In a company of invalids a woman with two legs is not "human like the rest of them". But she is human -- more fully than the invalids.
Of course she needed a savior. This is who redeemed her ang granted her her holiness.
If you could choose your mother, you would wish no less for her.
"Of course she needed a savior. This is who redeemed her ang granted her her holiness."
If the Theotokos was born without being subject to the effects of Ancestral Sin and was sinless in her life, what was she redeemed from? And if she was ontologically in a permanent state of theosis from the moment of her conception, and we assuredly are not, what is it about her that we are to emulate. Are we to strive to attain some similitude to the Theotokos, to attain a "likeness" to the Theotokos rather than Christ, or in addition to Christ? Is this a sine qua non of theosis? In all honesty, Alex, I think its just this concept which leads to certain excesses in Marian devotion that we most all recognize, most especially the Co-Redemptrix idea as it is popularly advanced.
At base this is all rooted in the idea of Original Sin and the absolute depravity of mankind after the Fall. It is that concept which necessitates the whole idea of the IC and turning the Theotokos into someone ontologically different from the rest of humanity. Does this mean that Latin theology makes the Theotokos a goddess? No, of course not, but unfortunately these concepts seem to have lead many of the Latin faithful to look at her and react to her exactly as if she were a goddess even of they would never call her that.
B, in saying the foregoing, I am positively NOT saying that praying to her for help, or comfort, having icons or statues of her in the home and/or office and venerating her, praying the rosary, singing hymns in praise of her, etc amount to goddess worship.