Try To Solve This Remarkable Resemblance Mystery

The jury is out on this one.

When we celebrated the Solemnity of St. Joseph last week, I saw this striking image several times on the internet, and it fascinated me, not only because of its beauty but because it’s quite an interpretation mystery (I happen to like those!)

Is the man standing behind the Virgin Mary St. Joseph or Jesus?

The people posting it were convinced it was Joseph, but I’m not sure. I searched around the internet to see if could find the origin of the image or any interpretation, but I came up blank.

In any case, here are the two possibilities:

The case for Joseph:

• The male and female figures in the picture look to be the same age.

• Though a long artistic tradition presents Joseph as an older man, there is no biblical evidence to suppose he was much older than Our Lady when they were betrothed.

• And, as often happens, spouses sometimes resemble each other, or they come to resemble each other as the years of their union advance.

• Lacking any other identifying signs, there is no reason why the man in the image could not be St. Joseph.

The case for Jesus:

• The two figures have near identical features, eyes, hair, facial structure, etc.

• As I’ve written elsewhere, since Mary was Jesus’ only biological parent, He must have had her same blood type, and it’s likely that He had similar physical features as well.

• Hence, lacking any other identifying signs, there is no reason why the man in the image could not be Jesus.

So, we are still left with the mystery of interpretation.

But the Christian religion is all about mystery, isn’t it?!