70 time of the restoration of all things” comes (Acts 3:21).19 This goal matures in the hearts of those who are still pilgrims on this earth, as well as in those who “having died and are still being purifi ed.”20 Prayer for the deceased is then a very special expression of apostolic engagement, so that the entire Church, all the redeemed in Christ, achieve the glory of heaven. Mary, who is “entirely holy” (Tota pulchra) in her Immaculate Conception, inspires us. While we are growing toward the fullness of holiness of heaven, we can help others to achieve it, as well. Through the new man, the work of the renewal of all mankind takes place. This work has been started already in the Immaculate Conception and it will be fulfi lled by the end of time in the “new heavens and a new earth where . . . the justice of God will reside” (2 Pt 3:13). Renewal takes place through the power of Christ’s grace, the fullness of which was bestowed upon Mary as the “fi rst of the redeemed,” becoming a paradigm for the acceptance of grace by man and the example of unity with the Triune God. In Mary the Immaculate, we admire the sign of God, the Icon of the promised and fulfi lled salvation, the most perfect creature. The sign is addressed to the entire creation which is in need of salvation. In the Immaculate Conception of Mary, God already gives us a guarantee of the fi nal victory of goodness over evil, grace over sin. Our pastoral work should be then the announcement of Christian hope, which seems to be of particular signifi cance and need in the contemporary world. Any renewal entails returning to the source, to the “original love.” The Immaculate Conception “draws” to itself, to see in this “holy beginning” the love of God which alone has the power to change human hearts and minds. The love of God is fi rst, constitutive, creating. This love accompanies man even when he wanders the paths of sin and reveals itself as a merciful love. Contemplation of the mystery of the Immaculate Conception helps to better understand the depth of God’s mercy which is revealed in Mary Immaculate as prevention from the evil of sin. The example of Mary Immaculate marks the style of the apostolate of mercy which entails not only freeing man from the captivity of sin but preserving him from it. It is just this care to preserve from sin (oneself and others) which best explains our merciful God’s way of acting in the Immaculate Conception. The new man, through entering into relationships with others, creates a new culture, a new way of life based on the Christian values of love and truth. To participate in the process of creating this new culture means undertaking the toil of bringing forth the new man and introducing into our interpersonal relations the new moral order and the new system which is constituted by the 19 Cf. Lumen gentium, 48. 20 Ibid., 51.
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