(Mt1:1-8) Nobody would prefer being a happy dog to a tormented man. Becoming a dog would be like stepping into oblivion - something worse than pain. Likewise, the essence of hell isn't the physical pain of the damned; it's not seeing God "face to face." Add personal sin, and this hell of supernatural "oblivion" becomes one of torment as well. Behold the full price of sin!
Adam and Eve committed the original sin. We simply inherited it as a flawed human nature without grace. So the fault isn't ours personally. It's human nature's and justice demanded that nature make restitution. However human nature doesn't exist in the abstract. It only exists in individuals, among whom no champion could be found to win back the grace Adam lost in our name. Without grace we can't love God here below nor see Him hereafter.
Each angel is a species unto himself. There's only one St. Michael, one St. Gabriel, who differ completely one from another. True, many individuals share the same human nature, but matter differentiates us into individuals. Each angel-species is immaterial, so there is no principle of differentiation. By nature no angel-species can have more than one member. When the Word became flesh, no preexisting human person was annihilated. But God couldn't become Lucifer without supplanting that angel-species' person with His own. The Creator would become an annihilator - a monumental self-denial! Indeed, St. Paul tells us God cannot deny Himself.
Jesus saved us as our great high priest. But He was a priest as man not as God. Angels can't even be priests, only men. Therefore, salvation is the human act of a divine person. Because it's a human act, nature could make good its own fault. Because this act is the Word's, it is supremely pleasing to God. The Word had to assume Adam's human nature in order to save it. That normally meant contracting original sin. Any exception was by definition a salvation. Were Jesus conceived without sin from a woman infected by original sin, His immaculate conception would be a salvation. But the Savior cannot be saved! He is the unsaved savior. Likewise, God cannot be caused. He is the uncaused cause.
Mary was the Incarnate Word's straight path to us. Her immaculate conception from a woman infected with original sin was indeed an exception to the law of sin. Like us she too was saved by Jesus, unlike us, in a perfect way, - before original sin could infect her. Therefore, her human nature was as undamaged as Eve's before the fall. True, she did conceive by the Holy Spirit. But as far as human nature is concerned, she conceived Jesus under the law of Eden, whereby immaculate conceptions are the rule not the exception. His conception would not be a salvation.
In salvation history Jesus and Mary would make less sense without each other, than Adam and Eve would make without each other in human nature. No wonder Jesus and Mary are the new Adam and Eve in Scripture and Tradition. She was perfectly saved, He the prefect savior. The Baptist made straight the Lord' way to us, Mary did so preeminently. John is the groom's friend Mary, as the new Eve, is His mystical bride. Amen!
