Cleante, you wrote: Scripture disagrees with you. The Archangel Gabriel addresses her with the title of "kecharitomene" (full of grace). This is a unique title that is in the perfect passive participle of "charitoo" What this means is that essentially the Archangel was addressing her as "Hail you who are filled with a grace that both fills you presently and has always been with you" In other words, she was the recipient of grace that predates her meeting the angel. The early Christians have always taught that she never sinned in her life, and while the East and West do have minor theological differences as to when this grace arrived, both of them concur that the Theotokos did not sin during her life.
I would see this as an intensive rather than a consummative, emphasising the degree of grace rather than the perfection of it. Scripture says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
She had no sins to repent. But she did have reason to call Jesus her saviour. It was because of her unique role in salvation history, to be the new Eve, that she was saved before she was even born. As an analogy, if you think of sin as a deep pit. Whereas you and I fell into the pit and needed to be pulled out, Mary was stopped right before she even fell in. She was saved from falling in. And the Archangel Gabriel acknowledged that special grace she was given in the annunciation.
The idea of Mary being a "new Eve" is not supported by scripture. It is also, to me, a little creepy since Jesus is the new Adam.
I believe that Mary, with the possible exception of John the Baptist, was the greatest of mankind, save Jesus. I believe that what God did through her is astonishing and awe-inspiring. But I believe that she, like all of us, needed forgiveness of sins and salvation on the same basis. There are no "second class" Christians. We are all saints.
