Category: Music/Spirituality

Is It Any Wonder? by Durand Jones & The Indications (2016)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 26 May 2024
Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 25 July 2023.

Mysteries are like gifts wrapped so beautifully but not meant to be opened to be explained nor understood; rather, we simply have to let ourselves be wrapped by the gift of life’s mysteries to discover its many gifts that can enrich us in the process.

Just like the mystery of God, His being One in Three Persons called the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity which we celebrate this Sunday. Contrary to common beliefs, mysteries can be explained and understood but, not fully.

Yet, why live explaining and understanding everything?

That is why when God revealed Himself to us, He did not come explaining terms and concepts to us humans and instead conducted Himself in a most unique, personal manner. God related to us in a very personal way like another person by letting us experience His loving presence, His kindness and mercy, His justice and salvation, His healing and liberation as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (https://lordmychef.com/2024/05/25/the-gift-of-persons/).

That is why we have chosen for this Sunday’s music the 2016 Is It Any Wonder? by the American contemporary and R&B soul trio of singer Durand Jones, singer/drummer Aaron Frazer and guitarist Blake Rhein who call themselves as Durand Jones & The Indications. I accidentally discovered them along with other young musicians during the 2020 lockdown of COVID-19 pandemic. Their music is so cool coupled with lyrics so thoughtful. And mysterious. Like Is it Any Wonder? that sounds so matured yet so young, reminding us of our first crushes or first love when we got so lost in what to do and say whenever near the girl of our dream. 

This road
Is gonna take us back now
You look so fine
I don't know how to act now
They say, "My child
Don't stroll off easy
'Cause when it's time
You gonna hear what she said"

Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?

If you ever leave me alone
I'll be cryin', wishin' you'd come home

When I look in your eyes
I see you starin' at me, girl
And when it's time
I see you holdin' on me, girl

'Cause you
You got a hold on me, yeah
So, I'm
Gonna make you see, yeah
Aw, yeah

Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?

With its classic tune and laid-back beat of guitar, drums and horns in the KEXP live version we prefer, Is It Any Wonder? speaks so well of life’s many mysteries that wrap us and move us at the same time to greater heights in believing more and loving more. Very often when we meet people, our tendency to welcome them is a result of their conduct with us, like this girl in the song Is It Any Wonder? Is she warm or cold, inviting or reserved and closed?

See how the song speaks so little – but heavily – of his experiences with his crush, leaving everything into wondering and awe, repeatedly singing, Is it any wonder?

To wonder, to be awed like a child is the beginning of love, of discovery of God and of the other person who fills the emptiness and longings within us. That is the gift of person, of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – there is always that mystery we can’t explain right away but we feel disarmed, wondering why we are drawn to God and others because of their conduct, of their kindness, of their offer of relationship. The key is to always wonder and bask into the beauty and gift of the other person, especially of God. Have a relaxing rainy Sunday!

From YouTube.com.

“You Belong to Me” (1952) by Jo Stafford

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 12 May 2024
With my sisters Bing and Meg in Egypt, part of our Holy Land pilgrimage in 2019.

Since it is a Mother’s Day this Sunday, we are featuring my late mom’s favorite music as far as I can remember, Jo Stafford’s You Belong To Me that was released in 1952. I am not really sure if it was her favorite music in fact or simply one of the few old records (78 RPM) of my dad she kept playing in our Radiowealth phonograph.

I remembered the song very well because of its opening line “See the pyramids along the Nile” she would sing to my dad. Sometimes they would duet as they danced in our large sala. Truth is, it was only recently when I learned its title You Belong To Me courtesy of YouTube.

I was four years old in 1969 and we have moved to a spacious, two storey apartment of Aling Metring in Alibangbang Street, Project 7 when mommy finally had dad’s old stereo phonograph brought to QC from Bulacan along with albums of 45 rpm records with some LP’s and those rare 78’s. That was how I got hooked with music and radio early in childhood. Through my parents.

It was mommy who made an important impact on my tastes for music. During that time, there was record peddler who came to our apartment once a month offering the latest records. Mommy was so kind to have allowed me to choose and buy a record album I was so fascinated with the jacket design and music. She never said anything negative about my choice, that it was the music of the devil. From Santana, I came to love Led Zep, Steely Dan and the rest. Of course, Beatles was a staple during that time at home and in my elder cousins.

Back to her favorite… You Belong To Me.

Early this morning in my room, I saw the many posts of relatives and friends about Mother’s Day. I cried and remembered mommy. My first motherless Mother’s Day. But, I realized, even after mothers have died, we never become motherless. Mothers are like God: they are always present everywhere!

