Mary Is the Ark of the New Covenant

Aug. 9, 2026

Saturday, Aug. 15, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. Usually, this is a Holy Day of Obligation, but because it falls on Saturday, the obligation to attend Mass is lifted.
   
At the end of Mary’s life, as she lay dying, word was sent out that the mother of Jesus, and their mother, was near death. The 11 remaining Apostles began making their way to her bedside. All arrived before her death, except for St. Thomas, who had the farthest to travel. He was in Egypt and arrived four days after her death.  He asked if her tomb could be opened so that he could see her one last time.
   
When the tomb was opened, her body was not there, and the tomb was full of flowers. They came to believe that Mary had been assumed body and soul into heaven. Why was she assumed on this way? The Church believes that Mary’s body had been the New Ark of the Covenant.

As the Ark of the former Covenant had contained the Ten Commandments, the staff of Aaron, which had been used to split the Red Sea, and some of the manna that fed them in the desert, so this new Ark of the Covenant had born the body of the Christ Child. Rather than allow her body to undergo the decay of death, God had preserved her body and taken it up to heaven, along with her soul.
   
This solemnity not only honors Mary’s admission into heaven, but also celebrates that at our death, we too will enter into the spirit world, but also, at the Resurrection of the Body, our souls and bodies will be reunited.
—Fr. Mike Comer