A Catholic Clergy Perspective: SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT (A): “RISE, AND DO NOT BE AFRAID” by Deacon Jim Merle

Friday, February 27, 2026

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT (A): “RISE, AND DO NOT BE AFRAID” by Deacon Jim Merle

In the 81 years I have lived, I have seen fear rob people of their lives in so many different areas.

The generation who lived during the Great Depression of the 1920s often became hoarders because they feared that if they did not save certain things they would run out of them and not be able to take care of a problem with which the items were made. My parents had about 20 boxes of bandages that would no longer stick to anything when I went through their belongings after their deaths in the 1990s.

A standup comedian friend of mine was drafted into the Viet Nam war in the 1960s and assigned as a corpsman on the front lines to help wounded soldiers get to a triage center. He returned haunted by the sights of many soldiers who lost limbs or their lives and became afraid of being on stage because he no longer found life experiences about which he could make a joke and a living in that area.

In the last several years, a former financial client and friend of mine lost her husband to brain cancer after he suffered for two years. She also developed a form of brain cancer for which there is no cure. During the three years she suffered she was afraid that her passing would put her three adult children, two of which have special needs, in straits due to bad financial decisions she may have made, and people would then take advantage of them. She died two years ago. Her children live in the same home, attend school, work various jobs (though they do not need to do so) and have taken two overseas vacations without any problems due to the good choices she made on their behalf.

Of the people mentioned above, one was a Catholic, one a Protestant, one a Jew and one with no religious affiliation. The first three did not practice their faiths. And, yet all four of them prayed to God to help them in their dilemmas. Why? My best guess, based on personally knowing them, they did not find anyone on earth that could console their fears. And so, God was their last hope.

In our first reading this weekend from Genesis, God tells Abram to leave his homeland and go elsewhere to be the blessing God will make him to be to everyone who meets him. Leaving all he has known, he trusts in God rather than into the fear of the unknown. His faith saved him and he is a model to us today of how we need to trust and rise in adversarial times.

St. Paul’s second letter to Saint Timothy in the second reading, writes about facing into hardship for the sake of the Gospel messages because God’s grace will support him to be the holy person he has been called to be rather than give into fear. By our Baptism, we too can expect challenging times as we try to balance our oneness with Christ against a world that sends mixed messages of how we should live our lives in wealth, fame and power. God’s manifest grace gives us the strength to rise and live in fidelity to the Gospel.

Jesus, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, illustrates God’s power of assuring for us by His Transfiguration that He along with His Father and the Holy Spirit indeed has all the answers we need to overcome our fears. But to prove that we need rise and be the disciples who represent God on the front lines to those in need who are afraid for whatever causes pain in their lives.

Lent is a time for us to work on those items which cause us discomfort in our relationship with God in fulfilling the purpose for which we are created. Let us take this week to seek a change in our hearts that will give us strength to overcome any fear(s) we may have that makes us less than whole. As Jesus said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.”

Reading 1:     Genesis 12:1 – 4a
Psalm:            33:4 – 5, 18 – 20, 22
Reading 2:     2 Timothy 1:8b – 10
Gospel:          Matthew 17:1 - 9

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Bishop Kevin W. Vann, JCD, DD, D MIN

He was ordained on May 30, 1981, and was assigned to graduate studies in canon law at the Angelicum in Rome, with residence at the graduate house of the North American College, the Casa Santa Maria dell’ Umilta. Pope Leo XIV, when a priest, also attended these classes at the same time. Upon returning to the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, Father Vann participated in the work of the Diocesan Tribunal and the Tribunal of Second Instance in Chicago. He served as pastor of parishes ranging in size from 35 to 1,300 families, two which had large schools. He taught canon law at Kenrick Seminary. Before he was named bishop, he was pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Springfield, Vicar for Priests and the Diocesan contact for Hispanic Ministry. Bishop Vann was ordained and installed as the third bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Forth Worth, Texas, on July 13, 2005, at Texas Christian University’s Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. In Texas, he collaborated closely with other bishops through the Texas Catholic Conference and Region X, which includes dioceses of States of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. He is the former Texas Bishops’ Liaison to the Texas Mission Council and Texas Catholic hospitals. And, through the U.S. Conference of Bishops, Bishop Vann was a leader in the Texas Conference of Bishops, providing leadership for various initiatives at the national level, including service on ad hoc committee which assisted the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to guide the incorporation of Anglican groups into the Catholic Church of the United States. On September 21, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI announced Bishop Vann’s appointment as the fourth bishop of Orange, the 11th largest diocese in the country and the second-largest west of the Mississippi with 1.3 million multicultural Catholics. He continues to lead the historic effort to transform the former Crystal Cathedral from a world-renowned center of Protestant worship into the West Coast’s most visible center of Catholicism.