And that is the meaning of Ascension: Jesus did not go to any place but leveled up in His relationships with the Father and us. Ascension is Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father to assert we all belong to Him. That is what Ascension is, our belonging to God and with each other as Jo Stafford said so well:

See the pyramids along the Nile
Watch the sun rise on a tropic isle
Just remember, darling, all the while
You belong to me

See the marketplace in old Algiers
Send me photographs and souvenirs
Just remember when a dream appears
You belong to me

I’ll be so alone without you
Maybe you’ll be lonesome too, and blue

See how every stanza is closed with the line You belong to me, reminding her beloved that no matter wherever he may go, she would still be loving him. So motherly!

Her chorus line speaks well of the Ascension: we’ll be so alone without Jesus who came here to bring us all back to God the Father. Like God, mothers love us her family so much that even in heaven, we still have that invisible umbilical cord connecting us to them.

Blessed happy mother’s day, Mommy and my others moms! This is for you.

From YouTube.com

“So Far Away” by Carole King (1971)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 28 April 2024
Photo by author, somewhere in Bgy. Kaysuyo, Alfonso, Cavite, 27 April 2024.

It is a “frying Sunday” as heat index rose to over 40 degrees today and there’s no stopping at temperature rising in this final week of April. And so, we offer you this Sunday one of the coolest music we have grown up with courtesy of Ms. Carole King.

From her beautiful Tapestry album released in 1971, we find So Far Away perfectly expressing the essence of Jesus Christ’s call for us to remain in him, our true vine:

To remain is more than physical like to stay. A branch remaining, staying intact with the vine but had turned yellow and dried up is clearly not one with the vine. We can be inside the church but be detached with everyone and the celebration. We may be staying or residing in the same address and home but our heart and very self may be so far away from our siblings or parents, or from your wife or husband.

Remaining implies something more than physical presence. To remain is to have a relationship, a bonding that is deep and intimate. To remain is to be of one heart as GMA7 claims to be a kapuso which is more important than being a kapamilya or a kapatid. There is no sense of being a family (kapamilya) when there is no love in the family or at the other hand, a sibling (kapatid) is nothing if the brother or sister is your enemy. We remain with God and everyone when our hearts are attuned or inclined to God and with others in love which is the fruit of the vine, Jesus Christ.

https://lordmychef.com/2024/04/27/remaining-in-christ-2/

So Far Away is a gospel in itself about love which is about oneness. Even if we are apart – temporarily or eternally – for as long as we have that communion and bonding of our hearts, that love will always be truly felt. Perhaps, one reason for the saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder” when lovers are apart. Remaining and presence are more than physical but a bonding of the hearts that Ms. King beautifully sings to us in her classic So Far Away:

So far away
Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?
It would be so fine to see your face at my door
Doesn’t help to know you’re just time away
Long ago, I reached for you and there you stood
Holding you again could only do me good
How I wish I could, but you’re so far away

One more song about movin’ along the highway
Can’t say much of anything that’s new
If I could only work this life out my way
I’d rather spend it bein’ close to you

In this age of modern communications, how ironic that we are brought closer with those so far from us by distance but have caused us too to be distant from those nearest to us. The Risen Jesus Christ tells us this Sunday that being close, remaining in love happens even without seeing the other person for as long as our heart is attuned with the one we love. What really happens is that for as long we keep that love in our hearts, even if our beloved is gone or far from us, the more we experience his/her presence in their absence.

Let Ms. Carole King bring back those loving moments we had.

From Youtube.com.

“Sweet Thing” (1975) by Rufus & Chaka Khan

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 21 April 2024
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove in Morong, Bataan, 15 April 2024.

Today is the Good Shepherd Sunday and we take a classic number from the lovely shepherdess of R&B and Soul, Ms. Chaka Khan with her 1975 hit Sweet Thing as vocalist of the group Rufus.

What I like most with Ms. Khan’s music next to her great voice and instrumentations being a percussionist herself is her ability to open us up to the woman’s heart and feelings. Her songs are so womanly that reveal the inner dynamics of womanhood we take for granted. (See our other piece, https://lordmychef.com/2021/06/27/through-the-fire-by-chaka-khan-1984/). That is why we find her so much like a good shepherdess leading us to find expressions of our love.

When Jesus Christ declared “I am the good shepherd who lays down his life”, He was expressing something more than His mission but His very being as “the Gift and the Giver” at the same time of this most precious thing called love.

