The Blessed Virgin: Our New and Improved Ark of the Covenant

In the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans, the apostle declares that “the law of the spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath delivered me from the law of sin and of death” (8:2). The “law of sin and of death” was the Old Covenant between God and the Israelites, which found physical embodiment in the Ark of the Covenant. A box “of setim wood” overlaid “with the purest gold within and without” (Exodus 25:10–11), the physical Ark contains the cornerstone of the law (the stone copy of the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses), the rod of priestly authority that allowed for the law’s execution, and manna (Hebrews 9:5).* God’s pact with the Israelites was that, if they followed the letter of His law and made sin offerings when they erred, they would enjoy His favor (Exodus 19:3–6). Conversely, “the law of the spirit of life” is the promise that we will enjoy eternal life through belief in and submission to Jesus Christ, the bodily manifestation of the Word that “was in the beginning with God” (John 1:2). The Blessed Virgin Mary is, under the New Covenant, the new and improved Ark of the Covenant: “the sacred, living ark, which carried within itself the One who fashioned it” (Golden Legend, p. 93). Because Mary said “be it done to me according to thy word” when the angel Gabriel told her that she would bring Jesus Christ into the world (Luke 1:38), she came to contain the means for the execution of God’s law, as had the physical Ark of the Covenant. However, Mary is the New Covenant’s new and improved Ark because, in three respects, she allows for direct intermediation between God’s law and mankind.

Mary’s assumption to Heaven, the only place suitable for our new and improved Ark.

First and foremost, by agreeing to carry the Son of God, Mary gave the Word flesh and blood. “[T]hrough the love and operation of the Holy Spirit,” writes Hugh of St. Victor, “nature provided the substance for the divine fetus from the flesh of the virgin” (On the Sacraments, p. 229). Mary’s fateful decision allowed mankind to interact with their Creator. As Professor Rachel Fulton Brown writes, “Without Mary, God would have remained invisible, ‘Father of all created things,’ yet still ‘only ruling invisibly over them all’” (Mary and the Art of Prayer, p. 74). Mary’s willingness to bear Christ also made possible the New Covenant. After all, it was only upon His embodiment that He could sacrifice Himself so that those who believe in Him—and repent for their sins under the moral law—might enjoy eternal life: Elsewhere, Fulton Brown quotes an Ave’s declaration that, through Mary, “the fruit of salvation becomes sweet and grows” (p. 87). Mary’s acceptance of her impregnation by the Holy Ghost allowed mankind a bridge between the tangible physical sphere and the celestial sphere, which would have otherwise been invisible to us on Earth. This is infinitely better than the physical Ark of the Covenant, which contains cold, lifeless law and the rod that gave priestly authority the right to execute it.

Second, whereas the four walls of the physical Ark merely protect its contents, Mary serves as an active intercessor between the rest of mankind and Jesus Christ, allowing us to better relate to Him. She served this function on Earth and continues to do so in Heaven. As for the former, the Bible features Mary intermediating between her Son and the waiters at the wedding in Cana. “Whatsoever he shall say to you,” she told them, “do ye” (John 2:5). From Heaven, Mary receives the prayers of people on Earth and communicates them to her Son. Saint Anselm writes, “Most gentle Lady, whose intercession should I implore when I am troubled with horror, and shake with fear, but hers, whose womb embraced the reconciliation of the world?” (Prayers and Meditations, p. 110). Elsewhere, Anselm adds, “The good mother prays and beseeches for us, she asks and pleads that [Jesus Christ] may hear us favourably” (p. 123). Conrad of Saxony sounded the much same theme, calling Mary “an abyss in goodness and deepest mercy; whence she obtains for us the mercy of her son” (quoted in Art of Prayer, p. 83). The Blessed Virgin is able to serve this intercessory function because she is, like man, not divine, even while unambiguously being Jesus Christ’s closest relation among mortals. Thus, she serves as a bridge between lesser mortals and the divinity that she was not.

Third, the Blessed Virgin serves as “the armour of God,” giving people the means by which they can “stand against the deceits of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11) and satisfy their obligations under “the law of the spirit of life” (Romans 8:2). Marian legends offer bountiful examples of her protecting and saving believers from the forces of darkness. For instance, she freed Theophilus from a covenant he made with Satan to “deliver up his soul to hell in exchange” for “the glory of the world,” returning to Theophilus the parchment on which he and Satan had drawn up their pact (Religious Art in France, pp. 260–61). In exchange, Mary compelled Theophilus to “renounce the devil” and “confess his faith in her and in Christ, the Son of God, and in the whole Christian doctrine” (Golden Legend, p. 157). Another story recounts how a knight agreed to hand his wife over to Satan in exchange for precious metals and stones, only for Mary to intervene and instruct Satan to “never again dare to do injury to anyone who invokes me with devotion” (quoted in Golden Legend, p. 118). The active spiritual protection that Mary affords believers is a contrast to the physical Ark, which statically contained the protocol by which we were damned under the law of sin and death.

In accordance with God’s command in the Book of Exodus, the Israelites held the Ark of the Covenant in great regard, centering it within the Holy of Holies behind a veil. So sacred was the Holy of Holies that it was entered by “the high priest alone, once a year: not without blood, which he offereth for his own, and the people’s ignorance” (Hebrews 9:7). Under the New Covenant, access to God and redemption is a possibility for anyone, with the Catholic Church making His doctrine digestible for the masses (Matthew 16:18–19). But, just as Israelites paid homage to the physical Ark of Covenant under the Old Covenant, Christians should pay devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, our new and improved Ark of the Covenant. It is because she bore Jesus Christ that, to quote Saint Bernard, “all captives receive redemption, the sick receive healing, the sorrowful consolation, sinners forgiveness, the righteous grace, the angels joy, and . . . the Son of man the substance of human flesh” (quoted in Golden Legend, p. 51). Thus, Christians should heed Richard of Saint-Laurent and “serve [Mary] not only in their hearts, but also with all of their bodily members and all of their senses” (Art of Prayer, p. 58).

After all, “heaven is more worthy than earth to guard so precious a treasure” (Golden Legend, p. 96).

— DMH

* See Saint Bede’s On the Tabernacle for a description of how these contents prefigure Jesus Christ.