The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 05 February 2022
Welcome back to our weekly music blog featuring songs with themes similar to the message of the Sunday gospel. For this fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we have chosen the 1977 smash hit Night Fever by the Bee Gees that is part of the soundtrack of the movie Saturday Night Fever.
Actually, we have the movie more in our mind than the music which tells the story of a young man Tony Manero played by John Travolta who was searching for meaning and direction in his life, pouring it out on the dance floor of a New York disco. The movie has become a classic as it mirrors so many realities in life during the late 70’s like sex and promiscuity as well as issues on abortion and marriage. Very interesting in the movie too is the brother of Tony who had decided to leave the priesthood, casting some moral aspersions about our practice of faith and religion.
And that is why we have chosen Night Fever as our music this Sunday: the movie and the song both capture the essence of our gospel today which is Jesus Christ coming to us in our daily lives, trying to catch us to give meaning and direction to our lives in him by following him, by leaving everything behind which Tony Manero did at the end of the movie when he apologized to his former girlfriend to start anew at the other side of New York by finding a new job and new direction in life (https://lordmychef.com/2022/02/05/catching-jesus-catching-for-jesus/).
Like Tony and the first four disciples of Jesus – the brothers Simon Peter and Andrew, and James and John who were sons of Zebedee, the business associate of Simon – we are all searching for meaning and direction in life.
According to biblical scholars, the Simon and company were all financially stable as they owned boats at that time, employing some men in their fishing ventures. Money was not a problem with them, something we also discover in life that more important than material things is fulfillment. Everything is passing that for a while may give us pleasures but never inner peace and contentment in life.
It is the message too of the song Night Fever with its very inviting beat, luring you to the life and action of the night that has become a fever that eventually leaves one empty and lost.
The movie is worth watching again 45 years after its release to rediscover the deeper meanings of its themes and most especially, its music. Night Fever is one of the five tracks by the Bee Gees included in the movie soundtrack that sold over 30 million copies, winning the 1978 Grammy Album of the Year. The soundtrack was the most successful album of all time until Michael Jackson’s Thriller dethroned it in the 1980’s.
*We have no intentions of infringing into the copyrights of this music and its uploader except to share its beauty and listening pleasure.
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