A Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent
Readings: Exodus 17:3-7 Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 John 4:5-42

Two people meet at a well, looking for water. One is tasked to return regularly; the other arrives in a moment of need. They come from two different worlds, which is why this encounter will change the life of the first.

The world of the first person never satiates. It wearies the soul with its wrong turns, its mistakes, its constant repetition. But the second person speaks with assurance. The world need not be this way; a new world has come to claim the one who thirsts.

Yes, every time one of us goes to confession, two worlds meet in the encounter of penitent and confessor: the disordered thirst that is sin and the savior who alone can satiate our souls.

This is the first thing to keep in mind about confession. We are not seeking the wisdom or the condolence of a sage, though we might encounter this. No, each of us goes to confession to encounter our savior in the mystery of his church, which Pope St. John Paul II called Christ’s “sacrament of reconciliation” (“Reconciliation and Penance,” No.11). 

Confession of sin has always been an encounter with Christ in the midst of his church. Already in the second century, a church teaching known as The Shepherd of Hermas hailed confession as a plank in the water, thrown to those who had made a shipwreck of their baptismal promises. The only thing that has changed through the centuries is a more compassionate, more immediate response to the suffering of sin. 

In the early church, confession of grave sins was made to the entire Christian community, under the leadership of the bishop, who then imposed what was sometimes a lifetime of public penance. Today, in contrast, confession precedes the imposition of penance, and the priest alone represents both Christ and his church.

We speak of the priest in confession acting as teacher and judge, and indeed he does. Our Lord himself gave the church the power to pronounce upon sin, to declare both its putrefying presence and its remittance (Jn 20:23). But the priest is also father and physician, and he never acts as accuser. That office belongs exclusively to the penitent. 

No, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, the priest is

the just and impartial judge whose judgment is both just and merciful. The priest is the sign and the instrument of God’s merciful love for the sinner (No. 1465).

A priest never says to a penitent, “Don’t you see your sin?” The Samaritan woman knew what she needed at the well. She did not need to be told. A priest does not come to the great well of mercy to pour shame upon a soul. He is not a coach, telling us that we could have done better. No, his sentences take mercy as their theme, not guilt. 

The confessor is not the master of God’s forgiveness, but its servant. The minister of this sacrament should unite himself to the intention and charity of Christ (No. 1466).

Confessors are taught to guard their words. They will answer questions put to them, but they only pose them if they do not understand what is being confessed, what they are being asked to judge in the name of Christ and his church. They may never ask a prurient question such as, “What was that like?”

Christ allowed the woman at the well to lead their conversation. The priest must do so as well. He can never bring up what has been confessed, either to others or to the penitent. 

The dialogue between confessor and penitent is as brief as that between the savior and the Samaritan. You have come looking for living water. Your very presence at the well of mercy says that grace is already active. You desire to be cleansed and nourished, and in the name of Christ, through the mystery of the church, the priest tells you that this is what you receive. Better to speak too little than to say something that will wound, mislead or discourage.

And can the priest have said too little when he tells you, with all the confidence the Holy Spirit gives to the church, that your sins are forgiven? Would that every penitent listened with rapt attention to the words of absolution. They say it all.

God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and poured out the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God grant you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

We believe that confession of sins to a priest is a sacrament, a well of living water, where Christ has promised to be present to his church. This is why every confession is indeed “a plank” thrown to those who have gravely sinned after baptism. 

The Samaritan woman left Jacob’s well having encountered a world she could never have anticipated. The savior told her of living water, which he himself would give. 

Remember that the Gospels never simply record what happened. They proclaim what it means for us. We need not thirst. Christ has not ceased to pour forth water from his wounded side into the well of mercy we call the church. 

Come to confession. You were created to be bathed in love, not to die of thirst.

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Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

The Rev. Terrance W. Klein is a priest of the Diocese of Dodge City and author of Vanity Faith.