I have to share with you a secret that might scandalize some of you. Well, you know, this is the up-front generation where people are continually revealing little known facts about themselves, so, here it goes. I really like to scuba dive. When I go scuba diving, I don't wear my clerical shirt. Well, there it is. I don't wear a clerical bathing suit either. Not even a black suit with a thin white band around the waist. Often people in the various scuba resorts make it their business to find out what it is that I do for a living. Sometimes I avoid their curiosity by telling them that I'm a psychologist and adding, "So, how do you feel about your mother?" That can usually change the subject easily enough. Other times, when I tell people I've dived with and made friends with that I am a priest, I sense a tremendous awkwardness and self-consciousness. I remember one guy saying to me, "That's interesting, so what do you think about the Pope?" His awkwardness and fear that a question about religion could possible be steered towards him led him to find a way that the focus could be taken away from the place, or lack there of, of God in his life.

In the gospel reading from today, the woman at the well, does the same thing. She gets into a deep discussion with Jesus and realizes that he is a man of God. She can't handle this because she is very aware that she is not a woman of God, so she tries to steer the conversation to a theological debate, "We Samaritans worship God on the mountain and you Jews in Jerusalem." She couldn't care anymore about the debate than the guy at the scuba resort could care about my view of the pope. She just didn't want to consider her own need to clean up her religious act. The only thing is, Jesus, doesn't let her get away with this. He focuses his questions directly at her. He asks her about her husband and then reveals that he knows she has not led a very moral life. The woman takes a step of faith by confronting her sins which we see when she proclaims to her friends, "He told me everything that I have done." She says this full of joy because the real need she had in her life, the real thirst she had to find meaning in the mess she had made of her life, was finally quenched by the presence of the Lord. Her faith in Jesus led to a faith lifestyle.

Faith and conversion have to co-exist in our lives or we will be hypocrites to the world and to ourselves.

Our faith in Jesus tells us that he has called us to be his followers. We can't say we are people of faith if we refuse to follow the Lord. In fact, the stronger our faith is, the less we are inclined to give in to sin. Now I am not saying that the stronger our faith is the less we are inclined to sin; no matter how strong our faith is we are still human beings and will always be inclined to sin. However, the stronger our faith is the less we are inclined to give in to sin. The stronger our faith is the more we realize that giving in to sin would destroy that which means the most in our lives--the very presence of Jesus. Conversely, the more we sin the weaker our faith becomes. As we justify our sins, which we all do in some way or other, we begin convincing ourselves that God is really way out there, removed, not all that concerned if we let that which is not Christian seep into our lifestyles. We cannot be both great people of faith and terrible sinners. Sin and faith cannot and does not co-exist. Either sin will destroy faith or faith will be strong enough to destroy sin.

The attempts that people make, all of us make, to allow faith and sin to co-exist results in our being hypocrites to the world and to ourselves. The word hypocrite means to play a part, to be an actor. If we acted as though we were good Christians but did not live that way, we would be putting on a good act, but only that. Even if we do get away with fooling others, we cannot fool ourselves. Furthermore, just as learning that someone else is a hypocrite leads to our questioning his or her sincerity in every aspect of his or her life, so also, continuing in our own hypocrisy leads to our own negative views of our self-worth and results in the down ward spiral of sin in our lives. Virtue begets virtue. Sin begets sin. A simple fact of our spiritual lives.

This is the reason why we approach the sacrament of penance, confession or reconciliation, as an act of faith. As we search for ways to conquer sin and place our trust in God to join us in this fight, we are in fact making an act of faith. We entrust our wounds to the real presence of Christ in this sacrament of healing and forgiving. We grow in faith by doing everything possible to live the Christian lifestyle.

Lent is a holy season. It is a time for us to strengthen our faith by examining how sin has crept into our lives. We have family penance services the week of the 18th. We have a parish penance service on April 1. We have extended periods for confession. We all need to approach the sacrament of Christ's love and mercy, the sacrament of penance as an act of faith that Christ can conquer anything that holds us back from allowing his love to transform our lives.

A woman goes to a well for a drink. She leaves with living water.

We pray during the season of Lent that we will have the courage to recognize what we must do to slake the thirst we have for meaning in our lives, the thirst we have for Jesus!