Bernard Made the Decision to Keep the Ark Hidden

After Bernard became convinced that the Ark of the Covenant was still hidden underground in Jerusalem (from conversations with Jewish scholars of Old Testament), he was determined to never let it fall into wrong (i.e., Muslim) hands.

So, in 1114 he tasked his friend, relative and sponsor Hugh of Champagne (he was going to Jerusalem anyway) to find and secure the Ark of the Covenant. Which Hugh did – about four years later.

Now Bernard of Clairvaux faced the genuinely existential (for the Church) question: what to do with this find of a millennium – and very possibly the most valuable find in human history.

Should he keep it in Jerusalem – or take it to Clairvaux? Should he then keep it in his abbey – or surrender it to Holy See in Rome? Or maybe this find must be kept secret – for the good of the Church and Christendom?

Ultimately, Bernard of Clairvaux chose the latter option – indeed, for the good of the Church and Christendom. And for obvious reasons – revealing the Ark to the world could have very well… destroyed the Christian church (and Christendom).

Our world can not exist “by bread alone” – it needs to receive a certain minimum amount of Divine Grace – vital, salvific spiritual energy every second. Which, obviously requires powerful enough “energy supply channel” between our world and God (the ultimate source of Divine Grace).

For 1400 years or so – depending on how you date the life of Moses – this channel was provided by God via His Chosen People (the Jews), the Levites (Jewish priestly tribe), High Priest of Old Testament Judaism… and the Ark of the Covenant.

When the Jews rejected Christ in 30 AD, they automatically shut down this (original) energy channel. To save the world from a genuine Hell on Earth, God had to create a “replacement channel” of Divine Grace – via Christ and His Church.

In Bernard’s times, this channel operated with acceptable performance… unfortunately, Christianity had quite a few fundamental flaws – and the Church had not exactly a stellar reputation in Christendom.

Hence, there was a very real possibility that disclosure of the Ark of the Covenant to the world will immediately re-activate the original channel of Divine Grace by the “New Israelites” – and in no time shut down the whole Christian channel. In other words, destroy the whole Christian Church.

With catastrophic consequences for human civilization…