The Ark of the Covenant was a representation of God being with His people. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh here on Earth. Now, the Holy Spirit inside of us is God in the world. (No, I'm not saying that we're God.)
But Mary? Certainly NOT the new "Ark of the Covenant". She has no need to be anyway.
The Ark of the Covenant, also known as the "Holy of Holies", was not just a representation. It was holy, and those who touched it died. Jesus was God, is God, and always will be God, and was in the womb of Mary, as he said the bread of life. She also held the Word of God and the Royal Priest in her womb at the same time, and therefore, we see her as the New Ark of the Covenant. Remember, the Ark disappeared, nowhere to be found, until John saw it again in Revelation. In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant bore the tablets of God’s covenant, God’s word in stone. In the New Testament, Mary carries God’s Word in flesh, Jesus Christ, who will bring the New Covenant that Jeremiah foresaw so long ago (see
Jeremiah 31:27-34).
But John, the author of Revelation, tells us directly that he saw the Ark of the Covenant - the holy object that had been lost since Jeremiah’s time - in a vision.
“Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth” (see
Revelation 11:19 and
Revelation 12:1-2).
If the Ark had been seen, then the time Jeremiah spoke of must have come: the time when “God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy,” the time when “the glory of the Lord will be seen in the cloud, just as it appeared in the time of Moses” (see 2 Maccabees 7-8)
And indeed the sights and sounds are the same as in the time of Moses - storm and earthquake:
“There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm” (see
Revelation 11:19).
“On the morning of the third day there were peals of thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled . . . Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke, for the LORD came down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently” (see
Exodus 19:16,
18)
Naturally, we want to hear more about the rediscovered Ark of the Covenant. And John goes on to describe what he sees: “a woman clothed with the sun” (see
Revelation 12:1).
The Ark of the Covenant was the sign of God’s real presence among His people. In Jesus Christ, born of Mary, God was really present among his people in an even more direct way.
The Ark held the Word of God written in stone. Mary bore the Word of God in flesh
The Ark held the bread from heaven, a foreshadowing of the Eucharist (see
1 Corinthians 10:1-4). Mary bore the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ (see
John 6:48-50).
The Ark contained the rod of Aaron, symbol of his priesthood. Mary bore Jesus Christ, our High Priest (see
Hebrews 3:1).
If the Ark of the Covenant was holy, then by the same standards Mary is even holier. As Mother of God, she is the Ark of the New Covenant, bearing Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the Bread of Life, our great High Priest. That is not a re-interpretation of the Gospel: it is a truth made clear by the New Testament writers themselves.