The Problem faced by St. Joseph

For us Christians, Jesus is the Son of God, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. This is a distinctively Christianity doctrine, not shared by the other monotheistic religions such as Judaism and Islam. Like any other doctrines, it must have gone through a development before it comes down to the final form as we know it today.

St. Paul wrote his epistles before the gospels were written. For example, biblical scholars opine that the letter to the Romans was written in early 58 A.D. Luke, a disciple of Paul, followed the teachings of Paul to write the gospel of Luke in around 62 A.D. Even here, we see a development of the views on Jesus being the Son of God. For Paul, Jesus is the Son of God because of his resurrection from the dead, which is the core of his proclamation of the gospel.
"and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4)
On the other hand, in the gospel of Luke, Jesus is the Son of God not because of his resurrection but of his incarnation.
"And the angel said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)
Jesus is the Son of God from the very beginning. Subsequently, Satan tested him and the demons recognized him.
To both New Testament authors, the Holy Spirit makes Jesus the Son of God, whether it is the beginning or the end of Jesus' earthly existence.

Now, let us return to meditate on the gospel reading today, on the problem St. Joseph faced when Mary was found to be pregnant. Let us put ourselves in his shoes. St. Joseph had no idea who violated Mary and even when Mary told him that the child was the work of the Holy Spirit, how would Joseph accept this so called explanation? The Torah did not offer much help for cases of betrothed virgins. Deuteronomy 22 could not deal with a man who was missing in this case. As for the woman, her life would be spared if the case took place in the open country where nobody would come to rescue her even if she cried for help. But since "the man" was missing, there was no way to determine where it happened. Therefore, the Torah could not give any guidance. Surely Mary would not be the first woman violated by a "missing man". There must be in place some customs to deal with it. No matter what customs they might be, Mary and similar victims would be the only person to bear the burden, some kind of public shame. Stoning her to death would still be a legitimate option. There might be other forms of public shame, depending on the particular social and political situations of different towns. But Joseph did not want to put Mary to shame.

Matthew is ambiguous as to how public Mary was found to be pregnant. From what Joseph resolved to do, we hypothesize that it was not yet a public knowledge. Just think about it. How could Joseph divorce (ἀπολῦσαι) Mary quietly (Matthew 1:19)? It would be a contradiction. Joseph could follow the Torah to write a divorce letter to free Mary from her marriage obligation so that she would be able to marry her "missing man". In so doing, it could not be done in private.
One way to resolve this contradiction is to look for another translation of the word ἀπολῦσαι. This word which is usually translated as divorce (ἀπολῦσαι) can be rendered as "send away". Therefore, we have to assume that Mary's pregnancy was not yet public so that Joseph could send her away quietly and Mary had to leave Nazareth. Here, an angel intervened and the rest is history.

Joseph was a righteous man. He was righteous not just because he followed the Torah but because he did not want to put Mary to shame. He had a big heart and cared about the needs of Mary, his betrothed wife. He did not take Mary as his property which he was entitled to as a betrothed husband. St. Joseph thought about what the best for Mary was. St. Joseph is a role model for husbands.
St. Joseph, pray for us husbands and men. Amen.