Posted on 06/13/2007 6:18:08 PM PDT by markomalley
by John O'Connell
The Fathers of the Church, who were steeped in the Bible, after prayerfully reflecting on the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in salvation history, acclaimed her as the Ark of the Covenant. They saw the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament as a type of the Blessed Mother. The first Ark contained the Law of the Old Covenant, while Our Lady conceived, carried in her womb for nine months, and gave birth to her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who established in His Person the New Covenant.
Pope Pius XII in Munificentissimus Deus, speaking of the Fathers, wrote:
... some have employed the words of the Psalmist: "Arise, O Lord, and go into Thy resting place, Thou and the ark of Thy might" and have looked upon the Ark of the Covenant, built of incorruptible wood and places in the Lord's temple, as a type of the most pure body of the Virgin Mary, preserved and exempted from all corruption of the tomb and raised up to such glory in heaven.
Just as the New Covenant surpasses the Old, so the new Ark of the Covenant (Our Lady) is superior to the old. The old Ark contained the word of God inscribed on stone tablets, but the new Ark contained the Incarnate Word of God. The old Ark held the Law that could not justify, but the new Ark held Jesus Christ Who Himself is the eternal New Covenant with God; He Who justifies and saves. Moses placed the manna from the desert before the Tablets in the old Ark of the Covenant, but the new Ark was the repository of the true Manna, the Bread come down from heaven, Jesus Christ the Son of God. The old Ark was made of inanimate materials, but the new Ark is the greatest human person whoever has or ever will live - she whose soul has been adorned by God with a superabundance of the choicest graces.
The Israelites had a great reverential fear for the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament. Only the priests were allowed to touch it. The Lord struck down Oza for touching the Ark when the Israelites were moving it to Jerusalem (2 Kings 6:6-7). And the Ark of the Covenant proved to be a blessing for Obededom and all his household when it stayed in his house for three months (2 Kings 6:10-11). How much more then is loving respect and honor due to the new Ark of the Covenant - the Magnificent Mother of God. For it is through Mary's fiat that we have received such a glorious Savior Who redeemed us by His Holy Cross and nourishes us with His Body and Blood.
In a Coptic sermon, attributed to St. Anthanasius, the Holy Virgin is thus addressed:
O Ark of the new covenant, clad on all sides with purity in place of gold; the one in whom is found the golden vase with its true manna, that is the flesh in which lies the God-head.
John O'Connell is the Editor of The Catholic Faith magazine.
© 1996 Inter Mirifica
Right now, it is just past 24 hours since this article was posted to the forum. Mine is not only the first response, it is also true that there haven’t even been enough “views” of this article to register on the view counter! How is that possible?
After all, this article was posted by a known Catholic member of the FR Religion forum, and the teaser on the article listing page made it clear enough that the point to it was that the Ark of the Covenant was a precursor “type” for the Virgin Mary. This should have drawn howling crowds of the usual suspects who seldom miss a chance to denigrate Mary and her role in the economy of salvation. Yet it did not.
That’s too bad. A well-written, concise piece on the Fathers’ take on the Ark and Mary gets posted, and no one reads it. Could it be that those who professionally misinterpret, misapprehend and misrepresent Catholic teaching on this and other matters would prefer to remain ignorant of our true Faith in order to better smear it with less direct prevarication? Would they prefer to believe their own fairy tales, lies and half-truths about Catholicism than confront it head-on?
This short piece should have been sufficient for a little reflection. It was Scripture-based (deflating thereby the common objection to some other articles) and logically sound. And this, while it didn’t even mention the Ark found in Revelation 11 and its relationship to Mary in Revelation 12!
Oh, well. Maybe some other time the usual baiters will see something like this and take it to heart. Et clamor meus ad te veniat.
I like to think positively. Maybe the article made its points so well that there was just no way to argue against it without sounding like a fool.
Or maybe folks are just distracted.
Not my job to convince people. It's just my job to put the information out there and let the Holy Spirit do the enlightening.
I clicked on it because I thought the original Ark had been found ala Indiana Jones.
I got chills seeing it in person.
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