38 THE SIGNS OF THE MYSTERY the Son, the culmination and simultaneously the new beginning of this process of becoming a Mother was the Paschal mystery of Christ. While exalted on the Cross, the Son declared Mary, the Woman of the Beginning and the End of salvation history (cf. Gen 3:15; Rev 12), the Mother of His children (cf. Heb 2:10–18; Jn 19:27). Mary’s mystery of becoming the Mother is intertwined and adequately conditioned by the unique gift of the “fullness of grace.” This gift created an intense relationship between the Virgin of Nazareth and the Triune God, filling her heart to the extent that there was no room left for her to seek her own happiness apart from God. Every sin ultimately is seeking happiness without God, particularly Adam’s personal tragedy, which burdens the entire history of mankind as the original sin. The Church professes and venerates the mystery of Mary’s extraordinary redemption, calling it the Immaculate Conception. This mystery does not only regard the chronological beginning of the life of Jesus’ Mother, as if separated from her person and her history which are forever united to her Son, nor does it only consist in freedom from the original sin. It consists in her salvific relationship with the Triune God, the personal identity to which Mary herself referred to in Lourdes when, on March 25, 1858, she said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”24 1. The Need for Interpretation of the Dogma For a long time, theological reflections of Western Christianity have primarily focused on the apologetic rather than soteriological aspect of Christ’s Resurrection. Additionally, the truths of faith were expressed using juridical language. This inevitably influenced other branches of theology, including Mariology, undoubtedly contributing to the final formulation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. This dogma is a summary of Catholic doctrine about salvation, and its external form reflects how this truth was communicated at the times it was formulated. The dogmatic definition promulgated on December 8, 1854, by Blessed Pius IX in a bull Ineffabilis Deus is saturated with juridical terminology (grace, privilege, merit),25 an inheritance of the 24 See Jacques Perrier ed. Je suis l’Immaculée Conception, Colloque organisée par les sanctuaires Notre-Dame de Lourdes et la Société Française d’Études mariales, (Paris: Parole et Silence, 2006); Jean-Marie Hennaux, “La formule de Lourdes: ‘Je suis l’Immaculée Conception,’” Nouvelle Revue Théologique 130 (2008): p. 65–78. 25 “For the honor of the Holy and undivided Trinity, for the glory and adornment of the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic Faith, and for the furtherance of the Catholic
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