Mary: God's Yes to Man

Pope John Paul II's love for Mary is no secret. In this encyclical he brings Mary off of the pedestal where she is often placed. In showing her human side he makes her infinitely accessible, and in explaining her relationship with Christ, he illustrates why she is deserving of great honor. The commentary by von Balthasar serves to flesh out the finer points of the encyclical, and what emerges is a useful volume both to enhance devotion to Mary, and to aid in ecumenical dialog. Ratzinger's introduction was simply icing on the cake.

I turned to this encyclical as a sort of introduction to Catholic ideas about Mary, the subject being one of those which former Prostestants, especially former Fundamentalists like myself, have a very difficult time understanding. My ever-growing pro-Catholic sympathies are such that I found much here to enlighten me: an understanding of how Mary might be considered the best example of the Christian faith, for instance, and some of the hows and whys regarding Marian devotion. I found especially helpful and charming that those scenes in Mary's life the Pope focuses on are those which form the joyful meditations of the Rosary (annunciation, visitation, etc). However, I'm not sure this was the best book solely about Mary for me to read first, and I'm sorry to say that I found the main text (that by John Paul II) to be a difficult read. Not because I couldn't follow it, but because the text is so quote- and symbol-heavy that it became repetitious and rather nebulous (both the intro by Cardinal Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and the commentary by von Balthasar, on the contrary, were succinct and helpful). I can't offer objective criticism here, having come to the book from a very particular perspective. So I'll simply say that it's probably not an ideal introduction to the topic--not for the uninitiated. I certainly wouldn't be so presumptious as to call it poorly reasoned, as another reviewer has done, because it is not intended to be a pro-Mary argument for non-Catholics.

As a young man in the process of converting to Catholicism, I found "Mary: God's Yes to Man" to be a very compelling, deep, and driving study of the role of the Blessed Virgin in History, in Tradition, in the Church, and in the lives of the modern believer. I went into this book with very little knowledge of who the Church says the Virgin Mary is, and coming out of it, I feel like I could comfortably explain the doctrine to anyone. The use of Biblical exegesis, and the style of Biblical interpretation was quite interesting for this former Protestant Evangelical. The Holy Father is an excellent writer, and both Cardinal Ratzinger and von Balthasar offer interesting commentary on his writings. A good read, seeing as it took me less than 36 hours to do so.