From today’s gospel: “After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'"

The heavens are opened, and Jesus, the beloved Son, becomes the bridge reuniting God and humanity. But being beloved, as we know, carried a cost for Jesus: he shared God’s love in such an unconditional way that completing our reunion with God would result in his complete self-sacrifice. Perhaps, on this day that we close the season of Christmas, we need to remind ourselves that the love of the Incarnation is not simple or easy, but one that remains with us in the difficulties of our lives.

From today’s first reading: “I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness."

This is the very point that the prophet Isaiah makes about the messiah. God’s love walks with us, enlightening us, freeing us, and removing us from darkness. And as “ambassadors and ministers of Jesus Christ" (De La Salle), we are called to share this as we walk with our students.

“The signs of the times alert [Lasallians] once more to the importance of their mission in today’s world. . . ." (Adapted from The Brother of the Christian Schools in the World Today: A Declaration, 1967)

Recent events have been a little out of the ordinary, but reading the signs of the times at San Miguel demands that we, too, renew our focus on the Lasallian mission. No matter who the principal, president, or CIP director is, our students are here, we have been turning applicants away at the door, and more are coming. The neighboring school districts are not getting better; high school graduation rates and college persistence rates for students like ours in the public schools are not improving. We have been engaged in studying and planning, and have learned much. There will be 251 students in the building tomorrow morning, and another 88 off to work. They need their eyes opened, to be freed from the confinement of what they don’t know. Who else will be their companions in seeking enlightenment? Who else will guide them? Who else will be their bridge to reconciliation with God, no matter how hard their lives, and ours, might be?

Provident God, as a Lasallian family, we cherish as a sacred gift our Lasallian stories. As a pilgrim people, we trust in the Providence upon which De La Salle relied, and so far has never failed us.

May your Holy Spirit guide us in wisdom, that we might be receptive to the same holy audacity that guided the Magi to see the Savior in a simple, unassuming baby. We open our hearts to this same Spirit, summoning the same courage that led De La Salle to return to his community and simply ask “What do you want of me?" Guide us in this time of transition to continue our legacy as a vibrant community that provides a human and a Christian education for the young, especially the poor.

United in our love for each other and our students, hold us close in comfort as we perceive that, in new ways, you provide the means for all to come to knowledge of the truth and to be saved. We ask all of this through the intercession of our founder, Saint John Baptist de La Salle, and our patron, San Miguel Febres Cordero.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

(The structure of the prayer, and a little of the wording, is borrowed, with thanks, from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Campus Ministry)