The same thing is true when friends and lovers separate either because they have found other loves to pursue or worst, have fallen out of love with us despite all our love for them. It is the most unkindest cut of all breakups and separations, excruciatingly painful as we blindly give up our relationships ironically for love. More than the persons and circumstances involved, we freely choose to let go – magparaya in Filipino – because deep in our wounded and hollowed heart is the hope they may grow in their new love.

Here we are like Jesus the Good Shepherd because even in the death of our relationships is still found our love. Like Jesus Christ, we do not simply give something but our very selves. The Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner beautifully expressed this when he described Jesus is both “the Gift and the Giver.”

– https://lordmychef.com/2024/04/20/jesus-our-good-shepherd-the-gift-the-giver-himself/

This is very evident in Sweet Thing which Ms. Khan co-wrote with Tony Maiden.

I will love you anyway
Even if you cannot stay
I think you are the one for me
Here is where you ought to be
I just want to satisfy you
Though you’re not mine
I can’t deny you
Don’t you hear me talking baby?
Love me now or I’ll go crazy

Oh sweet thing
Don’t you know you’re my everything?
Oh sweet thing
Don’t you know you’re my everything?
Yes, you are

I wish you were my lover
But you act so undercover
To love you child my whole life long
Be it right, or be it wrong
I’m only what you make me, baby
Don’t walk away, don’t be so shady
Don’t want your mind, don’t want your money
These words I say, they may sound funny, but

Isn’t it so sweet!? Beginning with its guitar intro lately making rounds in social media courtesy of Prince’s unplugged cover, Sweet Thing is an overload of love and self-giving, of how a woman in her great love for a man is willing to let go of him because of love.

When we speak of love, we use comparisons and analogies and yet, they are not enough. How much more when we speak of the love of God, a love so sublime like Ms. Khan’s Sweet Thing?

In that case, we sing like Ms. Khan and her other co-shepherds of souls with their music that captures our deepest feelings and convictions in life. Like Jesus in saying “I am the good shepherd” which is more than a declaration of His mission but of His self-giving in love, Ms. Khan’s Sweet Thing reminds us of this tremendous grace to love like God despite the pains and hurts we go through in loving selflessly.

Let’s hear it from Ms. Chaka Khan herself.

From YouTube.com

“Ghost in You” by Psychedelic Furs (1984)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 14 April 2024
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.

We go punk this Sunday with the 1984 hit Ghost in You by the British band Psychedelic Furs more known to our generation with the song Pretty in Pink that was eventually made into a movie though not necessarily an interpretation of the music itself.

Ghost in You was written by the Psychedelic Furs’ lead vocalist Richard Butler, their second single from their fourth studio album Mirror Moves released in 1984. It is another poignant love song about someone most probably gone yet still so loved. The music and lyrics are very mysterious that we feel it perfectly captures our reflection this third Sunday Easter on the meaning of Christ’s Resurrection which is getting real as opposed with how young people today use the word “ghost” and “ghosting” which is to leave behind or drop like a hot potato. Our Filipino expression say it so well: to be ghosted is “iwanan sa ere” or to be left hanging.

In our gospel this Sunday, Luke tells us how the disciple thought Jesus was a ghost when He appeared to them anew after Easter; Jesus read their minds and clarified He was not a ghost but truly alive with flesh and bones.

The Filipino expression says it all completely, iniwan sa ere which is worst than the English expression “dropped like a hot potato”. To be ghosted is to be betrayed, to be taken for granted, to be discarded like a thing. It is utter lack of respect to another person. Worst, it is lack of life full of pessimism and indifference to life itself.

https://lordmychef.com/2024/04/13/easter-is-getting-real-not-ghosting/

In Ghost in You, Butler tells us how he seemed to have been ghosted by his beloved for reasons not so clear. And we go with him, in his pains and deep longing to be loved in return by his beloved.

A man in my shoes runs a light
And all the papers lied tonight
But falling over you
Is the news of the day
Angels fall like rain
And love is all of heaven away
Inside you the time moves

And she don’t fade
The ghost in you
She don’t fade
Inside you the time moves
And she don’t fade

Notice how the lover declares his deep love that is so pure, “all of heaven away” that remains within him through time like a ghost “And she don’t fade/ The ghost in you/ She don’t fade”.

About ten years ago, we used to pass by a billboard somewhere in the Banaue-C3 area in Quezon City that says “True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and only a few have seen.” It is quote from French moralist Francoise de la Rochefoucauld (163-1680).

Very true!

Like our reflection this Sunday, Easter calls us to be real, not like ghosts. The Psychedelic Furs’ Ghost in You is great music because we all go through it some times even many times. Easter tells us to get real and move on with life.

