Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (Year A) on March 8, 2026 at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chicago, IL. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; and John 4:5-42.

Over the next three weekends, we switch to the Gospel of John. We will hear complex stories of people growing in relationship with Jesus. At one Mass on each of the next three weekends, we’ll be celebrating one of the three ancient Church rites called “the Scrutinies” with people who are preparing to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. As we pray for them, let us also scrutinize how we make the effort to continue growing in relationship with Jesus.

Today, we’ll hear the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus’ conversation with her is remarkable in at least three ways:

1. Samaritans and Jews were sworn enemies of each other. 
2. Even today in parts of the Middle East, a man does not speak to an unknown woman without a chaperone. 
3. This woman goes to the well in the heat of the day, instead of the cool of the morning when everyone else in the village gathers there.

The fact that the woman is an outcast doesn’t stop Jesus from befriending her. God invites each of us into a lifelong relationship. Let’s take a moment to acknowledge our need for God’s mercy. 

While many of us gathered here today have been coming to Old St. Mary’s for years, there are first-time visitors at almost every weekend Mass. This is not the case in most churches in the United States. Why do newcomers keep coming to Old St. Mary’s? I’m definitely biased, but in addition to the increasing housing available nearby and all the people passing through for conventions, I think another element is the spirituality of the Paulist Fathers, the priests who serve here. 

What is Paulist spirituality? Sometimes I explain it this way: you and I are here to serve the people outside the church walls. We do this in four ways:

1. You and I are called to be evangelizers. We witness to the gospel in a way that encourages other people to become disciples. 
2. You and I are called to be reconcilers. We bring peace to those who feel hurt by or alienated from the Church. 
3. You and I are called to be ecumenists. We seek unity with all other Christians. 
4. You and I are called to be interreligious dialogue partners. We build bonds with people of non-Christian faiths.

No Catholic religious community besides the Paulist Fathers combines evangelization, reconciliation, ecumenism, and interreligious dialogue into one single mission. Some people argue that these goals are at odds with one another. But today’s gospel makes it clear that there are ways to pursue all these goals simultaneously. Jesus witnesses to the truth of the Jewish faith to a Samaritan woman. He also acknowledges the beliefs that they hold in common. He befriends this outcast woman without glossing over the pain in her story. Jesus likely recognizes that women were second-class citizens under the Mosaic Law, so this woman had likely been rejected by a series of husbands, and perhaps the last one spurned her but refused to grant her a divorce. In other words, Jesus meets the woman where she is and as she is. 

No matter whether we’re newcomers or we’re old timers at Old St. Mary’s, whether we’ve never studied the faith or we have a theology degree, whether we’re extraverts or we’re introverts, we all have the skills to be evangelizers, reconcilers, ecumenists, and interreligious dialogue partners. 

One of the best evangelizers I ever met was a colleague of mine in Tennessee, Dr. Ruth Queen Smith. She insisted that all we need to do to evangelize is to tell our personal story. No matter how incompetent we may feel in speaking about theology, all of us are undoubtably the experts about our personal journey of faith. As Ruth insisted, when you tell your story, nobody is going to say that you got it wrong!

It takes vulnerability to tell our personal stories. In my homilies, I’m often tempted to stick to generalizations, but most people tell me that they find my preaching to be the most relevant when I share how the gospel is relevant to me. 

So, here’s my advice on how we can be effective evangelizers, reconcilers, ecumenists, and interreligious dialogue partners. It’s very simple: treat people as Jesus treated the woman at the well. In other words:

• Jesus did not condemn the woman. Let’s treat people with respect. 
• Jesus listened to the woman explain what she believed. Let’s listen, rather than tell people what we think they believe.
• Jesus didn’t pressure the woman. Let’s witness to the potential each person has.

Jesus met the woman where she was and as she was. He did not demand that she needed to be transfigured before she would be worthy of his attention. 

[Pause.] Pope Francis challenged us to be a Church ministering to the people on the peripheries. This is an excellent approach to ministry, in line with Jesus’ own ministry, but I think we have to be careful not to over-simplify. It’s easy to start dividing the world into two groups of people: the marginalized and the empowered. But it’s more complex than that. Each of us is broken. Most of us probably feel as if we don’t fit in, as if we’re imposters when we come and sit among the other people at Mass. Many of us have been victimized. But each of us is also a beloved child of God with gifts to offer to the rest of the community. If we define our spirituality solely by identifying ourselves as one of the marginalized, we may miss the ways in which we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to minister to others who are marginalized in other ways.

The Samaritan woman was clearly marginalized. She may have been victimized. But what did Jesus’ attention do? Surprise, surprise: it empowered her. She becomes the first evangelizer in the Gospel of John. She shares her story of faith with the very people who have ostracized her. They in turn come to believe, first because of her story, but then because of their own experiences of Christ. 

These next three weekends, we pray in a special way for the people among us preparing to be baptized. Now, it’s one thing for us to pray for an infant to be cleansed of original sin before we baptize them; it’s another to pray for adults who must face the ways that they have fallen short in their lives. As our elect continue their journeys to deeper relationship with Christ Jesus by scrutinizing their lives, we scrutinize our own lives. Let us take a moment to ask ourselves two questions:

• What is weak and sinful in us that needs to be healed through Christ? 
• What is good and strong in us that needs to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit?

In these remaining weeks of Lent, let us remember that the point is not to identify ourselves solely by our sinfulness and how others may have marginalized us. Lent is a season of growing and strengthening our relationship with God. Jesus continually invites each of us to the living waters of healing, of belonging, and of fully becoming the people God destines us to be.

Preview photo credit: “Support For Elders” by Randy Robertson, under CC BY 2.0 license.