Joseph's scruples are more than moving. Caught between the law and his love of Mary, he navigates a narrow path between two ethical imperatives by planning to wait till after the birth to deal with her supposed infidelity. Why? He wished to avoid embarrassing and endangering the life of the woman who had cheated on him. (or so he would have supposed) There is real grace and a deep understanding of human frailty at work here. Without projecting too much into the narrative, we can speculate that perhaps he knew what it meant to err and need forgiveness. The full redemption of our sins is only experienced once they are transformed into a merciful heart.

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