It's firstly Mary, secondly Israel. Mary is known as a prototype of the Church, as Mother of the Church, as NT Ark of the Covenant, as the New Eve, as the Queen Mother. It is very deep and it's awesome to find out how they all connenct.
***That is just what I've come to understand. I don't know if the Church has dogmatically defined this verse to mean exactly that, however, we do see this passage as useful in the understanding of Mary.
***Me and Js got into this point before. I still don't have all the answers as to Daughter of Zion/Church/ Mary but here's an interesting commentary.
"Parallel Between Daniel 9 and Luke 1&2
He shows how the following correlates. In Luke 1 and 2 we have the
annunciation by Gabriel to Zechariah and six months later the
annunciation by Gabriel to Mary, then nine months later Jesus is born,
and thirty days later he is presented in the temple. You add up 180
days in the six months, 270 days in the nine months and the 40 days in
the presentation and it adds up to 490, which is a very rare number
that is found in one of the most memorable prophecies of the Old
Testament, Daniel 9. Stanley suggests that Luke is once again giving a
surplus value, a surplus meaning to those who are really willing to
dig deep into the text to see all of the inspired meanings behind what
God has done to inaugurate the New Covenant salvation in Christ and in
his Blessed Mother.
This is the Ark of the Covenant. Now let's go back and conclude
our time in Revelation 11 and 12. We have in Mary the Ark of the
Covenant. We have in Mary the true tabernacle. We have in Mary a
figure for the New Jerusalem because at the end of Revelation, how is
the New Jerusalem described?
As being a bride that is pure and yet
also being a mother of God's children. Well, how is it that you could
be at the same time virginally pure and maternally fruitful? It seems
impossible for human nature, but not for Mary, not only in mothering
Jesus, but in
John 19 at the cross and also in Revelation 12 where we
read at the very end of the chapter, verse 17, we discover that Mary
becomes by grace the mother of all of God's children.
It says in 17, "And the dragon was enraged at the woman and went
off to make war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep the
commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus." We have, I
believe, in John's vision something that he must have pondered for
days, weeks and perhaps months and years. Here is the only apostle who
had the courage in his youth, perhaps, not to run away. Maybe if Peter
had stood at the foot of the cross, he would have been entrusted with
Mary, maybe James. But, no, in this case
it ended up being John, the
only disciple who had courage enough to stand there at the foot of the
cross to comfort and to stand by Mary and to be with our Lord in his
agony.
And for it, he was rewarded with the Blessed Virgin Mary as his
own mother; "Behold your son," and the beloved disciple, "Behold your
mother." John recognizes two things. He recognizes that he himself as
the beloved disciple is merely a symbol of all of Christ's disciples
who are equally beloved. But he also recognized, I'll bet, as he took
Mary to his own home that very hour, it says in John 19, I mean, can
you imagine living with Mary after the crucifixion, after the
resurrection after the ascension? She is now your mother. She is
living in your home. What do you think you would do?
I don't know about you, but, you know, do you think you'd just
basically sit there in kind of monastic solitude and quietude? "Please
pass the butter, milk. Let's pray. Have a good day?" No way. What
would you do? I'll bet it's something like I would do. You'd say,
"What was he like when he was just two? You know, when you lost him
for three days, how did Joseph respond? What was it like teaching him
how to pray? When you first heard him say, 'Our Father,' what was
that like? What did he teach you about loving neighbors who cannot
love others?"
I mean you'd just want to tap into the immeasurable depths of her
spiritual experiences with the second person of the Godhead, her
creator, her firstborn boy. And she's now your stepmother and you're
caring for her for days, weeks, months and years, pondering and
reflecting over what she has pondered and reflected on. You'd talk
about infinite oceans of in-depth wisdom. Our Lady is seat of wisdom,
sedae sapientia. John is the one who is the most spiritual of all the
apostles. I mean he was one of the sons of thunder and he internalized
all that thunder so that there would be a kind of thunderous
contemplative insight that would illuminate his soul to see down to
the depths of the real significance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and
the real significance of this New Covenant family that Christ
instituted with his own spirit and with his own body and blood. And
he's the one who for us is putting it all together.
