The birth of Jesus Christ was like this: Mary being married to his mother with Joseph, before they met together, it was found that she had conceived of the Holy Spirit. José her husband, as he was fair, and did not want to make a name for her, wanted to leave her secretly. And when he thought of this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said to him, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to receive Mary your wife, because what is begotten in her is the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you will call his name JESUS, because he will save his people from their sins. All this happened so that what was said by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, when he said:
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
And you will call his name Emanuel,
What is translated is: God with us. And Joseph, waking from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and received his wife. But he did not know her until she gave birth to her firstborn son; and he named him JESUS. Matthew 1: 18-25 (KJV)
The firmness of what we believe is measured by the degree of willingness we have to suffer for those beliefs. Joseph was a man with definite beliefs. He was willing to do good without caring about the pain he caused. However, José had another characteristic: he not only did the good, but he tried to do it as he should.
When Maria told him about her pregnancy, José knew that he was not the father. Since she knew Maria well, when she explained what happened and saw the attitude she had towards the child that was going to be born, it must have been difficult for her to think that her girlfriend had done something wrong. However, someone was the father of the child and it was difficult for him to accept that "someone" was God.
José decided to end his commitment, but he was determined to do it so that he would not bring an affront to María. He tried to act with justice and with love.
But God sent a messenger to confirm what Mary said and open a new path of obedience for Joseph: accept Mary as his wife. Joseph obeyed God, married Maria and respected his virginity until the child was born.
We do not know how long Joseph lived as Jesus' earthly father. He is mentioned for the last time when Jesus was twelve years old. But Joseph trained his son in the art of carpentry, he made sure that he had a good spiritual education in Nazareth, and he was taking the whole family on the annual trip to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter, which Jesus continued to observe during his years as an adult
Joseph knew that Jesus was a special person from the moment he heard the words of the angel. His firm belief in that fact, and his openness to the words of God, enabled him to be the earthly father of Jesus.
José faced a difficult decision when he discovered that María was pregnant. Despite being aware that taking Mary as a wife could be humiliating, he chose to obey God's command by marrying her. His action revealed four admirable qualities: (1) inflexible principles (1.19), (2) discretion and sensitivity (1.19), (3) availability before God, (1.24), and (4) self-discipline (1.25).
No human being can understand the magnitude of God's plans, as well as the immensity of his love. The attitude of obedience of Joseph before the authority of God allowed the blessing to reach him until he was perpetuated in history. We can say about him, that he was a man with integrity.