The Holy Week Retreat - The Ark of the Covenant - Station 6

Experience the ultimate Holy Week Retreat!

Join Fr. Jonathan Meyer (and Catholics across America!) on an epic journey through the Stations of the Eucharist. This incredible retreat will guide you through fourteen stations from Genesis to Revelation that will reshape the way you see the rest of your life. Get ready to break open the Scriptures, immerse yourself in the story of salvation history, and consider the sacrifice of Jesus Christ like never before. 

This year’s Holy Week Retreat is simple to follow. Each day, you’ll receive two reflections that will help you meditate on two of the fourteen stations. You can watch them both together, or space them out as morning and evening reflections. We’ll cover all fourteen stations by Holy Saturday so you can have the best Easter of your life!

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Transcript

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The sixth station of the Eucharist, the Ark of the Covenant. O Sacrament is holy, O sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine. The Ark of the Covenant, which we hear about all throughout much of the Old Testament, but particularly in Second Chronicles, is where God dwelt. Moses was given unbelievably detailed instructions on how to craft the Ark of the Covenant. King David, beautifully and gloriously, with dancing and with joy, brings the Ark of the Covenant into the Holy of Holies. The Ark of the Covenant is God's presence among us. And God, in his infinite wisdom, knew that we needed to go to a place. He understood our need, our desire, and our attraction to places. I want you to pause just for a moment and think in your life about places that are important to you. The place that you go for your yearly vacation. The place where you proposed to your fiance. Or the place where your husband proposed to you. The place where you bought your first house. The place where you played as a kid in the backyard. The place where your mom or dad died. The place where you sit every day with a cup of coffee or a cup of tea and read a good book. Or pray your rosary. Places matter. And God knows our hearts. He created us. He knows our hearts. He created us and he knew that the Israelites needed a place to go. And so the Ark of the Covenant was where they went. And in fact, the whole temple system was established and designed because the Ark of the Covenant was in the center of it. And they came to worship at the temple because God was there. In fact, since 70 AD, the Jewish people have not actually been able to authentically worship, which means to offer a sacrifice. They haven't been able to do that because the temple has actually been in the possession of the Muslims. And they can't offer a sacrifice in any other place. There is no other place that they can encounter God in sacrifice and in worship except on that specific spot. Places matter. Same is true for us. Now Jesus Christ, because he told us to go out to all nations, go in Matthew 28, go therefore and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and the Son, the Holy Spirit, because of that mandate to go out, that one place of worship has now become every Catholic Church. And in every Catholic church, what do we find? We find a tabernacle, a place where we know that God dwells, a place where we know that God lives, a place where we can go, a place that is our refuge of consolation, of hope, of joy, of peace. I remember as a young adult, the first time that I really understood that Jesus was present in the Blessed Sacrament, the first time that I wrapped my brain around this mystery, I was so overwhelmed by this reality. I'd already fallen deeply in love with Jesus, and I was reading my Bible every day, and I was praying, and I was actually singing songs on my own. And but once I came to understand this belief that Jesus was truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, I got the keys to the family station wagon and I drove to my parish church looking for the tabernacle. It was in the 1990s, and in many churches in those days, the tabernacle was in a tiny little chapel or somewhere down a hall, and that was the case in my home parish in Indianapolis, and I couldn't find Jesus. I'd read in this book about what Jesus said in the blessed in Scripture and what we believe about the Eucharist. I couldn't find him. I could not find Jesus. And there was a woman in the church who was vacuuming, and I went up to her and was like, hey, do you know where there's a golden box with a candle next to it? And God lives there? And she's like, Oh yeah, go down the hallway on your right. And so I did, and I remember entering into this room and falling on my knees and just knowing, like, I'm home. Like, I am home. Jesus, you are here and I'm here, and it's lovely. And I want nothing else. When was the last time you visited a tabernacle? When was the last time that you got in your car and drove to a church? When was the last time you went to Eucharistic adoration? When was the last time that you wasted time with the one who loved you first? In the Old Testament, God had a clear place where we were to come and worship him. And the same is true today. And praise God for that. Thanks be to God for that. Don't be afraid to go to him. To take the time to just go and be in his presence. It matters. I want to share this with you as well. The next station of the Eucharist is Bethlehem. For us as Christians, we believe that Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament was a gold box, and inside of it were two stone tablets, the staff of Aaron, and a jar of manna. Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant. Because within her, God dwells. And if you actually look at Mary's life, just as in the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant had an angel on each side. When Mary has Jesus within her, there's an angel on each side. And thus Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant. She carries the Savior of the world. It is from her that our flesh mingles with divinity. So not only when was the last time that you went to a tabernacle and spoke to Jesus, when was the last time you've talked to our lady? The new Ark of the Covenant, who wants nothing more than to bring you to her Son Jesus, the Savior of the world. So don't be afraid to go to a tabernacle. And don't be afraid to go to the woman who will lead you nowhere but to her son. Amen.