The New Ark Collection
By Ben Correa Lujan
The Ark of the Covenant carried within it three objects (Hebrews 9:4):
The Two Tablets of the Covenant
Aaron’s budding rod
And a jar with Manna
The Ark was the most sacred artifact in Temple Judaism, housing and representing God’s presence upon the Earth. But we know that Christ, in his Glory, renewed and regenerated all things, and especially the Old Covenant.
Christ is the new Adam; Mary, the new Eve.
Christ is the New Moses, leading us sinners out of our Egypts; he is the New Covenant and the New Law. He is the new High Priest, not of the Order of the Levites as represented by Aaron’s rod, but of the eternal order of Melchizedek. The Eucharist is the new Manna, bread from heaven.
But if so much of the Old Covenant was regenerated by Our Lord, what of the Ark? If much of the New Testament carries prefigurements in the Old, what did the Ark Prefigure?
THE WOMAN IN REVELATION
We, in the world of today, have become very accustomed to how scripture is physically presented to us in a very particular way. Chapters, proper sentences, a full range of punctuation…
But the original Greek includes none of that, and the book of Revelation is not one known for containing many coincidences.
So when reading Rev 11:19-12:2, it begs the question: why is a woman with child presented immediately after the apparition of the Ark of the Covenant?
It is irrefutable that this woman represents Mary in some capacity. So presenting her after the Ark creates a clear parallel.
She is the New Ark of the Covenant. She is how God has chosen to regenerate His Earthly Presence. She was chosen to carry God Himself within her.
Let’s look closer.
First century Jews had been awaiting the return of the Ark since the time of Jeremiah, about 6 centuries. So the Apparition of the Ark in John’s Revelation is of incredible significance. This was the first time it had been seen since it disappeared. But no soon as John had seen the doors of the temple of God open to reveal it, another sign appeared. Described as a ‘great’ one. What could, in the eyes of a Jew, be greater than the Ark itself?
The Greek verb John uses to write about how the Ark and the Woman were ‘seen’ parallel one another. And some scholars have said that he appears to be describing. as he does elsewhere in the book, overlapping symbols. Two ways of looking at the same thing: the Ark and the Woman. Both the place where God dwells.
Scripture, then, clearly tells us that our Blessed Mother, Mary, is the New Ark. But this isn’t the only instance of parallels and prefigurements regarding the two.
THE ANNUNCIATION AND THE VISITATION
While God had, of course, already chosen Mary as the New Ark to carry His Presence, a state which showed itself in her being ‘full of grace’ (Luke 1:28), the fuller manifestation of Mary as the New Ark was in her blessed motherhood.
It would only make sense to believe that at the moment of the regeneration of the Ark, i.e. the Incarnation , and after as well, there be signs and vestiges arising from the nature of so wondrous a mystery. And one would be correct to believe so.
Take the words of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary: “[...]the power of the most High shall overshadow thee” (Luke 1:35). This is a direct comparison to the Ark of the Covenant. In the wilderness, the pillar of cloud, a miraculous manifestation of God’s presence, remained often over the tabernacle (Exodus 40:32-36). Verse 32 in particular echoes Gabriel’s words, and indeed the glory of the Lord did fill Mary.
After the angel left, Mary arose and immediately set off to her cousin Elizabeth in Judah (Luke 1:39). Likewise, David, in his day, also “arose and went” (2 Samuel 6:2). The rest of the Visitation only presents an abundant overflow of beautiful scriptural and Davidic parallels.
Upon arriving at Elizabeth’s house, she greets Mary, exultantly proclaiming "And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43). David also said to the Ark: “How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?” (2 Samuel 6:9). When David proclaimed this, he did so in regret, since the Lord had struck Oza for touching the Ark.
And now, the Ark was a woman untouched by sin and by man.
At the same time, Luke tells us that John the Baptist, in his mother’s womb, leapt with joy upon hearing Mary’s voice approach as his mother cried out in a joyful voice “Blessed art thou among women[...]”(Luke 1:41-42,44). David also leapt before God’s Presence in the Ark as it entered the city of Jerusalem, and he did so shouting rejoicingly loud too (2 Samuel 6:14-15).
There is also a musical parallel, albeit looser, but there regardless. The psalms, written majorly by David, were inextricably linked with Jewish Temple worship, being sung daily in front of the Temple, in front of the Ark (1 Chronicles 23:30, 2 Chronicles 5:13). In a like manner, Mary, upon arriving and greeting her cousin, is drawn by the Lord into her hymn of praise, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). And one too can not help being reminded of the beautiful moniker given to the Most Holy Rosary: Mary’s Psalter.
The final parallel found in the Visitation is its length. We are told: “Mary abode with her about three months; and she returned to her own house” (Luke 1:56). For three months, Mary stayed with her cousin, likely assisting and serving her in as much as was her capacity, a blessing to help around the house, if you will. Well, after Oza was struck down by God, the Ark also remained elsewhere, in this case the house of Obededom, for three months, where it blessed the whole household (2 Samuel 6:11).
Scripture makes it abundantly clear to us. The Holy Spirit in the Incarnation overshadowed Mary like the glory cloud overshadowed the Ark. Mary was set apart like the Ark. Her body was consecrated, full of grace and of God’s glory, to be God’s dwelling place. Untouched by sin and pure, her role is to house the New Covenant, the New Manna, and the New High Priest.
The Ark was skilfully crafted out of gilt acacia wood and guarded by angels (Exodus 25:10-20). While not literally incorruptible, acacia wood is known for being dense, durable, and resistant to decay and rot. And now we have the New Ark which is truly and fully incorruptible by the grace of God, who is visited by angels, and who glows brighter than the most expensive gold a person could own.
To finish, a quote from Pope Benedict XVI’s homily on the Solemnity of the Assumption, 2011:
“He chose her as a true “Ark of the Covenant”, as the One who continues to generate and to give Christ the Saviour to humanity, as the One who in Heaven shares in the fullness of the glory and enjoys the very happiness of God and, at the same time, also invites us to become, in our modest way, an “ark” in which the Word of God is present, transformed and quickened by his presence, a place of the presence of God”
THE FABRICS, THEIR PATTERNS, AND PEARLS
Marian Blue Floral - The New Ark
Blue and white have been used as Marian colours for centuries on end. Blue was a royal color in the Byzantine Empire, where much of Early Christian iconography developed, and often associated with divinity too. Blue was also a very expensive pigment in the Middle Ages, Lapis Lazuli being used at the time to achieve the color, fitting the high honour due to the Queen of Heaven herself. The tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant were also veiled in blue, among other colours. White in the West has always been associated with purity, innocence and virginity. And Mary has 700 flowers named in her honour, with some biblical flower imagery used in Song of Songs which links to Mary to go along too.
The Rod that Blossomed - The Old Ark
A bespoke patterned fabric. To represent the Old Ark, inspiration was taken mainly from Aaron’s Rod due to that beautiful line from the Rorate Mass Introit (Isaiah 45:8) being rendered as “Let the Earth bud forth the Saviour” in certain translations.
It goes without saying that the blossoms on the fabric are symbolic of Aaron’s blossoming staff, but each splits into two to represent the two tablets, and the blossoms resemble the manna in the jar of the Ark. Coincidentally, the blossoms on the fabric also resemble the acacia tree in full bloom.
Pearl Buttons
The buttons used in the collection were chosen to match the description of the manna in Numbers 11:7. Small and round like coriander seeds and the colour of bdellium. Now, bdellium is a resin similar to myrrh, and its colour can vary significantly from dark brown to white, but manna has generally been historically depicted as white and snow-like, so it’s only fitting to continue the convention.
