Chapter 2 43 time and space through God entering the history of man and the world, with all the richness of His inner life, revealing Himself as the Only God, existing as the Community of Persons through love. Thus love, which is death of self, is the principle of existence of the Triune God, Who is Love (cf. 1 Jn 4:16), and of every creature truly living if they remain in love. The Only God is not alone and “single.” By the power and grace of His Spirit, God eternally begets His Son and creates everything through Him. The Son responds to the love of the Father with obedience and gives life to the world by fulfilling God’s will through His death and Resurrection. Mary, who introduced herself as the Immaculate Conception in Lourdes, fully — freely, unconditionally, and with complete devotion — participates in this salvific mystery of God’s begetting the Son in the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. “The Father of mercies willed that the incarnation should be preceded by the acceptance of her who was predestined to be the mother of his Son.”31 This eternal predestination of Mary to be the Mother of the Word does not only involve keeping her from the original sin. In fact, freedom from Adam’s fault does not yet mean the “fullness” with which the Virgin of Nazareth is blessed, because this freedom results from the fulness of grace, and not vice versa. The unique privilege of Mary does not lie solely in her sinlessness but in her full participation in the fullness of God’s life and in fulfilling, in imitation of Christ, righteousness (cf. Mt 3:15; Heb 10:7). The ineffable gift of “fullness of grace” (Lk 1:26), thus, involves Mary’s great freedom from self, and complete union with the Holy Spirit, to the extent that the Virgin of Nazareth becomes as if His face and icon. Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe does not hesitate to present Mary’s relationship with the Third Person of the Holy Trinity in terms of quasi-incarnation.32 The Holy Spirit, Who Divine humility does not even have a personal name, is called God’s power and glory in Scripture (see Ex 16:7; Jn 2:11; Jn 11:40). His sanctifying action is symbolized by a cloud surrounding the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple on the day of its dedication; a dove flying over Jesus during His Baptism in the Jordan River; a gust of wind and tongues of fire on Pentecost; and finally water of the new creation and a new birth. This Spirit, Who originates from the Father and bears 31 The Second Vatican Council, The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, November 21, 1964, No. 56. 32 See Bartosik, Duch Święty a pośrednictwo Matki Bożej według świętego Maksymiliana M. Kolbego [The Holy Spirit and mediation of the Mother of God according to St. Maximilian M. Kolbe], note 27.
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