THE ARK OF THE NEW COVENANT: Mary has also been revered as the Ark of the New Covenant. To understand this, we have to consider what made the old Ark so holy. It was not the fine acacia wood, or the gold, or fine carvings. What made the Ark so holy was that it contained the Covenant. Inside the golden box were the Ten Commandments, the Word of God; the Manna, the miraculous bread sent by God to feed His people in the wilderness; and the priestly rod of Aaron.
Whatever made the Ark holy made Mary even holier. As the first Ark contained the Word of God in stone, so Mary’s body contained the Word of God made flesh. As the first Ark contained the miraculous bread from heaven, so Mary’s body held the very ‘Bread of Life,’ that brings life to the soul. As the first Ark contained the rod of the long-ago ancestral priest, so Mary’s body contained the divine person, the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who was to “rule the nations with a rod of iron.” There are also other parallels between these two Arks. David, before the first Ark exclaims “How can the Ark of the Lord come to me?” (2 Sam 6::9) Elizabeth exclaims to Mary, the New Ark, “Why is this granted me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43) David “danced” for joy before the old Ark (2 Sam 6:14, 16) whilst John the Baptist leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb before Mary (Luke 1:44). Finally, the old Ark remained in the hill country for 3 months (2 Sam 6:11) and Mary stayed will Elizabeth for 3 months (Luke 1:56).
If Mary is the Ark of the Covenant then she also becomes the Mercy Seat. In Leviticus we read that the old Ark had a Mercy Seat, where the Lord’s Spirit would descend and the presence of the Lord would “overshadow” the Ark taking the form of a cloud. In Luke the Angel Gabriel tells Mary ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will “overshadow” you.’ (Luke 1:35)
MOTHER OF GOD: In 431 at the Council of Ephesus the church gave Mary the title of “Theotokos” (Mother of God). This title was given to Mary to help the early Christians understand the divinity of Jesus, that He was both God and man. The official declaration was as follows: “If any one does not acknowledge that Emmanuel is in truth God, and that the Holy Virgin is, in consequence, “Theotokos,” for she brought forth after the flesh the Word of God who has become flesh, let him be anathema.”
QUEEN OF HEAVEN: The Lord had promised David that a king in his line would rule all the nations and reign forever (2 Sam 7:12-14 & Ps 132:11-13). In the ancient tradition the queen was always the king’s mother and not his wife because of the practice of polygamy (the king having many wives) e.g. Solomon reigns with his mother Bathsheba at his right hand and she intercedes for the people (1 Kings 2:19 & 20).
The queen mother of old, was a foreshadow of the eternal Queen Mother to come. Mary is our Queen Mother and we see an example of her intercession at the wedding feast of Cana. Mary instructs the servants “Do whatever He tells you.” (Jn 2:5) We also find other texts that reveal Mary’s status: The Angel Gabriel approaches Mary with a royal greeting, “Hail Mary” (Lk 1: 28) And in Revelation 12 we see Mary crowned Queen of Heaven.
MOTHER OF THE CHURCH: The early fathers believed that Mary was to be our Mother, given to us by Jesus from the cross (John 19:27). In Revelations 12 we see that Mary “the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars” gave birth to the male child who was to rule the nations, and later, in verse 17, we read that we too are Mary’s offspring: “then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.” In keeping the commandments of God we become children of God and spiritual children of Mary who is the spouse of the Holy Spirit.