Fingerprints And Footprints

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. 

Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”  (Matthew 1:18-23)

“God is with us.”  How so?  Saint Bonaventure said: “God is within all things but not enclosed; outside all things, but not excluded; above all things, but not aloof; below all things but not debased.  God’s center is everywhere, and God’s circumference is nowhere.”  Father Richard Rohr expands, “Therefore, the origin, magnitude, multitude, beauty, fullness, activity and order of all created things are the very footprints and fingerprints of God.  That is quite a lovely and very safe universe in which to live.”

Rohr continued [in “The Wisdom Pattern (2020)]: “The individual has always decided and discriminated as to where and if God’s image would be honored.  Sinners, heretics, witches, Muslims, Jews, Indians, native spiritualties, buffalo and elephants, land and water were the losers.  Yet we dared to call ourselves monotheists or ‘Christ-like.’  The Divine Indwelling, subject to our whimsical seeing, seems to dwell nowhere except in temples of our choosing.  It seems we have always had a ‘pro-choice’ movement.  Until we weep over these sins and publicly own our own complicity in the destruction of God’s creation, we are surely doomed to remain blind…”

Yes, God is with us, but we often forget God’s presence because St. Bonaventure’s description leaves us confused and uncertain.  Perhaps it is best to think of the fingerprints and footprints we leave are God’s provided we weep over our sins and no longer see whimsically.

Deacon David Pierce