BVM Series : Blessed Virgin Mary | A Prototype of Holy Church, NOAH’S ARK I Mother of God that contained Christ and His Church

Akhila jagalpathiya naayaka, Naayetti goshichangathi bahumanichu Mariaam, valuthaam Padaaythaan…

Like a ship did Mary bear, Laud an honour be, Him the Captain and the Lord, God of all the world…..

The Ark of Noah is a precursor of the Mother of God that contained Christ and His Church. St. Peter explains that by Noah “few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water” (1 Pet. 3: 20). Then he adds, “There is also an anti-type which now saves us – baptism …” (1 Pet. 3: 21). By Noah, the Patriarch and Prophet, eight souls were saved through the ark. By Lord Jesus Christ, we all are saved through baptism. Accordingly, the ark that received the prophet and became the means of salvation is a symbol of St. Mary who received the Word of God giving Him the Human body by which He died for our salvation. Mary is the ark which saves from eternal destruction anyone who takes shelter in ii, with her Son. Under the shelter of Mary’s intercession, not just the ‘just’, but even sinners are saved. Mary be called the ‘ark’ of salvation, she points to her role in the history of salvation as the ‘Ark’ that bore Christ our Saviour.

Noah the righteous and his family entered the Ark that typified salvation. Noah’s faith also saved the animals, and the whole creation. Christ, the friend of sinners, is the Savior of the World (Jn. 4: 42; 2 Pet. 2: 20). Those who enters the mantle of Mary’s intercession changes the heart of sinners, gives a clean conscience, rendering them dear to Christ.

The Great Flood is an Old Testament mystery of Salvation of human race. Noah’s Ark, as a whole symbolized, God’s Judgment on sin, His promise of Salvation and provision for His people. Lord God shut the door of the Ark, as He is the judge, Who decides who is in and who is out. That ark, which saved Noah and family from the deluge, carried unharmed in the stormy elements of evil, was a depiction of the Most Pure Virgin.

The ark was composed of incorruptible wood, in the same way that the Virgin Mary was without corruption in motherhood: “In giving birth, you preserved your Virginity.” As the ark preserved Noah and his family from death, so those who entrust themselves to the intercession of the Theotokos will be saved.

And the dove, released by Noah from the ark after the water had receded, foreshadowed the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3: 16), Who caused the Holy Virgin to conceive Christ in the Virgin womb. Thus, depicts the Most Pure Virgin; a moment of greatest mercy, God’s wrath was removed from mankind, a token of man’s reconciliation with God for the atonement by the blood of Her Son. 

May the Name of Blessed Virgin Mary be Blessed through the Ages!