The Virgin and The Holy of Holies
A Short Reflection on Mary as The Holy of Holies
Introduction
Merry Christmas! We still have three more days! Today, my hope is to provide a short reflection on Mary, the Mother of God, and the role she played in bringing Christmas to the world. Just as Christ is the New Adam and Adam, so Mary is the New Eve. Patterns or “typologies” must be part of our interpretation of scripture. Without them, we fall into all sorts of heresies. They are vital, and they provide us with objectivity that so many lay people are seeking when they sit with the Lord and receive His Word.
Scriptural patterns or types are so easy to recognize that even children recognize them. They are a great tool to help your kids understand what to look for when they begin reading the Bible or listening to homilies or sermons at Church.
There are many Old Testament shadows that are revealed in the New Testament light. For example John the Baptist and Samson have typological patterns and their stories are read together during Advent to highlight their fitting relationship in salvation history. The patterns of the Old are revealed in the New, and when you begin to search the scripture for them, any scrupulous mind that feels inadequate to understand scripture because they don’t know Greek or Hebrew, will find a new source of excitement in the study of the Word and the doctrines it establishes.
The Mother of God & Holy of Holies
If Christ is the New Adam, it logically follows that Mary is the New Eve. This is the most basic pattern. This doesn’t mean that Mary is Jesus’ wife. Typologies do not necessarily have to have everything in common with their prefiguring object or person. Therefore, it is better to think of patterns as a Father-son resemblance rather than looking at them as though they are identical twins. This is also the case for Adam and Jesus. Adam sinned and Jesus did not, but this inconsistency in the first does not negate the pattern that the second, Jesus, accomplishes. The failures or imperfections of the Old, provides ends up being the means to reveal its fulfillment in the New.
We now turn to Mary, and the patterns in the Old that she, by the grace of God, fulfills in the New. Two of these types are the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. When we read about the Tabernacle, we see very similar language describing the Spirit of God, and the consequences of those who do not fear it.
“Tell Aaron…not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in a cloud over the mercy seat.”
— Lev. 16:2
When we read the Annunciation of Mary found in Luke’s Gospel, we see similar language:
But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
— Lk. 1: 34-35
We are privy to another picture of what happens when God “overshadows” something; life bursts forth.
the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and [the spirit or breath of God] sweeping over the waters…
— Gen. 1:2
Then God says “Let there be light.” The light at creation foreshadows the light of Christmas, but rather than being over the waters of the deep, the Spirit of God overshadowed the womb of the Virgin. With these patterns in mind, it becomes highly unlikely that Joseph, a righteous man, would have ever underestimated the consequences of entering the Holy of Holies, let alone, uniting with the only human being to have contained the fullness of God and lived.
The Mother of God & The Ark of The Covenant
Just as Jesus is not limited to the fulfillment of Adam’s failures, so also Mary’s patterns are not reserved to a single pattern either. She is not merely the New Eve. She is also the New Sara, Rebecca, Esther, Bathsheba, etc. Similarly, not all patterns are exclusively analogies of other people. Jesus calls His body the “Temple” that will be destroyed and “in three days” and rebuilt, referring to the pattern of his crucifixion and resurrection. He is also the Word Made Flesh (Jn 1), the High Priest (Heb. 9), and the Bread of Heaven (Jn. 6).
Similarly, Mary is not merely fashioned after the “Holy of Holies” in the Old Testament. Her body is also a pattern of the Tree of Life which produces the fruit of Eternal Life, Jesus.
Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
— Lk. 1:41-42
Here we see the allusion to the Garden of Eden, the paradise in which God’s presence was with Adam and Eve. But we also see that Mary is more than merely a type of Garden, she is the tree that sinful creatures are prohibited from eating from, and was guarded by a cherubim with a flaming sword (Gen. 3). The same golden image of an angel is atop of the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament.
When we look at the patterns of the Ark of the Covenant as compared to Mary, the New Ark of the Covenant, side by side, the pattern is undeniable. One does not have to be Catholic to recognize it, but they do have to be reasonable. In Hebrews 9, the author outlines for us the contents of the Ark of the Covenant:
This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. 5 Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover.
— Heb. 9:4-5.
So in the Ark of the Covenant we have the following:
The Word of God (Stone Tablets)
Manna from Heaven
The staff of the high priest.
Angels of Glory overshadowing the atonement cover
When we reflect on the Christmas story, what do we see?
Mary is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, just like the Ark of the Covenant was overshadowed in the Old Testament (Lk. 1: 34-35; Lev. 16:2)
Mary’s womb becomes the “dwelling place” of the:
The Word, but now it is flesh (Jn 1).
The Bread of Life, the Manna from Heaven (Jn. 6).
The High Priest staff (Heb. 9).
The Ark of the Covenant was decorated with angels.
On the night Jesus was born, the new Ark of the Covenant was preceded by angels in the heavenly host (Lk. 2:13-14; Gen. 3; Ex. 25:18).
When Catholics are referring to venerating Mary, they are merely recognizing that the Old Testament was not abolished, but fulfilled in the New. That means that the essential elements of Israel’s religious practices cannot be excluded from the New Israel in the The Church. It is not that Mary is greater than God, any more than the Ark of the Covenant was, but that she has an exceptional place in salvation history. One of those is places is that she magnifies the Lord, and in doing show she becomes an instrument of division in the hands of God. Those who fear God, revere Mary, just as Joseph and Elizabeth did.
Given the history of the Israelites and the amount of people who died due to sacrilege in the Old Testament, it’s no wonder that Elizbeth responds the way she does and that Joseph would remained celibate during their marriage. Given that he was a “righteous” man, he also would have never even entertained the thought of having relations with the woman who had just been indwelled with the “I AM” of the patriarchs. Joseph would have known the rituals and dangers of approaching the old Ark of the Covenant, and would have easily associated these with the New Ark of the Covenant. Furthermore, if we can recognize the patterns of the Old and the New covenants 2000 years later, it’s highly likely that he would have seen these patterns as common sensical rather than novelties that excite the modernist’s mind like an archeologist finding a perfectly preserved artifact in the sands of time. Thus, those who recognize Mary’s significance in salvation history, are more likely to revere and submit to God. Those that don’t, are more likely to revere the scientist, politician, and nation as superior to anything that Divine Wisdom has revealed.
Conclusion
God’s wisdom and His love are revealed not merely in words on a page, but in the actual events words alone are insufficient to capture. For example, who would not trade their NIV study Bible to be among the shepherds on Christmas night, or to be touched by the Savior himself, as He says “Take up your matt and walk. Your sins are forgiven.” But God has not abandoned us. In His divine wisdom, he has ordained it to be the case that we live within the World, submit to His Church, and receive the Word of God, both in our minds through the hearing of it and in our bodies, through the reception of the Eucharist so that which was born of Mary may be born in us.