He doesn't just spell it out like you might read in the front page
of the New York Times, he's putting it there, though, for people who
want to roll up their sleeves and just jump in and really work through
it. He's putting it there for those who keep the commandments and
their testimony to Jesus to read, to ponder, to reread, to pray
through and then to rejoice, because she is the Ark of the Covenant.
She is the power of David.
Earlier this morning I got into another motif that we don't even
have time to develop, the Queen Mother. In the Old Testament nation of
Israel when they had a kingdom, for hundreds of years, the Son of
David always had enthroned at his right hand, the evidence suggests,
his Queen Mother.
No wonder the early Jewish Christians had no
controversies about the emergence of Marian devotion. As soon as she
went to be with the Lord, and by the way, there are no gravesites for
Mary. I mean Peter's gravesite was venerated. A lot of other saints,
when they die, when martyrs are put to death, the spot where they are
killed or where they are buried becomes a place for pilgrimage and
veneration. No such place for Mary.
There are all kinds of stories that were kind of wild and fanciful
about how she was assumed and so on, but nowhere does there ever
emerge a story about where she died, where she was buried and where
her body decomposed or where people made pilgrimages to.
That kind of
silence is loud, isn't it? The early Church began to discover what the
Beloved Disciple must have just pondered for the rest of his life with
gratitude and with joy.
In Isaiah 62 we read in verse 11 about daughter Zion who is
vindicated and glorified by God, "for as a young man marries a virgin,
so shall your sons, daughter Zion, marry you." Think about that. Kind
of an odd image, isn't it? Daughter Zion is God's daughter. "As a
young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you." I mean, you
talk about an Oedipus complex, what is going on here? "Your sons,
daughter Zion, marry you." The Blessed Virgin Mary is Christ's
daughter because he is her creator, but he creates her to be his
mother. But then, after he bestows his glory upon her and calls her to
himself and makes her the Queen Mother of all, he fashions the New
Jerusalem after her as the blueprint. She becomes the bride of Christ.
No wonder he calls her "woman." He can't decide. "Are you my
daughter? Are you my mother or are you my bride?" Praise the Lord!
This represents the answer of the Church to feminism, to radical
feminism. I mean let's face it, radical movements almost always
represent the unpaid bills of the Church, certain gaps, certain lacks
of emphases where we need to compensate, then we overcompensate and
over exaggerate or whatever, certain truths."
(Mary, Holy Mother-Scott Hahn)
http://www.ewtn.com/library/SCRIPTUR/MARYARK.TXT
(end of Isaiah 61 and all of 62)
"For I, the LORD , love justice;
I hate robbery and iniquity.
In my faithfulness I will reward them
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the LORD has blessed."
I delight greatly in the LORD ; [reminds me of Mary's Magnificat-"my spirit
my soul rejoices in my God. rejoices......."]
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise
spring up before all nations.
Zion's New Name
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet,
till her righteousness shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.
The nations will see your righteousness,
and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.
You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD's hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
No longer will they call you Deserted,
or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,
and your land Beulah ;
for the LORD will take delight in you,
and your land will be married.
As a young man marries a maiden, [virgin]
so will your sons marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.
I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
they will never be silent day or night.
You who call on the LORD ,
give yourselves no rest,
and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem
and makes her the praise of the earth.
The LORD has sworn by his right hand
and by his mighty arm:
"Never again will I give your grain
as food for your enemies,
and never again will foreigners drink the new wine
for which you have toiled;
but those who harvest it will eat it
and praise the LORD ,
and those who gather the grapes will drink it
in the courts of my sanctuary."
Pass through, pass through the gates!
Prepare the way for the people.
Build up, build up the highway!
Remove the stones.
Raise a banner for the nations.
The LORD has made proclamation
to the ends of the earth:
"Say to the Daughter of Zion,
'See, your Savior comes!
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.' "
They will be called the Holy People,
the Redeemed of the LORD ;
and you will be called Sought After,
the City No Longer Deserted.
-While I have no claim to know this whole passage, I think it is interesting.
