“Why stop short at brotherhood?” Asked this way, the question why some Jesuits choose to be brothers instead of priests reveals a prevailing lack of familiarity and appreciation for the vocation to brotherhood in particular and the vocation to religious life in general. It also derives from a clerical culture in the Church that exalts ordained priesthood at the risk of overlooking the rich variety of vocations and roles of members who make up the Body of Christ.
Shared Mission
Jesuit brothers and priests together form the apostolic body of the Society of Jesus. As Jesuits, brothers and priests share the call of the Father to be “companions of Jesus,” who is poor and humble, and to dedicate their lives to the greater service of God and the universal good. In today’s world, this corporate mission of the Society which they share is expressed as “the service of the faith of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement.”
Although the simplistic differentiation that assigned priests to public ministry and brothers to support roles in the background was commonly accepted before, Jesuit brothers are now regarded as being directly apostolic and public. They are intimately integrated into the same Society as the priests. They engage in a wide array of ministries that are available to every baptized person, ministries that express how every Christian takes on Christ’s character as priest, prophet, and king. They serve as youth ministers, teachers, administrators, spiritual directors, counselors, caregivers, researchers, social activists—in any work where the Gospel can be proclaimed to those whose dignity is threatened, who search for meaning, whose faith is failing. To prepare them for such work, Jesuit brothers receive rigorous training and formation in philosophy, theology, effective communication, spirituality, and whatever particular field their mission entails.
Specific Witness
But the vocation to Jesuit brotherhood is distinct from the vocation to Jesuit priesthood, just as the vocation to religious life is distinct from the vocation to priesthood. “In some ways the religious brother embodies religious life in its essence, and so is able to illustrate that life with particular clarity” (Fr Peter Hans Kolvenbach). Thus, the Jesuit brother gives a specific witness to two groups in the Church.
First, the Jesuit brother gives witness to those who are not ordained like himself. Much more than Jesuit priests, the Jesuit brother can identify with lay people. By devoting himself to his work, he calls attention to the dignity of labor and the ministries he shares with all the baptized. Furthermore, the Jesuit brother “witnesses to the value of the Jesuit vocation precisely as a religious vocation, apart from any position or value one might have as a priest” (Fr William Rehg). He is in a privileged position to manifest to the world the radical joy of a religious life that is defined by the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, which in turn free him for a total commitment to God in the Society. He does so without the privileges and status that may be attached to the clerical state.
Second, the Jesuit brother gives witness to his priest companions in the Society. The Jesuit brother contributes significantly to both community life and the apostolate of the Society (Fr Pedro Arrupe). By his fidelity and generosity as non-ordained, the brother reminds the priest of the immense value for religious of contributing to an unreserved sharing of life in community (koinonia), of offering gratuitous and collaborative service out of love for one another (diaconia), and of evangelizing and denouncing above all by example both within and outside the community (kerygma). Moreover, by directly participating in the apostolate of the Society, the brother reminds the priest of how his “sacramental ministry is primarily apostolic, oriented by the Society’s evangelizing, missionary charism and its current apostolic preferences” (Rehg). In other words, the Jesuit brother stands as an affirmation of the Jesuit identity of the Jesuit priest.
So, returning to where we started, “Why stop short at brotherhood?” Perhaps the first answer is “Brotherhood does not stop short,” because it is its own gifted vocation, not to be measured against the standard of priesthood. But a more important answer is, “Why not Jesuit brotherhood, when it is God who calls to this particular life-mission?” In the end, the Jesuit brother responds to a valuable personal vocation in a Society whose members are all “friends in the Lord,” within the broader call to be a companion of Jesus, poor and humble, in and for the world.
[Based on General Congregation 34, decree 7, “The Jesuit Brother” (1995); Fr Peter Hans Kolvenbach SJ, “The Vocation and Mission of the Jesuit Brother” in CIS n.78 (1995); Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ, “Meeting with Brothers” in Acta Romana 27 (1978); and Fr William Rehg SJ, “The Value and Viability of the Jesuit Brother’s Vocation” in Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits (2008).]