A Catholic Clergy Perspective: EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A): YOU FED ME WITH LOVE SO I COULD FEED OTHERS by Deacon Jim Merle

Friday, July 31, 2026

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A): YOU FED ME WITH LOVE SO I COULD FEED OTHERS by Deacon Jim Merle

At the end of our first five years of marriage, we had four children, a son, twin daughters and another daughter. It was difficult to raise a family on one income, so my wife started a part-time job to make sure we could pay all our bills and feed ourselves. It became my introduction to understanding through Candi’s decision the reality of what God means by reaching out in love to others no matter what difficulty one is facing. In this case taking care of a family during the day and working at night no matter what the personal cost to one’s physical well being.

Our readings and Gospel today talk about the difficulties in life that prevent us from being active in our faith; even though most of the reasons we give for being passive are based upon a preservation perspective rather than God’s perspective of what we are called by our Baptism to do. If we listen, however, we can find the impetus to be more initiative-taking to doing God’s will.

Isaiah, Chapter 55, is attributed toward the end of the Babylonian exile. It is an invitation to the Israelites from that time and us to put aside our fears, accepting the promises of God to feed us both physically and spiritually with renewal of a covenant of salvation. It prompts us to accept this gift because only God can provide us with what we need in life and to provide it in abundance because God is always dependable in all matters as our Creator.

St. Paul in his letter to the Romans begins and ends with being fed with God’s love. The beginning refers to the love of Christ in which we are told that nothing can come between us and Christ’s love even if we are troubled, worried, being persecuted, lacking food or clothes or being threatened or attacked. God will not refuse anything for us if we persevere in our living faith. We are in God’s hands.

Finally, the Gospel of St. Matthew illustrates for us the total meaning of love. Jesus, heartbroken about the death of His cousin, John the Baptist, who He tells us was the greatest prophet who ever lived, decides to go off by Himself in a boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee where He can be alone with His thoughts and prayers. The people who have been with Him, listening to His words and being healed, however, cannot leave Him alone and follow Him to where He would land. Filled with love and sadness, He leaves His solitariness and moves toward the needs of the people to feed them.

For us, the difficulty in not receiving Eucharist on a regular basis should not lessen who we believe we are as disciples. Jesus’ compassion for us, His disciples, is how we need to model our lives. Candi willingly putting the needs of the family ahead of her own comfort by caring for the children all day and then working at night is the sacrificial love of which Jesus illustrated in Matthew’s Gospel when He took care of the people who followed Him at the Sea of Galilee.

God continually feeds us with His love. We need to accept that love and feed others by keeping the meaning of Eucharist at the center of our lives so that no matter how difficult we believe life may be, God has a plan for us and He has given us all the tools we need to fulfill the purpose for which He created us: To feed us with His Love so we can feed others!

Reading 1:     Isaiah 55:1 – 3
Psalm:            145:8 – 9, 15 – 18
Reading 2:    Romans 8:35, 37 – 39

Gospel: Matthew 14:13 - 21

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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.