Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: Isaiah 58: 1-9

Thus says the Lord GOD:
Cry out full-throated and unsparingly,
lift up your voice like a trumpet blast;
Tell my people their wickedness,
and the house of Jacob their sins.
They seek me day after day,
and desire to know my ways,
Like a nation that has done what is just
and not abandoned the law of their God;
They ask me to declare what is due them,
pleased to gain access to God.
“Why do we fast, and you do not see it?
afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?”

Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits,
and drive all your laborers.
Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting,
striking with wicked claw.
Would that today you might fast
so as to make your voice heard on high!
Is this the manner of fasting I wish,
of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!

The Gospel of the Lord.

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I remember as a child playing a game with my cousins. We’d jump into our grandfather’s pool and see how long we could hold our breath for: ten, twenty, thirty seconds.

Sometimes the winner would have to wait underwater for over a minute until the loser started squirming, nearly blue in the face!

It was a pointless game, really. Boys being boys.

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That feeling of repression – of holding our breath in until we’ve nearly fainted – reminds me of a potential pitfall we face during Lent. We’re all aware of the spiritual practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. 

But what kind of fruit do we expect these practices to yield in our daily lives? Will they lead to a genuine change of heart? To a lasting growth in compassion towards the poor and persecuted? To a change in perspective? A deeper intimacy with God?

Or will we pray, fast, and give simply because we “should”?

As the prophet Isaiah warns in our first reading: “Your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!”

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Lent can be inconvenient, even somewhat painful. But it’s meant to direct our attention to our deepest hunger – that for God – as well as towards the real hunger that many face in our world without choice. A hunger for warmth, food, even meaning.

“Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked when you see them,” Isaiah says. Live Lent joyfully. Then the Lord will hear us when we cry out to him.

Otherwise, if we’re just holding our breath until Easter, then we might as well dive underwater until we’re blue in the face.

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Image credits: (1) Catholic Diocese of LaCrosse (2) Trochia Ministries (3) BBC Science Focus Magazine

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Deuteronomy 30: 15-20

Moses said to the people:
“Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him, and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish;
you will not have a long life
on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
For that will mean life for you,
a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore
he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

The Word of the Lord.

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“I set before you life and death… Choose life.” A desperate Moses pleads with Israel in our first reading. They have reached the end of their 40-year sojourn in the desert after being freed from slavery in Egypt.

Now they are on the edge of the Promised Land, but Moses will not enter; his death is imminent. So, he leaves his people with a long farewell speech, recognizing that his nation – perhaps like our own today – is at a crossroad. 

If the Jews are to keep their land, and not return to exile, then they must, “choose life,” which meant a number of things. 

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First, Moses admonishes his people to accept their past failures, to recognize their helplessness without absolute reliance upon God, and to return to the covenant which God made with them. 

A new day was dawning with endless possibility, but Israel needs to repent, placing God back into the center of their lives. Whenever the Lord is relegated to second – or worse – things go awry.

Moses also recognizes that the human mind is deceptively liable to seek easy answers to complex questions. How Israel, tired and weak, could arise again as a sovereign nation seemed impossible. They had been grossly defeated.

But Moses warns them not to turn away from God at the first sign of difficulty. If God provided for his people for 40 years in the desert, then why would he abandon them now? 

Still, faith remained a deeply personal decision that would affect, not only the individual, but also the fate of the entire nation. Each would have to intentionally choose life.

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Perhaps Moses can speak to us today. “I set before you life and death. Choose life.” Choose hope. Choose the Gospel. Choose the Lord and his loving ways. 

While the problems we face are different from that of ancient Israel, our nation is also facing wide-ranging and complex issues that demand faith, hope, and love to solve. 

May God speak to our collective conscience this Lent as we seek to build, not only a Church, but also, “One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

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Image credits: (1) Allegiance Flag Supply (2) Mikeszone (3) Words, Nevertheless, WordPress

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Gospel: Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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On January 25^th, as snow was falling and freezing onto our streets, Olympians began to gather half-way around the world in the small, snowy, hilltop town of Cortina, located in the foothills of the Italian Alps. The time for the 2026 Winter Olympics had come.

Some of the greatest athletes in the world walked proudly into the Olympic stadium to the tune of their national anthems, with dreams of glory burning in their hearts.

Perhaps the most talked about athlete of all was Lindsey Vonn, the 41-year-old American gold medalist skier who came out of retirement for one last shot at victory. 

Although her Olympic dream ended after 13 seconds in a literal crash landing, she later posted on social media: “I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to.”

Vonn reminds us that we are not only capable of daring greatly, but we are also capable of doing great things. Competition is written into the human spirit. We all want to win – and some like her are willing to fight for it.

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Today, we mark the beginning of Lent – a forty-day journey into the desert with God. What are our hopes, even dreams, for this holy season?

Lent appropriately begins with Ash Wednesday, challenging our understanding of greatness. Were we only created for gold, a singular medal placed around our neck tied with ribbon? Or is there another dream – a bigger dream, a divine dream – we all share?

Saint Paul writes, “These athletes train for a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable one.” Much like downhill skiing, Paul describes Christianity in strongly athletic terms. When facing the end of his race, he wrote this to his spiritual son, Timothy.

“I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight; I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith… All that awaits me now is the crown of righteousness.”

Paul describes his faith journey in terms of effort; grit; sacrifice; and endurance. He exhausted himself for the sake of the Gospel. His goal was not a perishable, but an imperishable, crown.

One which everyone can be awarded.

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In a few moments, each of us will have a black cross of ash traced onto our foreheads. That cross is meant to remind us that everything and everyone in this world eventually returns to dust; even the world’s greatest athletes will fade into the annals of history.

But we who compete for the sake of the Gospel shall rise again, when God calls us by name, bestowing upon us glory beyond our wildest imagining.

This is the irony of our Christian faith. The only way up is down. Glory comes through humility. Blessings come from being last, from washing feet, from being the servant of all. And, mysteriously, death, my death, leads to life. 

Over these forty days of Lent, may we compete well, renewing our commitment to Christ and our neighbor through acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. May our goal be peace, inner renewal, and ultimately, an imperishable crown of glory.

Thanks be to God.

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Image credits: (1) WUKY, Winter Olympics Milano Cortina (2) Winter Olympics, Axios (3) Malcom Guite, WordPress