Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

138 in her conception, exempt from the stain of original sin. Of course, she affirms this, but she indicates infinitely more. Her unique and unshareable grace, her eternal identity, the name that characterizes her is not to be found in being exempt from the sin of Adam. God could have protected other creatures from their beginnings from the evil which has from the start spread over the world (Rom 5, 12). Mo- reover, every Christian is freed from original sin by Baptism which raises him or her up, beyond the sinner Adam, to the point of the divine sonship of Christ who “is before all things” (Col 1, 17). There is a grace more radical than that of being born exempt from “the stain of the sin of Adam”. Again, no human being is radically a sinner, as God does not create sinners. At root, man is created in Christ and directed towards Christ (Col 1, 15-16): sin appears outside, on the surface of this inner reality, seeking to contradict the covenant of fatherhood and sonship which by creating, God has established be- tween himself and his creatures. At root, man is immersed not in sin but in an original grace because before being dependent on Adam, he is created by God in his Christ and for his Christ. 12 Speaking in this way, the Alsatian theologian does not intend to under- mine the truth about the universality of original sin, nor to minimize its significance. Adam’s sin is evident in every human being who, by sinning, snubs and even destroys his original identity as a child of God, created in the image of God, that is, in Christ and for Christ (cf. Col 1: 15-18). How- ever, it is not sin that constitutes the deepest principle and truth about man. It is the grace of creation and redemption , as well as adoption as sons . Grace comes first. The firstborn is not sin, but the gift of the Creator’s Spirit who, on God’s day of creation, “hovered over the waters” (Gen 1: 2). Mary, shown as the Immaculate Conception, is the icon and face of this Spirit. In article 53 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gen- tium , the Second Vatican Council calls Mary “the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit,” thus expressing the truth about the extraordinary relationship and union of the Mother of Christ with the Spirit, in which the Father begets the Son from eternity. 12 F-X. Durrwell, Mary, Icon of the Spirit and of the Church , Saint Paul, Slough 1991, pp. 26-27.