The Feast of the Assumption of Mary

God’s temple in heaven was opened,
and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.

The Litany of Loretto celebrates many titles and names of Jesus's mother, including "Ark of the Covenant." The term is fitting because Jesus is the Covenant between God and humankind. He is fully God and fully human and she carried him within her own body. 

The Book of Exodus tells us that Moses constructed the original ark to house the Ten Commandments, following the precise directions God had given him. Priests carried the Ark ahead of the people as they marched through the desert. When they finally entered Canaan near Jericho, the priest carried it right into the Jordan River, and the flowing waters split to right and left, as the Red Sea had split when the Hebrews left Egypt. 

It came to rest at Shilow and remained as the most sacred shrine for the Hebrews during those years of the Judges. When David captured the city of Salem and renamed it Jerusalem, in 1000 BC, he brought the Ark to the city. In this way he wove together the people's allegiance to him as their king and their religious instincts. God favored that move and promised David his "house" would rule forever in Zion. 

Centuries later one of history's more successful royal houses succumbed to the Babylonian armies. They leveled both city and temple and the Ark disappeared. Only the Second Book of Maccabees, which appeared centuries later, suggests its fate:

"...the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and… he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God. Jeremiah came and found a cave-dwelling, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense; then he sealed up the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the way, but could not find it. When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: ‘The place shall remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated.’" (2 Maccabees 2:4-8)

In our Christian scriptures it reappears in heaven, with a strong suggestion that the Ark is now the pregnant woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. (Revelations 11:19-12:2) Our Catholic tradition often depicts Mary with the moon under her feet and a crown of stars. She appeared that way to Saint Juan Diego in Mexico, as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Feast of the Assumption celebrates the extraordinary privilege given to Mary. It was not fitting that she who had carried his infant body within her own womb should suffer the corruption of the tomb. From ancient times Christians believed she was assumed body and soul into heaven.

Mary, as the Ark of the Covenant, reminds every Christian that she must carry the Lord within herself. Every Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit where God lives and reveals himself. Our thoughts, moods, attitudes, words and deeds are evidence of God in our world. There is nothing truly human which is alien to God. Our communities carry his physical presence to neighborhoods, cities, nations and the world.  

And always we revere the woman who gave him birth. She alone was found worthy to be the Mother of God and, by her presence in our world, the world became worthy to receive such a priceless gift. Her Assumption is the promise given to all who believe in him. As the Prophet Ezekiel said:

Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.