The Immaculate Conception and Ark of the Covenant

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Daughter_of_The_King

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Since I was little, I was told that Mary was the Ark of the Covenant. I understand that, but recently I was told that Mary as the Ark is related to her Immaculate Conception. I don’t really see the relations between the two. I am hoping that someone can help me understand it.
 
Well, I don’t know how to best explain this, but I will try anyway. Hopefully, there will be others who might be able to explain better.

Here we go:

Whenever the Jews (who were not sinless) attempted to look inside the Ark, which contained the Word of God, they died.

One had to be sinless to handle the contents of the Ark.

Likewise, Jesus is the incarnate Word of God. To hold Jesus with her womb, it would be fitting for Mary to be sinless. Not to mention after His birth.

If the ancients Israelites needed to be sinless to interact with the Word of God, engraved on stone tablets; it’s only fitting that Mary would need to be sinless in order to interact with the Living Word of God.

I pray this makes sense.

God Bless
 
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One connection is what the ark was made of. The Ark of the Covenant was to be made of acacia wood and gold plated. That type of wood was to be used because it was thought to be virtually incorruptible. With Mary as the New Ark, she too was not subject to the corruption of sin.

Not that this is what the Church relies on to “prove” the Immaculate Conception. But it is one way in which the two relate.

Another might be 2 Samuel 6 and the death of Uzzah. As David was carrying the ark to Jerusalem, it started to falter and Uzzah reached out to steady it only to be struck dead. This seems odd to modern sensibilities, but it illustrates the incompatibility of man’s sinfulness with God’s holiness. The ark was viewed as containing the presence of God. So when a sinful human person touched it, death was the result. For Mary to be that pure vessel, sin could not be in her at all.
 
Joe_5859 said:
One connection is what the ark was made of. The Ark of the Covenant was to be made of acacia wood and gold plated. That type of wood was to be used because it was thought to be virtually incorruptible. With Mary as the New Ark, she too was not subject to the corruption of sin.
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Where did you hear about the acacia wood and gold plate?
 
Moses’ Ark of the Covenant contained the Ten Commandments stone tablets, the rod of Aaron the High Priest, and an urn holding the manna. Because the contents of Moses’ Ark of the Covenant were special, it was fitting that the ark that carried them should itself also be special. Similarly, because Jesus Christ was special, it was fitting that the woman who carried him in her womb for nine months should herself also be special. Moses’ Ark was covered with gold, inside and out; Jesus’ Ark, the Virgin Mary, was conceived without the stain of original sin and remained without sin.
 
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They shall make an ark of acacia wood; two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, within and without shall you overlay it, and you shall make upon it a molding of gold round about. (Exodus 25:10-11)
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Jesus promised a New Covenant in His Blood. So that adds to what you mentioned above. Jesus is literally the New Covenant, and the Blessed Mary who carried him, was therefore the Ark of that New Covenant.
 
Besides what others have said, the historian Josephus reports that the ark of the covenant in the Temple at the time of Herod contained ‘nothing at all’. At the same time the tradition is that Mary was educated at the Temple from age 5 till her marriage to St Joseph. So in that sense, Mary was the new ark.
 
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