Jesus Christ is not a ghost. Had never and would never ever ghost us because He is faithful, truly alive and truly present with us especially in our darkest and emptiest moments in life. Many times, we do not see nor recognize Him because we are so focused at how we were ghosted especially by loved ones.

https://lordmychef.com/2024/04/13/easter-is-getting-real-not-ghosting/

Here’s one of our favorite music in the 1980’s worth listening to today to see how far we have gone real, especially in our love. Or, have we remained ghosted?

From YouTube.com.

“Love Will Come Someday” by David Sanborn (1982)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 07 April 2024
Photo by author at the refectory of Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 18 March 2024.

We turn to jazz this Second Sunday in Easter in order to express the meaning of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection that is simply too deep for words because of its intense nature. Unlike Christmas that lights up our minds with so many images, Easter is different in the sense that it is something we have to feel and dig deep down inside us to really appreciate. Like jazz music that stirs our souls with its unique sounds that enable us to touch our very being.

For this Sunday we have chosen David Sanborn’s Love Will Come Someday from his 1982 album As We Speak because it captures the spirit of this Easter Octave also known as Divine Mercy Sunday when Jesus appeared to His disciples inside a locked room for fears from the Jews on the very night of His Resurrection. We reflected in our previous blog that the Resurrection of Jesus opened a new dimension in human existence when we could no longer be held hostage or captive by even the most difficult plight in life with Jesus opening many possibilities for us even while in this life (https://lordmychef.com/2024/04/06/easter-is-new-existence-in-christ/).

Sanborn’s almost two minutes of sax introduction to his Love Will Come Someday gives us the feel of the prevailing setting of Easter and life wherein there is the constant presence of darkness and emptiness where we also find Christ’s light and fullness. Sanborn has been a session musician collaborating with almost every big name in the music scene across all genres. His sax is so soothing yet penetrating that brings out even those things we have been hiding deep inside us resulting in a sort of catharsis which is very Easter too!

Written by Michael Sembello and David Batteau with the latter doing the vocals, Love Will Come Someday is a poignant song of the ups and downs not only of love but of life itself. Very often, like the darkness and emptiness we find in the Easter stories since last week, we find our lives in the same setting too when we could not figure out exactly or right away at why or how certain things happen in our lives despite our best efforts.

Funny how the legends die
When heroes never come alive in the day time
Funny we can be sad
It doesn’t have be so bad in the night time

You want know where they
The songs all go in your life time
One of these we’ll go
And find out where they stay

Once upon a lovers song
There was a boy who sang along in the night time
Once upon a lovers dream
There was a tale of broken wings in the day time

But, there are times when suddenly, Jesus comes to us amid all locked doors, appearing to us, extricating us from difficult situations that amid great joy, we could not believe it happening at all that we doubt like Thomas simply because they are so surreal!

And there lies the mystery of life and love, of Easter: visions and images are not so important because it is the intensity within us which makes Jesus and those we love so present that we respond with more love and adoration.

Catch a piece falling star
Try to keep in a jar till the morning
Catch a summer firefly
Willing it’ll stay alive till the morning

You want to know where did the songs all go
In your life time
One of these days we’ll go and find out
Where they stay

Love will come someday
Love will find a way
Love will come someday
Love will find a way

The songs that I sing, the songs that I bring
The songs that I sing, the songs that I bring
The songs that I sing, the songs that I bring, yeah, yeah

As we mature and journey in this life, the more we find God and our very selves and those we know more real, more loved and lovable. In the end, love always finds a way someday. Like Thomas, we just have to believe in order to see. Here is David Sanborn and to those belonging to my generation, cheers to the music we grew up with, hoping the younger ones find these treasures too.

From YouTube.com

“Is It Over” by Ronnie Milsap (1983)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 31 March 2024
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.

Blessed happy Easter everyone! We take a melancholic love song on this day of celebrating the triumph of love in Jesus Christ’s Resurrection because Easter is a continuing journey with Him, in Him and through Him amid darkness and emptiness in life (https://lordmychef.com/2024/03/30/easter-is-signs-scripture-together-always/).

Like the story of that first Easter morning while still dark when Mary Magdalene and later Simon Peter with the beloved disciple found the tomb of Jesus empty except for His burial cloths neatly folded to indicate the Lord’s rising from the dead, Ronnie Milsap’s 1983 hit Is It Over speaks a lot of the essence of Easter about faith in the love of Jesus Christ.

Milsap’s Is it Over invites his beloved to sincerely search her heart to get over her former relationship so that theirs would flourish and grow; in the same manner, we need to get over our Good Fridays in order to experience the glory of Easter Sundays in life.

