Elijah is discouraged. The people aren’t listening to him. In fact, they are out to get him. He goes and hides - a venerable tradition. And he listens for the voice of the Lord to call him out of his cave and give him his mission. But, he’s listening in all the wrong places. God’s voice isn’t in all the scary and threatening things he’s listening to. God’s voice finally comes to him as a tiny whispering sound - perhaps deep in his own heart. He is to leave the cave and take up the mission he is given.
Oh, Lord, in my fear, in my discouraged and wounded times, let me listen for you, for your gentle voice, deep down inside my own heart.
Jesus is calling us to a fidelity and integrity beyond simply avoiding infidelity. Beyond the commandment to not be unfaithful to the spouse we have vowed to be faithful to, Jesus calls us to confront our lusting. He knows avarice and greed are at the heart of infidelity, for they stem from ingratitude. Whenever I am lacking in gratitude for what I have, I want more. And we know that rape-like greed is deadly. It never leads to fulfillment, only destruction. In startlingly obvious language, Jesus tells us to get rid of whatever leads to our unhappiness, to our self-destruction.
Oh, Lord, help me to be faithful, grateful, simple and honest. As Ignatius prayed, “give me your love and your grace, and I’ll be rich enough, and ask for nothing more.”
Rev. Andy Alexander, SJ
Co-founder of Creighton’s Online Ministries, Retired 2025
I served at Creighton from 1996 to 2025. I served as Vice-president for Mission for three Presidents, directed the Collaborative Ministry Office and co-founded the Online Ministries website.
I loved seeing the number of faculty and staff who over the years really took up the mission as their own and made Creighton the Jesuit university it is today. I was also consoled to witness the website – a collaborative effort - touch the hearts of so many around the world.
I’m now living at St. Camillus – a Jesuit care facility in Milwaukee. Many of my days are spent dealing with my own health issues, as I carry out the mission we’ve been given, “to pray for the Church and the Society of Jesus.”
