Get real

THAT’S a common and popular expression these days. Commercials use it often, and even kids like saying it.

I myself have come to use it a number of times. And I also receive it sometimes, usually in some strong, emphatic way. For sure, when it is said, it means the conversation has turned very exciting, to say the least.

That’s when I realize we can have different meanings of “getting real.” To many people, to “get real” can mean expressing what’s right in the tip of one’s tongue, or how one feels at the moment, or what so far he has understood.

To “get real” can also mean to be utterly frank, to give vent to what is deep inside one’s heart. It can also mean to get to the barest minimum of things, to get to what one thinks is the naked, plain and unvarnished truth.

Yes, to “get real” can have a variety of meanings, with a great profusion of shades and nuances. But to me, this whole discussion about the meaning of “getting real” can only reflect the kind of persons we are. Reality can mean different things to different people.

St. Paul articulated this point one time in his first letter to the Corinthians. I think it’s worthwhile to read what he said about it to remind ourselves of a fundamental truth about us. Here was what he said:

“God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him?

“So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit.

“The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

“The spiritual man judges all things, but he is himself to be judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (10-16)

I must say that these words of St. Paul speak volumes about what to “get real” can mean. In the end, things depend on how one is, whether one is spiritual or unspiritual, as St. Paul said it.

Sad to say, many people are not aware of this. To them reality is just what they see, what they feel, or at best, what they could understand. Spiritual and supernatural realities are excluded from their world. The world of faith is not known to them. They prefer the virtual reality of their games and inventions.

A worse case are those people who do not have faith not because they are not told about it, but because they question the reality of faith itself. To them, this business of faith is foolishness, just like what St. Paul said of the unspiritual man.

Spiritual and supernatural realities are full of mysteries which are beyond our capacity to understand. But that problem does not mean that they don’t exist. They do, and we happen to have the natural capacity to catch at least a glimpse of them, though we may not be able to penetrate them deeply.

This is because of our intelligence and will, which are faculties that show there is something spiritual in us, there is something in us that would enable us to consider the spiritual and supernatural realities.

These are faculties which can be taken up by the Spirit of God, enabling us
to see and “understand” things the way God sees and understands them. And this can be in ways far beyond what our words can express, or our logic can articulate.

This is when we are truly “getting real.” This is, of course, very mysterious. That’s why Christ would often say, “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear,” to stress the need for faith to capture what he meant when he transmitted supernatural truths in parables.

We have to examine what we mean when we say we have to “get real.”