When most people hear about the Ark of the Covenant, they think about the movie Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The ark hunted by Indiana Jones was designed by God. God gave the design for the Ark of the Covenant to Moses at Mount Sinai.

The Ark was a kind of rectangular box, with poles protruding from each end so that it could be carried around. God instructed that the Ark was to be made from acacia wood because acacia is especially durable and resistant to decay and corruption. Once the acacia box was made, it was to be overlaid with gold leaf. Finally, the Ark was to be covered with a blue cloth. The blue represented the sky, the heavens. The Ark was from above, from God.

The Ark was made to hold three special items.

The first item placed in the Ark of the Covenant was the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments. To put it another way, the first item placed in the Ark was the Word of God.

The second item placed in the Ark was some of the manna. The manna was bread that fell from heaven to feed the people of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness. To put it another way, the second item placed in the Ark was the Bread of God, the Bread of Life, the Food for the Journey to the Promised Land.

The third item placed in the ark was Aaron’s wooden staff. Originally, all the Israelites fathers were priests over their own families. After one instance of false worship, God ordered the head of each tribe to bring his wooden staff into God’s presence and place them on the ground. The next day, Aaron’s staff was found to have put forth a blossom, signifying that Aaron’s descendants alone would now bear the priesthood of Israel. God then commanded that Aaron’s staff be placed in the Ark of the Covenant. To put it another way, the third item placed in the Ark was the wood that bore fruit, the Tree that gave Life.

Once all these items were placed in the Ark of the Covenant, the glory cloud, signifying God’s presence, descended over the Ark. God Himself dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant.

When the people of Israel arrived in the Promised Land, the Ark of the Covenant was kept in the hill country of Judah, the hills outside the city of Jerusalem. Once David was crowned as King, his first priority was to have the Ark brought up into Jerusalem. We might even say that the Ark was “assumed” into Jerusalem. As David brought the Ark up, he danced for joy.

Centuries later, when the city of Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed by the Babylonians, the prophet Jeremiah removed the Ark from the Temple. As the Ark was removed from the Temple, the glory cloud of God’s presence departed. Jeremiah hid the Ark in Mount Nebo, on the far side of the Jordan river. He hid it so well that it was never found again. This is the premise of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Professor Jones attempts to find the Ark that Jeremiah hid. Yet, according to Jeremiah, the Ark would not remain hidden forever. It would be ‘rediscovered’ when the glory cloud returned (cf. 2 Macc 2:4-8).

Catholic tradition affirms that the new ark of the new covenant is Mary. As the Catechism explains, “Mary, in whom the Lord himself… made his dwelling, is… the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells.” The Ark of the Covenant is the foundation stone for so much of the Church’s belief about Mary.

Just as the ark was specially designed by God, so God chose Mary from all eternity. Just as the ark was built with incorruptible wood and overlaid with rich gold, so Mary was conceived immaculate, free from the corruption of Original Sin and endowed with the fulness of the riches of grace. Just as the ark was covered with a blue cloth to signify that it comes from heaven, so Mary is depicted in a blue mantle.

Just as God designed the Ark for a special purpose, so God designed Mary. In the first Ark was placed the ten words of God, the manna from heaven, and Aaron’s flowering staff. Within Mary, God places Jesus, the Word of God, the Bread of Life, the flower of life that grows on the tree of the Cross.

Just as the old Ark is overshadowed by the presence of God in the glory cloud, so Mary is overshadowed by the glory cloud of the Holy Spirit. God himself dwells within Mary, the new ark.

Just as the Ark of the Covenant rested in the hills of Judah, so Mary, the new ark, travels to the hill country of Judah to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Just as David danced in the presence of the Ark, so John the Baptist leaps in the presence of Mary.

And just as David, immediately after being crowned King, brings the Ark up into Jerusalem, so after being crowned King on Calvary and taking his seat at the right hand of the Father in his Ascension, Jesus brings Mary up body and soul into the heavenly Jerusalem in her Assumption.

In his old age, Saint John was granted a vision of Mary, the Ark of the Covenant, Assumed into the heavenly Jerusalem. As we heard him report in the first reading, “The sanctuary of God in heaven opened and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it. Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown. She was pregnant.” Saint John sees the vision of the pregnant woman after the vision of the ark because the woman IS the ark, Mary, pregnant with God. All Indiana Jones needed to do to find the Ark of the Covenant was look to Mary.

Assumed into heaven, Mary is now the pattern of our life. At our Baptism, we, too, were overshadowed with the glory cloud of the Holy Spirit. Then, the flower of grace, which first bloomed upon the Cross, sprung forth in our dead souls. The Word of God began to be received by faith. And through our reception of Holy Communion, the Bread of Life comes to dwell within us. We, too, are little arks of the covenant, dwelling places of God, whom Jesus desires to bring to the heavenly Jerusalem.

The Ark of the Covenant was the source of Israel’s strength. It was the source of their strength because it contained God. It was their help and refuge. It enabled them to pass through the waters of the river Jordan on dry ground. When they carried the Ark around Jericho, that city’s impregnable walls collapsed. Whenever they went into battle with the Ark, they were victorious.

In the same way, Mary brings us strength because she brings us Jesus. She brings us help and victory against our spiritual enemies. She reduces the strongholds of the enemy in our hearts to rubble if we let her come near. Let us entrust ourselves to her, remain close to her, and call upon her in every need.