Father Glenn Baaten

A priest of the ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a community with the Catholic Church made up of former Anglicans and Episcopalians. He Currently serves as Parish Administrator of St. John Henry Newman Catholic Church in Irvine and as Chaplain of Santiago Retreat Center in Silverado. His ministry within the Diocese of Orange, California, is a collaborative appointment by Bishop Steven Lopes and Bishop Kevin Vann. Fr. Glenn was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on June 24, 2016, the Feast of St. John the Baptist. His journey to the Catholic Church followed years of faithful ministry in Protestant communities. He was ordained a Presbyterian pastor in 1998 and served a PCUSA parish in Cincinnati, Ohio. After returning to California in 2010, he discerned a call to Anglican ministry and was ordained in the Church of England tradition in 2013. He relinquished his Anglican holy orders and, after catechesis, was received into the Church on Christmas eve of that year. Fr. Glenn has been married to Cathy for 42 years. They are the blessed parents of two adult children and grandparents of three. His ministry is marked by a strong commitment to evangelization, Christian unity and sacred beauty of the liturgy. As a follower of Christ these many past decades – most especially as a priest – Fr. Glenn is committed to sharing the grace and love of Jesus to all and living the depth of that faith in the fulness of the Catholic Church.

Deacon Jim Merle

Deacon Jim was ordained 20 years ago on April 30, 2005, and lives in Southern California where he has served the Catholic Church on parish, diocesan and national levels. He periodically writes Pastoral Letters for church bulletins, as well as articles for the Diaconate community’s “Bowl & Towel” and the diocesan newspaper in addition to “A Catholic Deacon’s Perspective,” recently renamed “A Catholic Clergy’s Perspective” with the addition of Bishop Kevin W. Vann and Fr. Glenn Baaten as periodic writers. On the parish level he has served at three parishes involved in helping with Sacramental training, Faith Formation and annulments. His diocesan involvements include a six-year term on the Diaconate Personnel Board, a founding committee member of the God’s Servants Committee (an educational component of quarterly meetings for active deacons), as a Master of Ceremonies at Confirmations, ordinations, installations and other ceremonies, an Advanced Master Catechist Certification to teach theological and certification classes and recently was selected to head up a Deanery Council of Deacons and their wives to support their ordination faculties and activities in each of the seven deaneries. On a local and national level, he coordinated the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) diocesan board for 14 years. CCHD is the domestic social justice arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) which distribute parishioner’s donations for non-profit organizations to empower the impoverished, marginalized and disenfranchised who have social justice needs. In his early career he was a writer/reporter for a well-known Chicago newspaper, as well as owning a public relations/advertising firm. He is now semi-retired and works parttime in two professional practices he owns. On a personal note, he is married 57 years, helped rear four children with his wife, a grandfather to 10 grandchildren and a great grandfather to six great grandchildren.

BLOG INTRODUCTION

Scripture is like the eyes into God’s soul. Whether from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) or the New Testament, we can garner, as best we can, who God is (what He feels and how He thinks in human terms). The original and current purpose of this blog, which began in 2019, is to take a three-year cycle of A, B and C Gospels and readings from each Sunday and provide a perspective as it pertains to our current lives as seen through the eyes of a Catholic clergy who serve Catholics in words and deeds per their ordination. Since completing the three-year cycles, it has been expanded to investigate the areas of Commentaries, Scripture and Theology. It is because of that the blog will now have writings from Bishop Kevin Vann, Ordinary of the Diocese of Orange, California, Father Glenn Baaten, a former Anglican priest, ordained into the Roman Catholic Church as a priest, and Deacon Jim Merle, who recently celebrated his 20th year ordination and started this blog. Bishop Vann and Father Glenn will author articles on a periodic basis based upon the time they have to devote to the blog. Deacon Jim will continue to offer weekly articles, still based on the three-year cycle along with various current events that challenge us to balance our humanity with our spiritual lives. The hope is that you, our subscribers, will see this as something of value to help you grow closer to the Lord.