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God-Bearers Like Mary
Much more could be said about the ways in which Mary is the true antitype of the Ark of the Covenant, but I think that perhaps we've seen enough to be convinced. Or, if this has not been enough, I suspect that no amount of words will suffice; only the grace of God will do. Nevertheless, as I said in the beginning, the Church teaches and defends the doctrines pertaining to Mary not so much because of what they say about Mary, but because of what they say about Jesus and about ourselves. And that is why I eagerly embrace them. This doctrine, as was stated in the first chapter, hinges on the Divinity of Christ. If Jesus is God, then His mother is God's mother. If Jesus is God, then the woman who bore Him bore God. But what about us? Why does this matter for us and what does it teach us about our relationship with God?
There is no simple answer to those questions. Like Mary, each of us must ponder these things. Mary is essentially, the prototypical Christian, and so it is our task to "[b]e imitators of [her] as [she] imitates Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1). There are many, many ways in which each of us is called to be a God-bearer, an ark of the new covenant. We are called to be Christ's ambassadors to those who are yet dying in sin, and thus to carry Him within ourselves as we live out our daily lives. This is why, at the end of Mass, we are told, "Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord," or "Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life." At Mass, we receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus because He is truly present in the Eucharist (a.k.a. the Lord's Supper, a.k.a. Communion), and then we are sent to bear Him forth into the world so that His saving presence might save everyone with whome we come into contact.
Each of us, having been created in the image and likeness of God, is called to protect the dignity of that inherent godliness in a myriad of ways. Just as Mary protected her Son by putting her whole body between Him and the entire world when He was too small to survive alone in it, we may be called to put our bodies in harm's way in order to protect those who are too weak to protect themselves. Some do this by campaigning for the end to Abortion, by standing outside Abortion clinics, praying for and speaking to those who enter in the hopes that they may save the lives of unborn children. Others do it more routinely, by serving as doctors, nurses, medical technicians, etc., working to safeguard and improve the health of those who are ill, despite the ever-present possibility that they themselves may be infected by any one of the illnesses under which their patients suffer. Still more put themselves in harm's way in a manner very similar to the Blessed Mother: by being parents, protecting their children from the dangers of the world, teaching them how to face it, and, of course, training them to know, love, and serve Jesus as their very own Lord and Saviour, Eternal King of their lives and lover of their souls. There are as many ways to answer this call as there are Christians who hear it.
Whatever your particular calling, it is this Truth to which you owe that calling. Without Mary's willingness to be the Mother of God, the Son of God might never have become human, might never have taken on Himself the mortal flesh that allowed Him to die for your sins. Without Mary's conscious choice to bear God within her womb, none of us would be Christians. She is the first, best Christian; she offered herself completely, body and soul, to God so that He might have a body to offer up for us. Ponder this mystery─ponder Mary's motherhood; ponder the incomprehensible reality of Emmanuel, Transcendent God tangibly present with man, sharing the same human flesh as each and every one of us; ponder the suffering the Philistines endured because they refused to recognize the Ark for what it was; ponder the all-humbling joy felt by David and Elizabeth, indeed by the whole Isrealite people, when the Ark of the Most High God was brought to them, though they were not worthy─ponder all this and your Christian life will become more unfathomably meaningful than ever before.
Before I became Catholic, I never knew any of these things about Mary. I never pondered these things. And now, because I know them and ponder them, I not only know more about Jesus and His mother, and about God and His plan for salvation, but I have a richer, deeper, and closer relationship with Him. I love God more because I can see His love more clearly. Because I see His mother for who she is, I can better see Jesus for whoHe is. If you know more about who my mother is, you will know a great number of things about me that I myself could never tell you; in the same way, as we learn to know the Mother of God, we come to know things about Him which He can better show us─through her─than tell us. That is why, when God says, "honor your father and your mother" (Exodus 20:12), we would do well to honor His mother too.
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