Optional Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

REFLECTION:

We are still in the Christmas season—a season that reminds us that God often works quietly, slowly, and without full explanation. And it is during this very season that news reached us at Maryknoll School that gives us pause. Three staff members submitted their resignations before the semester began. Each had their own reasons—personal, professional, and discerned in ways that are theirs alone. As with any transition, the practical work now begins: communication with parents and staff, coverage for responsibilities, and ensuring that the mission and daily life of the school continue. The work must go on.

This is not unfamiliar territory. In ministry and leadership, moments of sudden change are part of the journey. The mission of a Catholic school has never depended on the permanence of any one individual. It rests on something deeper—on Christ at the center and on a shared commitment to faith, formation, and service.

Yet while logistics can be addressed, the more difficult challenge is often the story we tell ourselves. When information is limited, when details are private, and when explanations cannot be fully shared, human nature fills the silence. We create narratives. We assign meaning. We assume causes. The gap between what we know and what we want to know can quickly be filled with speculation.

It is precisely here that Saint John speaks to us: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.”

Christmas itself teaches this truth. When Christ was born, very little was revealed. Mary and Joseph did not know how everything would unfold. The shepherds saw only a child in a manger. The Magi followed a star without a map. God did not explain everything—He simply came. The mystery was revealed not all at once, but over time.

This is how God often works. Even when Jesus was with His disciples, He told them that not everything would be revealed immediately. They wanted clarity. They wanted answers. Yet Jesus invited them to trust—to believe that God was at work even when the full picture was not yet visible. In doing so, He formed their hearts not in certainty, but in hope.

John continues by pointing us toward that same hope. Christmas assures us that God is present and active, even when circumstances feel unsettled. What we see now is not the whole story. God is still shaping who we are becoming as a community, just as He was shaping salvation history through a child quietly growing in Nazareth.

And then John offers a gentle challenge: “Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.”

Purity here is not about perfection. It is about integrity—of heart, of speech, and of intention. During this Christmas season, purity is revealed in how we treat one another when emotions are tender and answers are incomplete. It shows itself in charity over conjecture, restraint over reaction, and unity over division.



As a Catholic school community, Christmas reminds us that faith does not eliminate uncertainty—it teaches us how to live faithfully within it. We remain God’s children now. We trust that God is still at work. And like Mary, Joseph, and the first witnesses of Christ’s birth, we move forward not knowing everything, but believing that God is with us.

Even when not everything is revealed, Emmanuel—God with us—remains. And that is enough to carry us forward.