Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

139 Teaching about the mystery of the Holy Trinity, St. Augustine said that the Father is the one who loves, the Son is the beloved, and the Spirit is love. 13 Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish holy martyr from Auschwitz and the eulogist of the Immaculate Virgin, would write on the day of his arrest by the Germans as if paraphrasing the great Father of the Church, that the Father is the one who begets the Son from eternity, the Son is eternally begotten, and the Spirit is the fruit of God’s love, the miraculous Immacu- late Conception. 14 F.-X. Durrwell, to whom we have already referred above, shows the Holy Spirit as the power of God’s begetting, God’s womb, where the Father eternally begets the Son, while the Son, through His filial obedi- ence and acceptance, opens Himself to the Father’s action and so becomes the source of eternal salvation to those who through faith, which means making a self-offering to God, approach Him (cf. Hbr 2, 5-18). 15 Four years after the proclamation of the dogma by Pius IX, Mary in- troduces herself as the Immaculate Conception, finalizing what could not be adequately expressed even after centuries-long theological discussions. She is God’s true creation, such a one that God always wanted to have; an authentic person , living in close relation to God as the Mother of His Son, because she was filled with His Spirit from the beginning. It is in her that the eternal mystery of God, begetting the Son by the Father, was fulfilled in the earthly realities of human life “when the fullness of time had come” (Gal 4:4). Redemption consists in the fact that the Father begets the Son for the men of the world that he has created, and whoever accepts Him is saved (cf. Jn 3:16). In God’s salvific plan, Mary, as the created Immaculate Conception, allows the Son to be begotten also in the flesh (cf. LG 56). She becomes the icon and temple of this Spirit, by whom Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, the Savior and the Salvation of the world, is conceived in her womb. 13 St. Augustine, On the Holy Trinity , VIII, 14. 14 Cf. M. M. Kolbe, Wybór pism , No 370, Ed. J. Bar, ATK, Warszawa 1973, pp. 597-598. A concise presentation of St. Maximillian Kolbe’s views on the mystery of the Immaculate Conception is found in: G. Bartosik, Duch Święty a pośrednictwo Matki Bożej według świętego Maksymiliana M. Kolbego , on: http://ptm.rel.pl/czytelnia/artykuly/44-duch-swiety-a-posred- nictwo-matki-bozej-wedlug-sw-maksymiliana-m-kolbego.html. 15 Cf. F.-X. Durrwell, Mary, Icon of the Spirit and of the Church , op. cit., pp. 13-28. A detailed discussion of this issue is found in: F.-X. Durrwell, Christ our Passover. The Indispensable Role of Resurrection in Our Salvation , Redemptorist Publications, Hampshire 2004.