What We Don’t Want To Be True: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent

3^rd Sunday Lent, A                                                                                March 12, 2023
Fr. Alexander Albert                                                     St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette

The philosopher Peter Kreeft once summarized the 2 main ideas of atheism as: One, there is no God. Two, I hate him. A lack of faith is rarely purely intellectual. It is almost always connected to some kind of anger or resentment at who they thought God was supposed to be. It’s also pretty similar to what we see with this woman at the well.

Jesus’ goal in this conversation is to give the water of life to this woman. But he first draws her into conversation, lets her experience his care for her. Then, when he brings up the biggest obstacle to her receiving it – her sin – he’s gentle. He first offers her a chance to bring up the truth about her situation, but she’s cagey and vague. So then he cuts to the chase. “You have had five husbands.”

Notice what she does immediately after that. Deflects. She brings up an entirely unrelated theological controversy. What does the Jewish-Samaritan debate about the Temple have to do with her sin of adultery? Well, if she can show that the Jews are wrong about the Temple, maybe she won’t feel so bad about breaking other commandments. Maybe then she wouldn’t have to go to the well in the heat of the day to avoid the other women in the village who go in the morning.

Jesus doesn’t back down, though. He clearly defends the truth that the Jews are right about the Temple, but also pushes past that to the real point: salvation. The theology matters not because it proves the Jews are smarter than the Samaritans, but because it leads to authentic hope. This promise of worship in spirit and truth touches something deep within this woman, capitalizes on her innate desire to be right with God.

Like the atheist who resents the God he doesn’t believe in, all this woman really wants is peace and joy. In both cases it is sin and error that gets in the way, but each of them would rather hide behind arguments than address the problem within. In both cases, the way forward is to speak to that deeper, inner desire for joy and peace.

When Jesus touches on this desire, she can’t help but respond with excitement. “I know that the Messiah is coming… he will tell us everything.” Finally she is being fully sincere, fully open with what she wants. She does want the truth, but she imagines it as something hidden in the future. This habit of putting it off has allowed her to stay on the fence – to both want the truth, but also avoid facing it in her own life and sin. But now that she has exposed that deeper desire, Jesus can reveal to her that he is in fact the messiah, he is the one she is looking for. And because all this truth has been revealed to her in the context of love, she is finally able to embrace it, even running off to tell others about it.

Now, obviously, there are important differences between an atheist and this woman, but there are important similarities. For one, in both cases we see that human beings do not base themselves only on reason or only on emotion. All of our foundational beliefs and all of our biggest decisions feature some mixture of the two. Really, it’s even more complex than that, but this still gets at the point. And what is that point? That we are really good at deceiving ourselves.

Almost everyone thinks that they are being reasonable. Almost everyone thinks that they have struck the right balance between what different groups of people think. Almost everyone is actually hiding from some truth to try to justify themselves. This woman is a well-known adulteress, but she still thinks she knows better than those Jews. The other Samaritans in town are confident enough to ostracize this woman because she’s a sinner, but they’ve mixed pagan errors into their faith. The disciples are following the Messiah, but they completely misunderstand his metaphors and still don’t realize how zealous Jesus is for proclaiming the truth… even to Samaritan women.

23% of Americans are Catholics, but 75% of them think the Eucharist is just a symbol and isn’t really Jesus. Everyone knows that Catholics are supposed to go to confession, but less than half go even once a year. Knowing the truth, loving the truth, living the truth… these things are unfortunately all too easy for us to separate. And the more sin you inject into the equation, the harder it is to see the disconnect.

So what is the answer? Jesus Christ is the answer. You see, unlike a philosophical debate about whether or not God exists, unlike a theological debate about which version of God is the right one, this conversation between the Samaritan woman and Jesus is not just about ideas. Jesus doesn’t just explain some true concepts, he is the truth. Human beings, especially fallen ones, need more than correct ideas. They need personal encounter because only personal encounter can meet them on all the layers at once: intellectual, spiritual, emotional.

And this matters both for ourselves and for others. For ourselves, it is a call to humility about our own personal convictions. There is a real chance… basically a guarantee that some of our beliefs and ideas aren’t based on the truth, but on our desires, emotions, and wounds. For others, it is a challenge to be human in how we proclaim the gospel to others. They do need to hear the truth – Jesus was straightforward that the Samaritan woman was wrong – but they need to hear it as an invitation to a relationship with the truth that is Jesus Christ.

It’s why God became Man. It’s why our sacraments use words, gestures, and physical objects. It’s why we fast in Lent. It’s we insist on using music and art in conveying the faith to the next generation. Catholicism is not a set of ideas, it is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And Jesus Christ is a real person. He’s not your imaginary friend for you to define however you like. There are things about him that a true, whether you like it or not. If we get the wrong idea about who Jesus is, then we wouldn’t have a relationship with Jesus, but with our own imagination. Then our hope would simply be delusional. This is why the Church is so essential. It’s an external guarantee that you have a relationship with more than your own ideas and imagination.

Sometimes, we need the truth plainly stated. Sometimes we need healing of our wounds. Always, we need conversion and forgiveness. Always, we need love. Fortunately, all of these things are found in one and the same person: Jesus Christ. Jesus, who not only debated about the truth, but loved us with that truth. Loved us so much “what while we were still sinners [he] died for us.” See that love, let go of your pride, and let him bring you to the truth. The truth about your sin, the truth about yourself, the truth about what you’re called to do. Then go do it… because you’re not the only one who needs it.