Image in our lives can sometimes be quite important if you think about it, as we want people to think of us much like a perspective employer might when a person prepared a resume – that we are the ideal candidate with very few flaws and would make a great hire.

Thankfully though, Jesus looks past the exterior into our hearts, and knows very well that we are hurting, but also hiding things from ourselves and one another.

This week’s Gospel is one of my favorites, the story of the woman at the well.

In the Gospel, Jesus meets a woman who is marginalized. She is living with a man who is not her husband, and she has been married several times before. People ostracize her so that no one helps her with the water, and she has to get water in the hottest part of the day because people do not want her around. After all, she is a “sinner.”

Jesus though is not afraid to spend time with her or concerned with “what the neighbors might think.” And this woman we meet gradually finds herself more and more comfortable with Him as they converse. We read of a beautiful conversation where she comes to terms with her bad decisions but also rejoices in the fact that she is loved, and she is liberated – no longer afraid of her past, or of her mistakes, but truly overjoyed and wanting to change for the better – and share this good news with others. That’s what love does.

All of us are impacted by sin; sometimes it’s our own sins, sometimes the sin of others, but all sin can enslave us and cut us off from God and one another. Sometimes we want to bury it and ignore it, but it has a way of coming up. Lent is the time to do something about it.

Thinking about this week’s Gospel, hopefully we are reminded that God loves us more than we can ever imagine. But with that ideally, we look at how we can continually combat sin too.

The starting point is mercy; of God meeting us where we are at. We must never fear coming to God with anything, and knowing that no matter what the sin we battle may be, He understands and always looks at us with the same gaze he looked at the woman at the well, or the good thief next to Him on the Cross; with the gaze of love, mercy and compassion.

We then acknowledge what we’ve done. The woman and Jesus engage in conversation, and He points out to her she’s made some bad choices. There is no condemnation there, but there is an acknowledgment on her part of the situation. But note she does not have shame. Shame is so destructive in making us think there is something wrong with us. Rather, she continues the conversation, eventually coming to see that He is the Messiah. It’s not fun thinking about our sins, but we can’t hide them in the shadows but need to turn them over to God by naming them and asking for His help.

She then with great joy invites others to come to know God. “He told me everything I have done” cries out the woman to her neighbors, wanting them to know about God too. It’s clear there’s been a transformation here. Mercy helps us, but it also causes us to take the steps needed to change. So, take those steps to find long term peace. When we are aware of our sins and turn them over to God, we use that mercy to change for the better. We surely will sin again, and the same sin may happen again, but our encounters with Jesus in prayer, in confession, in the Eucharist, and through other people who come into our lives who put us on a new path.

As we continue this journey now at the midpoint of Lent, may it truly deepen our faith, and may we remember our faith isn’t about image – others seeing how “holy” we are based on our external appearance or the things we do – but about a true interior conversion. God loves us more than we can ever imagine. Let’s not forget the good things we do for others and our gifts, but let’s be serious about how we want to grow and where we are struggling and open our hearts to God’s mercy and respond to it with joy like the woman at the well by finding true peace and a path to conversion.

God bless,

Fr. Paul

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March 6, 2026