Assumption reading disappoints

by Letters Editor · August 28, 2014

Fr Bonaventure Hinwood OMI, Pretoria

I was seriously disappointed when I listened to the first reading for the Mass of the Assumption to find that they have left out the second part of the opening sentence.

The sentence as it used to be given read: The sanctuary of God in heaven opened, and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it (Rev 11:19).

In the new lectionary the second phrase, about the ark of the covenant, has been left out. For me, this omission takes away the reason for the particular gospel passage chosen for this Mass.

In this gospel, Luke sets out to show Mary as the ark of the new covenant (1:39-56). He does this by taking the words (from the Greek Septuagint text) and events from the story of King David bringing the ark of the old covenant into Jerusalem (2 Sm 6:12-19; 1 Chr 15).

Mary bearing the Son of God in her womb was the place of Gods special presence among his people.

David brought the ark from Obed-Edom’s house up to Jerusalem in the hills of Judea. Mary, upon becoming pregnant, went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah (Lk 1:39).

David leapt for joy before the ark. John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth’s womb, when Mary carrying Jesus in her body arrived (Lk 1:40).

In both 2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 15 the ark was brought up to Jerusalem amid great rejoicing. Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit gave a loud cry of joy (Lk 1:41). The parallel is too close to be accidental.

So when the ark of the covenant was seen in the sanctuary of God in heaven (Rev 11:19) the Church, in the reading as previously given, with good reason saw Mary in this text, as she sees Mary in the following verses about the woman clothed with the sun, for which there is no similar biblical parallel.

We need to remember that the present division of the texts of the Bible into chapters and verses only came about in the Middle Ages.

So the fact that in our Bibles there is a chapter break between the ark of the covenant and the woman clothed with the sun was not the intention of the original author writing some thousand years earlier, who wrote his book as a continuous story.