Why did you come here today? Is it because you believe that Jesus Christ was the son of a living and loving creator God? Because you want to deepen your faith? Because you seek something more, something bigger, something that will endure to the end of time?

If so, then I’d like to ask you this simple question: Why do you believe all that?

Why do any of us believe any of it? 

Is it because someone told us all about it when we were younger?

Or because we have seen direct evidence of it in our lives? Like from a bona fide, verifiable miracle?

Or because the great thinkers, philosophers, and theologians throughout all of history came up with some pretty persuasive arguments?

Or because we’re frightened of the alternative?

Why do any of us believe any of it? 

I think the answer is in today’s Gospel which contains the story of the very first evangelist in John’s Gospel: a woman who is simple, imperfect even, yet who engages in a conversation with a stranger from out of town at the local well.

Notice how she transforms during that conversation from confusion… to curiosity… to recognition. Eventually, she understands who she is speaking with, is motivated by that, and then acts. She goes into her village and spreads the word to everyone there.

I wonder what kind of impact that might have had on all those people in town? Perhaps quite a bit. We’ll never know. 

She went to the well looking for water… but left with so much more than she could have ever imagined.

What did it take? It took an encounter with Christ, with a living and present God.

The sequence is this: encounter leads to belief leads to mission. It’s hard to have belief without the encounter first. Even if someone teaches us when we are young… or we have proof because of a big miracle… or we are persuaded by the theologians… or we don’t want to end up in the wrong place after we die.

It always takes an encounter first. 

That’s why we come here. To encounter Christ in the Eucharist… a distinctly unique Catholic experience where we get to come into direct human contact with a living and present God. That’s why we pursue Jesus during Lent all the way to Calvary. That’s why we ask for the forgiveness of our sins at Confession. That’s why we pay attention to the words of Jesus in the Gospel. That’s why do our best to love each other, even when that means accepting people who hurt us or who believe something that is the exact opposite of what we believe. It’s why we tie our own suffering to Christ’s and in that way find some meaning in it.

That’s why any of this matters.

We come here, to this well, perhaps searching… for something… but leave with so much more then we could have ever imagined.

Because of encounter. 

Which leads to belief.

But then, like the woman at the well, let’s go on to the third step which is the mission that we are called to. And that mission is to go to the people in the villages of our lives. That could be our families, or schools, our jobs, our teams, our clubs, our friends, our neighbors. These are our villages. 

And like the woman in today’s Gospel, we don’t need to be perfect or educated or great spiritual warriors. Like the woman at the well, we can be simple and even imperfect. We just need to be willing to share.