Mary my Mother, the New Eve, and the Ark of the Covenant

I am reading through Scott Hahn's "Hail, Holy Queen" the second time. It is so rich in teaching concerning Mary that I have to write down a few central lessons to help me not to forget. I pray that each time I pray the Rosary, these new insights into Mary - my Mother, will inspire my confidence to go to her with all my requests, knowing that she will intercede on my behalf to her Son Jesus.

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession, was left unaided.
Inspired with this confidence, I fly to you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

(Memorare)

Jesus left us a Mother
As He hung dying on the cross, in His last will and testament, Jesus left us a mother. "When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. (Hail, Holy Queen p.5, scripture taken from John 19:26-27)

I had an earthly mother. She loved me the best way she knew how. She didn't have the benefit of much education (she had only been to school for two years). She took the young family to settle in Hong Kong as refugees. She tried to make ends meet when my father was incarcerated for seven years. She made great sacrifices to put her children through schools and universities. She discovered Jesus later in her life and was baptized when she was 85 years old! I rediscovered in my Catholic faith that I could still pray for her and I do! I look forward to seeing her again in heaven.

But for 65 years of my life I never knew I had another Mother! During the 40 years of attending various Protestant churches, none of them was fulfilling the New Testament prophecy that "all generations" will call Mary "blessed" (Luke 1:48), even though she was the only human ever to be addressed by the angel Gabriel "Greetings, highly favored one!" (Greek: chairō, charitoō) (Luke 1:26)! In fact, I don't recall hearing any sermon on Mary at all. It seems strange now that I was seeking intercessory prayers from friends and pastors but never even thought of asking the "highly favored one" - the most important Saint, and my Mother, to pray for me! This is such an important (and often ignored) verse in the bible: "Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective." (James 5:16). I now have a powerful and effective advocate to pray for me and all my prayer requests.

Christ the New Adam, Mary the New Eve
I know about "typology". The idea that in the Old Testament, a person (a real historical person), a place or a thing, or an event can "foreshadow" something greater in the New Testament (see CCC 128-130). St. Augustine put it this way: "the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New" (St. Augustine, Quaest. in Hept. 2,73:PL 34,623; Cf. DV 16). And the Protestant church had taught me that Christ was the second Adam (Roman 5:14, 1 Corinthians 15:22). What I didn't know was that from Genesis to Revelation, scripture speaks to Mary being the new Eve! The early church fathers had written a lot about Mary. Take for an example, "Christ became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience that proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her; wherefore also the Holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God; and she replied, "Be it unto me according to Thy word" (Luke 1:38). And by her has He been born, to Whom we have proved so many Scriptures refer, and by Whom God destroys both the serpent and those angels and men who are like him." (Saint Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, written around 160AD).

"All those teachers clearly discerned the message of the New Eve. It is this: Obey God, Who is her Son, her Spouse, her Father. "Do whatever He tells you." (John 2:5) The medieval poets summed it up neatly by pointing out that the angel Gabriel's Ave (as in Ave Maria, the Latin greeting) reversed the name of Eva. So also did it reverse the rebellious inclination Eve left to her children - to you and me - and replace it with the readiness to obey, which Mary wants to teach us." (Hail, Holy Queen p.45)

The Church the New Jerusalem, Mary the Ark of the Covenant
This is a beautiful new revelation in my faith journey. The Catholic church places a very high value on Christian marriage. It is in fact one of the seven Sacraments. This view of marriage is entirely consistent with scripture. From the wedding feast in Cana where Jesus performed the first miracle (John 2:11) to the last pages of the Book of Revelation, "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9), the relationship between God and His people is described as a marriage covenant (see Ephesians 5:31-32). Saint John's vision of the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation is filled with the imagery of a wedding feast in which Jesus was the Lamb and the church is His bride. The heavenly temple is revealed and within it the long lost ark of the covenant! (Revelation 11:19). Now what happened immediately after in Chapter 12 is simply amazing "A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman (Greek: gynē) clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth." (Revelation 12:1-2) John has shown us the ark of the covenant - and it is a woman! Guess who the woman is? A hint: the word "woman" is the same word used in in the wedding in Cana (John 2:4) and Jesus on the cross (John 19:26-27).

So what's the significance that Mary is the Ark of the Covenant? "Within Solomon's temple, the ark had occupied the holy of holies. In fact, the ark was what made that inner sanctum holy. For the ark held the tablets of stone on which the finger of God had traced the ten commandments. The ark contained a relic of the manna, the food God gave to sustain His people during their desert sojourn. The ark also preserved Aaron's rod, the symbol of his priestly office." (p.52) "Whatever made the ark holy made Mary even holier. If the first ark contained the Word of God in stone, Mary's body contained the Word of God enfleshed. If the first ark contained miraculous bread from heaven, Mary's body contained the very Bread of Life that conquers death forever. If the first ark contained the rod of the long-ago ancestral priest, Mary's body contained the divine person of the eternal priest, Jesus Christ. John saw the ark of the new covenant, the vessel chosen to bear God's covenant into the world once and for all." (P.61)

I feel ashamed that I know so little about my Blessed Mother. But even as I begin to know her more, I don't always recognize her in public. Scott Hahn told a funny (but sobering) story when he was a teenager he didn't want to be seen with his mother in front of his highschool friends. His father later told him, "Don't ever be ashamed to be seen with your mother!". This still applies to me. I pray the Rosary with the Rosary in my pocket when I am walking down the street. I can do better than that!