The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 25 April 2021
Today is the Good Shepherd Sunday and we have chosen Michael Mcdonald’s 1977 composition with Ms. Carly Simon called “You Belong to Me” which echoes the words of Jesus, “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (Jn.10:14-15).
Knowing implies relationship because it connotes belonging (https://lordmychef.com/2021/04/24/beloved-children-of-god-led-by-the-good-shepherd/).
Knowing and belonging are interrelated: one knows because he/she owns like when we claim things as ours. When we possess, we know because we have.
But, Jesus is speaking here not of owning and taking control an object or any material thing. Jesus and the Father knows each other as they belong to each other as one in a perfect relationship but never because they “own” nor “possess” one another.
To illustrate, children belong to parents while a husband belongs to a wife and vice versa, we belong to our friends and our friends belong to us. There is always a degree of knowledge in every belonging not because we are possessed or owned in the same way we own our house, our car, or any gadget for that matter. Owning, possessing or having persons and even pets are of higher degree of knowing and belonging, of something deeper about invisible links that tie us with someone we believe “belongs” to us.
This is the whole point of McDonald in this song which is about infidelity: the girl is having an affair. But no matter what she does, she belongs to him.
Why'd you tell me this While you look for my reaction What do you need to know Don't you know I'll always be the one You don't have to prove to me you're beautiful to strangers I've got lovin' eyes of my own You belong to me In this life Anyone could tell Any fool can see who you need I know you all too well You don't have to prove to me you're beautiful to strangers I've got lovin' eyes and I can tell You belong to me Tell him you were foolin' You belong to me You belong to me Tell him he's a stranger You belong to me
This is something many people – couples, children, and friends – always forget: we always belong to someone who truly loves us that even if we sin and become unfaithful to them, that belonging remains.
McDonald sounds like Jesus the Good Shepherd who never forces us into being one with him nor in following him. He simply calls us, inviting us to follow him, to be one with him.
Knowing and belonging like the Good Shepherd is less of controls and more of trust with one another because you see them as brothers and sisters in Christ. It is no wonder that like Jesus “the stone rejected by the builders who has become the cornerstone” (Acts 4:11), it always happens that the people who reject us for loving them truly in the end comes back to us to take care of them, to love them, to forgive them. Don’t wait for it to happen. Go back to whom you belong, be sorry and live honorably.
Have a blessed Sunday!
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