DAY 9
Who are you, O Immaculate
Conception? (Part One)
Yesterday, when I mentioned St. Maximilian's arrest by the
Gestapo, I left out a remarkable detail that will be important for
today's reflection: Two hours before his arrest, the future saint
penned the single most important theological reflection of his
life. It was nothing less than the answer that had eluded
him for so many years, the answer to the question he had pondered
over and over from the earliest days of his religious life:
"Who are you, O Immaculate Conception?" In
today's reflection, we'll begin to unpack this remarkable
document, but before we do, let's pause and say a silent prayer to
the Immaculata, asking for the grace to receive Kolbe's
wisdom.
The document begins as follows:
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. These words fell from the lips of the Immaculata
herself. Hence, they must tell us in the most precise and
essential manner who she really is...
Who then are you, O Immaculate Conception?
31
Good question, but still no answer. Later in the document,
Kolbe points out a simple but key point: At the apparitions in
Lourdes, Mary didn't say to St. Bernadette "I was
immaculately conceived" but rather "I am the
Immaculate Conception." This seems to be a problem.
After all, Mary was immaculately conceived. In other
words, through a special grace from God, she was conceived in the
womb of her mother, St. Anne, without any stain of original sin by
the foreseen merits of her
Son.32
So why does she speak so
strangely? Why does she make the grace she received at her
conception her very name? Doesn't this almost seem as if
she were making herself divine? Clearly, Mary is not God. Kolbe
wrestled with this apparent "divinity problem" for
decades, and it led to the following solution.
The Immaculate Conception is divine. But the one I'm talking
about isn't Mary. It's the Holy Spirit. In other words, Kolbe
believed there are two "Immaculate Conceptions": Mary
and the Holy Spirit. Mary is the created Immaculate
Conception and the Holy Spirit is the uncreated
Immaculate Conception. In other words, before there was the
created Immaculate Conception (Mary), for all eternity
there is the uncreated Immaculate Conception, the One who for all
eternity "springs" from God the Father and God the Son
as an uncreated conception of Love and who is the "prototype
of all the conceptions that multiply life throughout the whole
universe."33
So, "the Father begets; the Son is
begotten; the Spirit is the 'conception' that springs from their
love".34
Now, the Holy Spirit is a "conception" in the sense
of being the Life and Love that springs from the love of the
Father and the Son — in some analogous way, there's the conception
of children who "spring" from the love of husband and
wife. The Holy Spirit is an "immaculate" conception
because, being God, he is obviously without sin. And finally, the
Holy Spirit is an "eternal, uncreated" conception
because, again, he is God.
Okay, so this covers Kolbe's teaching that the Holy Spirit is the
Immaculate Conception, but why does Mary call herself by the same
name? We'll leave this question for tomorrow.
Today's Prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit, living in Mary. Unveil for me
the meaning of the Immaculate Conception.
|
