Dai­ly Reflec­tion
Jan­u­ary 9, 2017

Monday of the First week in Ordi­nary Time
Lectionary: 305
Rev. Andy Alexan­der, SJ

After our time of cel­e­brat­ing the Christ­mas sea­son, we return to observ­ing Ordi­nary Time - or, more pre­cise­ly, “count­ed time” between now and the begin­ning of Lent. For the next eight weeks, we will move through the first ten chap­ters of Mark’s gospel. It is a ter­rif­ic time to let Jesus tell us his sto­ry in a very direct way.

It’s won­der­ful that the sto­ry begins with Jesus call­ing his first four dis­ci­ples. They live by the sea and fish­ing is their liveli­hood. The sto­ry becomes help­ful for me when I let myself imag­ine the scene hap­pen­ing to me - the way it often does.

Jesus often approach­es us right in the midst of our every­day busy life. He knows who we are. He made us. He’s always been with us. Noth­ing that’s hap­pened to us or in us is unknown to him. Jesus calls the first four away from their boats and nets, he calls them to use their gifts - for fish­ing - to serve him, to be his com­pan­ion in respond­ing to the call his Father gives him. They, who are good at cast­ing out nets, will learn to cast out nets in a new and dif­fer­ent way.

I imag­ine that this is the way Jesus calls each of us. Only rarely does he call one or oth­er of us to leave our job and do some­thing entire­ly dif­fer­ent - though he cer­tain­ly does do that. Quite often, how­ev­er, he calls us to use our gifts in new and dif­fer­ent ways, where we are.

The “lis­ten­ing” of Ordi­nary Time can be a day to day process of being atten­tive to how our Lord is call­ing each of us to use our gifts in the ways which place us with Jesus, in min­istry, for and with oth­ers. For exam­ple, no mat­ter what we do - which might at first seem com­plete­ly mun­dane or sec­u­lar - every­thing we do can be expe­ri­enced and done with a heart more like Jesus’ heart. To be spe­cif­ic, I might be in a work­place which is drain­ing for me, and where I might find frus­tra­tion, or even anger and a lot of judg­ment of oth­ers there. To open my heart to be like Jesus’ heart can help me do that same job, while expe­ri­enc­ing the sit­u­a­tion through Jesus’ eyes. Instead of impa­tience and resent­ment, I might feel more mis­sioned to do what I do with a gen­tler spir­it. I might even reflect upon the bur­dens that my cowork­ers have had to car­ry and grow in a real com­pas­sion for them, even to the extent that, though I may not like what they do all the time, I can feel for their strug­gle and under­stand bet­ter why they are the way they are.

Anoth­er thing can begin to hap­pen. When I become less “upset” or “dis­turbed” by what is hap­pen­ing around me, and when my spir­it becomes more tran­quil - even more lov­ing - I con­tribute to chang­ing the atmos­phere around me. We can eas­i­ly see that hap­pen in our fam­i­ly, and it can extend to our work­place and our faith com­mu­ni­ty. I can con­tribute to the tox­i­c­i­ty in my fam­i­ly or my work or my parish. Or, I can become an inspi­ra­tion to oth­ers - less so by what I say, and more so by what I do, espe­cial­ly, how I act.

When there is a grow­ing joy and peace in my heart, it becomes attrac­tive to oth­ers. It is calm­ing and less threat­en­ing to oth­ers. Instead of being a part of the con­flict and divi­sion, I can become a part of the seren­i­ty and calm around me. Even­tu­al­ly, I can real­ize and expe­ri­ence that - with­out leav­ing my boat or my nets - I’m cast­ing nets with Jesus, for the hearts of others.

What fam­i­ly, work­place, faith com­mu­ni­ty could­n’t use more dis­ci­ples who are instru­ments of his peace?

Lord, let me rec­og­nize the way you call me today. When you say “Come after me,” let me respond with an open heart. Help me get rid of my excus­es. Heal me so that I can join you in draw­ing oth­ers to you. Let me be a source of com­fort, com­pas­sion, joy and heal­ing for oth­ers. Let me imi­tate your dar­ing way of being with any­one, every­one, with such an accom­pa­ny­ing and accept­ing pres­ence. I so desire to learn new ways to be your disciple.

Rev. Andy Alexan­der, SJ

Co-founder of Creighton’s Online Min­istries, Retired 2025

I was born and raised in Oma­ha, 8 blocks from where I now work.  My par­ents were very involved in the Jesuit parish here and were out­stand­ing exam­ples of a com­mit­ment to ser­vice for my sis­ter and me as we were grow­ing up.  I entered the Jesuits in 1966, and was ordained in 1979.

I love giv­ing the Spir­i­tu­al Exer­cis­es of Ignatius, in any adap­ta­tion.  One of my great­est priv­i­leges was to serve as pas­tor at Gesu Parish in Mil­wau­kee for 8 years before com­ing here.  The com­mu­ni­ty there taught me about church, and the rela­tion­ship between the wor­ship which says who we are and the min­istry to which it sends us.

One of the priv­i­leges of being back in Oma­ha was help­ing my moth­er care for my father, the last four and a half years of his life.  Both of my par­ents have died and are enjoy­ing the embrace of the Lord which they taught me about all of their lives.

When I write these reflec­tions, I try to imag­ine the peo­ple who will be read­ing them.  I try to imag­ine what ways I might be in sol­i­dar­i­ty with peo­ple strug­gling in any way.   Then I read the read­ings.  Then I ask, “what is the good news that we need to hear?”  Some­thing usu­al­ly just comes, to me.

It is tremen­dous­ly con­sol­ing to receive mail from peo­ple around the world, sim­ply express­ing grat­i­tude for a reflec­tion.  Most of the time, it is enough to know, from the num­bers, that peo­ple are find­ing this site to be a help­ful spir­i­tu­al support.