Keeping It Real

Homily for April 12, 2015 (2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday)
Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 118 (v.v.); 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31

Have you ever noticed the REAL® seal on your milk, cheese or another dairy product?  This stylized drop of milk inside a swirling red border was developed nearly 40 years ago by dairy producers, first in California and then nationwide, to assure consumers that what they were buying was “the genuine article” and not something else.  Today young people use the phrase “keeping it real” to convey a sense of directness or honesty, even when it may sometimes be obscured by brutal or even vulgar language.

Today’s celebration is packed with readings that are all about “keeping it real.”  Jesus does this with a skeptical and then overwhelmed Thomas by inviting him to probe the nail marks in his hands and the wound in his side.  “Do not be unbelieving,” he insists, “but believe.”  The author of Psalm 118, recounting God’s mercy to him in battle and other times of struggle, recounts, “I was hard pressed and was falling, but the LORD came to help me.  My strength and my courage is the LORD, and he has been my savior.”  Real help from a real God.

Jesus similarly makes his disciples real extensions of his ministry by breathing the Holy Spirit into them, commissioning them and giving them the power to forgive sins.  The Church has traditionally looked to this passage in the Gospel of John as well as others to root the Sacrament of Penance and the power of the priest to announce God’s “pardon and peace” and to give absolution to penitents.  It’s no wonder that many people feel such liberation and healing when they go to confession:  God’s grace is real!

As sinners, we all have need of that grace; and when we accept it in our hearts and allow it to transform us, it almost inevitably flows out of us and into our relationships with others and with God.  Our faith is deepened, our love is strengthened, and we are able to conquer “the world.”  That is, we are able to deal with temporal things while keeping in mind what really matters for eternity.

We witness an inspiring and almost incredible example of this in St. Luke’s description of the early Christian community in our first reading from Acts 4.  They were “of one heart and mind” and treated property not as a personal possession but as a resource to be generously shared, and they had such deep trust in the apostles that they freely handed over what they had for the common good.  They made real what they had heard Jesus teach (cf. Luke 12:13-21, 33; 16:13).  As a result, “there was no needy person among them.”  Some today would mistakenly call this socialism; but it was voluntary and motivated by faith and love, not directed or compelled by the state.

“Keeping it real” today can go against conventional norms just as in the days of the early church.  But God is still our strength and courage; and the grace and love of God are still ready for us to receive and share wherever they’re needed. That’s real, too. +