As a Jesuit Brother, Brent Gordon, SJ, Ministers to Jesuits
By Therese Fink Meyerhoff
Brother Brent Gordon, SJ, has a favorite artifact in the Jesuit Archives in Rome. The archive is the repository of 500 years of Jesuit work and wisdom, with content readily available for scholars to access, including some of the earliest documents of the Society of Jesus, such as an early version of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the Constitutions.
Brother Gordon’s favorite? The ballots used when Ignatius of Loyola was elected superior general.
“All the Jesuits – Peter Faber, Simão Rodrigues, Francis Xavier – we have all their votes with their signatures,” he noted. “What I love is they’re on little scraps of paper. They were ballots; they weren’t planning to keep them. But someone made that decision and throughout the whole history of the Society, these were preserved. That, to me, is so cool.”
These simple, ragged strips of paper bring that historic moment to life. One can easily envision the early companions divvying up some paper and marking their votes. To Gordon, this demonstrates the way the archives creates connections between people of the past and today’s visitors.
“It’s not just theoretical, right? These were real people, and they really did these things. And other people have saved them over the years so that you could come and see them today,” he said. “It’s not just Jesuit history, but our shared human history too.”
Gordon is in the regency stage of formation, during which Jesuits gain ministerial/work experience while living in a Jesuit community. He already had teaching experience when he entered the Society in 2018, so Fr. Provincial Tom Greene chose an atypical regency assignment for him. Gordon works in the publications department of the Jesuit Archives while completing his doctoral dissertation on the early days of the Society of Jesus. In particular, Brother Gordon is exploring the origins of Jesuit Brothers.
In the early days of the Society, brothers – or temporal coadjutors – were brought in to handle the “worldly” tasks like sewing and cooking for the Jesuit community. Over time, brothers also became architects and artists, among other skilled positions.
Steeped as he is in Jesuit history, Gordon believes that as a Jesuit brother, he is called to serve other Jesuits. “I don’t have the skills of those early brothers – I’m not a good tailor or carpenter or painter. I’m an academic. So, in many respects, my work looks like that of many Jesuit priests. The difference is who I am called to minister to. I think first and foremost of my community members. I want to be someone who will look out for them. That, for me, is the essence of what it means to be a brother.”
This focus is reflected in his approach to his academic work. “Obviously, I want the scholarship to be solid,” he said. “But I think about my work primarily in terms of how it can serve the Society of Jesus and how it can help encourage our charism.”
Do you think you might be called to life as a Jesuit? Visit www.BeAJesuit.org to learn more about our vocation or visit the Become a Jesuit section of this site.
