But, Who Are You?
Simone Riva - God’s intervention is necessary to stop Joseph from carrying out his plan to divorce Mary. The angel commands him to do what he truly desires.
“Joseph... decided to divorce her quietly” (Mt 1:19).
Why didn’t God spare Himself the risk of such a dangerous misunderstanding? Why wasn’t He more prudent with Joseph, clearly explaining everything that would happen and how he should behave beforehand? Is it too much to expect a man, finding his betrothed pregnant, to accept everything or to understand the situation in an instant?
For those who love clear and precise rules, there was only one solution: stoning.
Joseph does not consider such a possibility for even a moment because, as the Gospel says, “he was a righteous man.” At its core, Matthew introduces the difference between law and justice—concepts that often do not coincide at all. There is something greater in Joseph: not only his love for Mary but the promise that something decisive will happen thanks to his “yes.”
But right now, he does not understand, and God’s initiative seems too overwhelming to him. He thinks of quietly stepping aside without causing a scene, relieved that what had to happen has happened and that Mary can go on alone. Perhaps in his heart, he even said to God what the rapper Ernia sings in his song Il mio nome: “You are not the only one in my thoughts. Give me a break. But I always turn around when you call my name.”
However, it is precisely this opening in Joseph’s heart that prompts God to intervene again:
“While he was considering these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you shall name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’” (Mt 1:20-21).
The angel reminds Joseph of his task: to name the child Mary is carrying.
It is a task similar to the one the Creator gave to man at the beginning of everything: “So the Lord God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name” (Genesis 2:19).
The difference is that here we are not talking about livestock, birds of the sky, or wild animals, but about the Son of God, the One in whose image all Reality was made, including Joseph. And so, everything begins again.
How thrilling to think of the risk God took by hinging His entire plan on the free response of one man. After all, this is what distinguishes His method from ours. Among men, we always try to create conditions where some speak and others act, some command and others obey, because—so the saying goes—this makes everything more orderly and functional. However, this carries the risk that the human person will disappear behind procedures, with the consequence that the particular must be annulled to make way for an abstract universal. It is a mechanism we see realized in various areas of human life.
God, on the other hand, follows the opposite path: He places the universal in a particular and puts it in our hands. Who knows how Mary marveled at Joseph’s step, his new “yes.” What the angel commands the spouse of the Mother of God is what most Corresponds to his own need.
Thus, true obedience takes shape—the obedience that must have prompted Mary, on the evening of that day, to look Joseph in the eye and, caressing him, whisper the question that had often surged in his own heart while she slept: “But who are you?”
