally gave birth to God.
There’s so much more, but I will leave you with one more nugget to explore.
Joseph, first-born son of Rachel, prefigures Jesus, the first-born son of Mary. Against one, Judah plotted; the other, Judas betrayed. One ascended in authority as viceroy to Pharoah; the other ascended to the right hand of The Father.
The parallels are plenty. Rachel, too, prefigures Mary. The gravesite of Rachel, the suffering mother of Israel, became a place of prayer, and she an intercessor. So Mary, the mercy seat, the queen, is our intercessor.
Why does any of this matter? So what if Mary is blessed, the new Ark, the woman, the heavenly queen, the mother of God?
Here’s what. If we do not know Mary, can we be sure we really know Jesus? If we do not love Mary, can we say we really love Jesus?
If we do not want to honor the mother, how much do we really want to worship the son?
Mary was the first believer, the first Christian saint. Jesus loves her; do you?
Hail, holy Queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and, after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray For Us, O Holy Mother of God, That We May Be Made Worthy of the Promises of Christ. Amen.