J
JonathonofOhio
Guest
Okay, awesome! I’m glad you did!I found it.
Understood, and that’s fine…I don’t consider myself an expert either. It’s taken me a long time to understand a lot of things. I never saw Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant either until I read many different explanations of it. Then suddenly a light just came on and things I had learned over the years and read in the bible just sort of all lined up and fell into place. It all just made sense.First, I’d like to say that I want Mary to be the Ark of the New Covenant. That is honest. But I am in the search of truth. And although nobody wants to be wrong I will certainly admit it if I am. In this case I have seen so much evidence for the concept of Mary being the Ark of the Covenant that I feel that it has been proved (proven?) to me. I don’t often get that feeling.
I agree that he was referring to the sinless nature of Mary.
I’m not a Bible expert. I’m not an apologist or a theologian. I’m just me. I’m at the beginning of apologetics and haven’t even read the Bible, although I know some of the common passages. In my mind I see the Bible and all of the Word of God as sort of a gigantic multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle and although I know I will never put all the pieces together in the time I have here on earth, it’s great to find a piece of the sky or a corner piece and know exactly where it goes. When I read about Mary as a putative Ark of the New Covenant I didn’t know what to think. I learned more and more and more and now it seems clear.
Just a few month ago I met a woman who was attending RCIA. She made the statement: “the bible doesn’t talk about Purgatory anywhere.” Someone had already told her in class and before that purgatory was a process not a place (a process of purification before you can enter heaven). I opened up the bible to 1 Corinthians 3 and told her to read. She sat there silently reading for a little while and then sat back and thought for a moment. I was expecting her to say something, but then she looked back down at it as if to reread it again. Then she sat up straight and her jaw dropped and she said, “You know, for 9 years I wrestled with that. For 9 years, I didn’t become a Catholic because I couldn’t accept the teaching of Purgatory, and this year I just thought I would try again and accept it. But here it was the whole time, right there, and I never saw it!”…and here I thought I was going to end up getting into a long debate with her, but it turns out all she needed was one more little nudge, and it all just fell into place.
It takes time for some people, but the point is you are trying, and I’ll be happy to help anyway I can, but I don’t expect you see the same things I do at the same time.
Most of what I learned about my own faith, I learned by listening to other people’s interpretations and then figuring out how they could be incorrect or mistaken. I found out that sometimes I was mistaken and actually didn’t understand something correctly, and that got me motivated to learn more. So, yes, it is good as long as the other person doesn’t resort to obstinance when proven wrong – I usually just walk away when that happens.But it’s always good to bring up alternative concepts.
I try to be, because it’s one thing I learned…be patient, and be polite even if the other person seems to be condescending. You’ll get your ideas and thoughts across better if you are, and if the person doesn’t accept it, it’s not the end of the worldYou are remarkably charitable, especially for someone with a headache.
Thank you for participating in this discussion tonight. Talking with you got me searching more too and I learned a little more tonight