Not "fake news": Jesus reads the conscience of the Samaritan woman at the well

Third Sunday of Lent Year A

Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well: Not fake news.

What is news?

What is fake news?

We are often played between people on both sides of the spectrum, but no matter what happens we have to do what is best for ourselves and continue to seek the truth.

What's news for us? What is the truth for us? The "good news": the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ does not look at us impersonally, from a distance, but he reads our lives back to us from within, as he did with the Samaritan woman.

HIs love works through our conscience. Knowledge of our sins is real news but we are called to respond not with denial as if it were fake or useless.

He is Incarnate God with a heart like ours beating in his breast, one who was tempted as we are yet without sinning, one who walked the earth as we do, one who suffered fatigue and weariness, who needed to sleep and eat, needed to love friends and family.

And one who reads our sins back to us from the Cross and in the Resurrection tells the real news of His forgiving merciful love which confers life without end.

Just as is with the Samaritan woman, so for ourselves he reads our lives back to us as God. We are called respond to the truth about ourselves not with suspicion as fake news but as the good news, the truth. And called to respond in love, disciples who testify to His forgiving, life-giving love to others.

Jesus is the true "good news" for all of us but, before we can accept Him with authentic love, we must first face the real news about our sins with repentance.