Day 30: The New Ark

Hi, I'm Fr. Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars with Renewal, and this is the Rosary in the Year podcast, where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world.
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You will find all the daily readings from Scripture, Saint Reflections, and beautiful full-page images of the sacred art we'll be reflecting on. The second joyful mystery is the Visitation.
Luke chapter 1 verses 39 through 56. 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. When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the child 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 child 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.

And Mary said,

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.

For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

For more information, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.

He has filled the hungry with good things

and the rich he has sent empty away.

He has helped his servant Israel

in remembrance of his mercy

as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his posterity forever. And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
I'm really excited about this episode and learned a lot in putting it together. It's so rich, But what we're going to focus on is Luke the Evangelist's connection of the visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth to the historical story of David bringing the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem.
And I'm going to be pulling a lot from Dr. Brant Petrie's book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary.
Okay, the first point of emphasis, the first point of clarity is that what is the Ark of the Covenant? Why is it important? We're going to talk about how Mary is the fulfillment of the Ark of the Covenant. But first, to understand that, we have to understand what the Ark of the Covenant was to the people of Israel.
Now, if we go to the book of Exodus, this word's introduced. It's while the Israelites are on their journey from Egypt into the promised land.
And it's here that God gives the Israelites really, really specific questions that they should build a tabernacle in which is going to be housed, the ark, and how to do it. The tabernacle, it's going to be the sanctuary for God to dwell in.
It's where God is going to dwell with his people. And the first piece of what we can call furniture to be built and placed in the tabernacle is going to be the ark of the covenant.
It's basically a chest, right? It's sort of a liturgical chest. And in the ark will be contained the miraculous staff,

the staff of Aaron, the high priest, a jar containing manna, and the 10 commandments. And God clearly communicates that the ark is going to be where he will dwell, where he will meet with his people.
And it's going to be where he's going to lead them and bring them to victory. All right, so let's go to the book of Exodus.
This is chapter 40, starting in verse 33. And it's going to be looking at where the ark is finished and that God comes and he comes to dwell amongst his people in sort of the form of a cloud.
So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and within it to place the ark.
And again, the ark is where God is going to dwell. It's where he's going to meet with his people.
It's where he's going to lead his people. And the ark is going to bring them victory.
And what comes to be clear is that when the ark is in their midst and they're fighting a battle, they will be victorious. When they do not have the ark, they will lose.
So it's God's place of meeting, of leading, being with his people, and also bringing them victory. So the Israelites are going to be traveling during their time of Exodus with the ark.
Eventually, they're going to make it to the promised land. And it's King David who's going to take upon himself the mission of bringing the ark up to Jerusalem.
Eventually, King Solomon is going to finish building the temple. The ark is going to be placed in it.
And the cloud again will come down and fill the temple. As time continues to pass, the temple will be destroyed.
The Ark of the Covenant will be taken into exile and hidden in the glory cloud. This sign of God being with his people and leading his people in a victory is going to be lost.
And so it's with this lens, we want to look at first the Annunciation. And so now we see when Mary is speaking to the angel and she says, how can it be for I know not man? And the angel says, the Holy Spirit will overshadow you.
What we see here in the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit of Mary is the return of this glory cloud. We see it coming back again.
And we see Mary now as the new Ark of the Covenant and as the old covenant carried the manna, carried the Ten Commandments, carried the rod of the high priest Aaron. Now Mary in her womb is going to carry Jesus, the high priest, the bread from heaven, the fulfillment and the giver of the law.
And so we see very clearly Luke communicating to us that Mary is the new ark. Mary is the new ark of the covenant.
This place where God visits, meets with, leads and brings victory for his people. So now let's go ahead and look at the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth from this lens, particularly the lens of the parallels between Mary visiting Elizabeth and David bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, which is found in 6 Samuel chapter 6.
We see the opening language of the visitation accounts. Mary arose and went to the hill country.
These are the same words, same descriptions of David who arose and went to the hill country of Judah to bring up the ark. Secondly, we see in 2 Samuel chapter 6 verse 9, David before the ark saying, how can the ark of the Lord come to me, experiencing and professing his unworthiness before the ark? And then in the visitation, we have Elizabeth before Mary saying, And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Thirdly, as David is leading the ark, he's leaping for joy.
There's shouting and there's dancing before the ark. And we see in the visitation, John the Baptist leaping in the womb of Elizabeth and Elizabeth

exclaiming with a loud cry.

Now last little specific connection.

In 2 Samuel, the ark remained in the hill country in the house of Obed-Edom three months.

The visitation ends by saying, the new Ark of the Covenant. And so we're going to return to this a number of times.
And I think it's so important that the Ark of the Covenant, again, the importance of it for the people of Israel, this is where God dwells. This is where God meets.
This is where God leads. And this is where God brings victory.
And the last word here on the visitation, you know, the visitation, it ends with Mary's Magnificat, her great song of joy and of thanksgiving. And we see back in the Old Testament, David before the ark, there's joy, there's singing, there's dancing.
We see Elizabeth, right, exclaiming with a loud voice, with great joy, John leaps in her womb before Mary. My brothers and sisters, there is cause for great rejoicing here.
And if we're honest, I think one of the great scandals of Christians is that we are people without joy, that we have forgotten that God is with us, or we've forgotten what it means for God to be with us. You know, David danced and leaped for joy and offered sacrifice and made this journey because he understood the importance of God being with his people.
He understood the importance of the Ark of the Covenant, this place where God is with us and brings us victory. And Elizabeth and John the Baptist, they leap with joy before Mary because they know the importance of God being there in Jesus.
My brothers and sisters, Jesus is with us.

He remained with us most beautifully in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

He comes to us again and again in prayer.

He comes to us in the Eucharist.

He comes to us through the Blessed Virgin Mary.

My brothers and sisters,

let us ask for the grace to be renewed in joy, because God is here with us. He's here to continue to guide us, to meet us, to teach us, and ultimately to bring us victory in Him.
Asking for this grace of joy, let us pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, now and ever shall be world without end.

Amen.

In the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit.

Amen.

All right,

everybody.

Thanks for joining me and praying with me again today.

I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow.

All right.

Poco poco friends.

Bye now.