The Beauty of the “Yes”
Simone Riva - In the unpredictable circumstances surrounding the Christ child, Joseph undergoes an unprecedented experience of freedom—at once breathtaking and demanding—born of his "yes" to the Mystery.
Reading this Sunday’s Gospel (Mt 2:13-15, 19-23) for the Feast of the Holy Family, it is impossible to remain indifferent. This is a narrative of sudden shifts and dramatic turns. Throughout the Event, Joseph emerges as a true protagonist. He is a man struggling in every way to follow the promptings of the Mystery, who spares nothing for this man in whose hands He has placed His most precious possession.
Joseph grasped this deeply. It is why his heart holds room for only one concern: the protection of Jesus and Mary. He witnessed firsthand the rejection surrounding the birth of Christ. He saw how ancient prophecies, dismissed by many as irrelevant, became more threatening to the powerful Herod than a standing army. These were days of upheaval and sleepless nights where Joseph had to grapple with every possible scenario.
Now, Joseph is learning what it truly means to "give a name" to Jesus. It means making it possible for the Other to find His own path, to grow, to be recognized, and to encounter the world. It is the task of allowing others to call upon Him and find a Presence.
The Mystery did not want a mere functionary to execute a plan. He wanted a man who would experience the same tension that the Father feels when He stands before our freedom. If anything is close to the Father’s heart, it is that His children might truly take their own steps—that they might grow up free and face Reality as a great promise of good, first and foremost for themselves.
Joseph’s story anticipates all our own educational attempts: our radical challenges, our disappointments, our sudden impulses, and our "futile appeals" to those ancient values that are no longer available in this "change of era." His actions instantly collapse our moralistic "shoulds" and our nostalgic complaints about "young people today." Joseph prefers to follow the method of the One who always works through our free "yes." This is why the Gospel records not a single word from Joseph, in stark contrast to the "experts" of our time who always have a comment for everything.
This man’s silence is saturated with the Presence of the One he is called to guard. In fulfilling his task of "giving a name" to the Son of God, he discovered his own unique and unrepeatable vocation. This is the same way our own children long to be called—not as part of a nameless mass where "everyone is equal," but as a unique "I." Joseph leaves space for the One who fills everything with Himself.
This was Joseph’s Destiny: "Then, warned in a dream, he withdrew to the region of Galilee and went to live in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been said through the prophets might be fulfilled: 'He will be called a Nazarene'" (Mt 2:22-23).