Is it over, are you really over him
Is it over, or will you take him back again
If it’s over you can let his memory in
Come on over, we’ll let our love begin.

You say you can’t count the times that he’s hurt you
And he’s hurt you for the last time
Now you say I’m the one that you’re needing
But is the need in your heart or just in your mind.

Is it over, are you really over him
Is it over, or will you take him back again
If it’s over you can let his memory in
Come on over, we’ll let our love begin.

Like Jesus calling us every day in our lives to come over to Him by leaving behind our past hurts, Is it Over tells on the need to move on in life, to embrace the present by learning from the past. Most of all, of the need to confront one’s true self in the heart, not just in the mind in order to move on in life.

Milsap’s music and voice are uniquely refreshing that sound very Easter perhaps due to his personal experiences. Born partially blind and abandoned by his mother after birth, Milsap grew up in poverty with his grandparents in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Despite his handicap and poverty, he was found exceptionally brilliant and talented even while in his early childhood when he was sent to a school for the blind at the age of five where he developed his musical talent at age seven. He was later sent to Governor Moorehead to formally begin studies in classical music. It was there in his early teens when Mislap learned to play several musical instruments and chose to master the piano.

At age 14, Milsap became totally blind after being slapped on his left eye by one of the houseparents but that never affected his pursuits in learning as well as music. He was able to finish college through scholarships and was already in law school as a full scholar when he decided to leave to concentrate in music in 1964.

He met his wife Joyce Reeves in one of their gigs the following year, got married and remained together until her death in 2021 due to cancer. They had a son, Ronald who died in 2019 aged 49 apparently due to a medical condition

Is It Over follows the style of Milsap’s earlier and biggest breakthrough in 1977, It Was almost Like a Song that topped the Billboard charts in many categories. Both songs are very popular among us Filipinos who are certified romantics.

Now aged 81, Milsap remains active in the music scene as a composer, collaborating with some of the biggest names in the industry. His life is a beautiful example of the Easter glory amid many darkness and emptiness. Although officially retired, it isn’t over yet for Mislap as he continues to record and busies himself with a podcast as well as an amateur radio enthusiast.

Here now is Milsap’s lovely song, Is It Over.

From YouTube.com

“Is It You?” by Lee Ritenour (1981)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 17 March 2024
Photo by Paco Montoya on Pexels.com

It is the final Sunday in Lent as we enter its final week with temperatures soaring into the 30’s as we get into the heat of summer in the country. To soothe us in our Sunday feature, we have chosen Lee Ritenour’s classic smooth jazz Is It You? from his 1981 album Rit.

An American jazz-guitarist, Ritenour is considered as one of the great movers in the jazz scene since the late 1960’s until now, being a part of so many groups and individual musicians in producing great music and tunes that unknown to many of us have were surely delighted and even uplifted.

Is It You? is one of those music by Ritenour with Eric Tagg doing the vocals as well as co-writing it along with Bill Champlin.

So characteristic of Ritenour’s jazz experiments fusing it with rock and pop, Is It You? speaks of a man’s feelings of doubts amid strong convictions of being ready to love a woman he is asking if she too is ready; hence, the question, Is It You?

Someone’s just outside, knocking at my door
A stranger, somebody unknown
Someone’s in my dreams, can’t get it off my mind, yeah
I’m tired of being alone
Someone’s trying to find an easy way inside
Come on, I’m right here at home, right at home
Is it you?
Is it you?
Is it you?
Is it you, you, you?
Who’s that deep inside me, sneaking around my heart?
Are you somebody in love?
Show me what you’re doing and tell me who you are
Hey, I’m ready for love, for love
Is it you?
Is it you?
Is it you?
Is it you, you, you?
If it’s you, come out in the open
You don’t need to hide your love
If it’s you, you know I’m hoping
‘Cause it’s way too late to run away
Don’t run away from love, my love
Is it you?
Photo of a convolvulus tricolor from BBC Gardeners World Magazine.

Many times we felt that way too that despite the uncertainties we feel, there is that strong thrust from within to dare step forward and make the move to find out like Ritenour if is it you?

In some ways, it must have been the feeling too of those Greek converts in Jerusalem that Palm Sunday who asked Philip if they could see Jesus. They too had that strong feeling towards Jesus after hearing the many good things about himself, his teachings and his miracles. When they said they wanted to see Jesus, it was more than seeing him literally because the Lord was never in hiding. The Greeks, like us and Ritenour in his song, were seeking something more, something deeper, something about faith (https://lordmychef.com/2024/03/16/lent-is-believing-in-order-to-see-jesus/).

There lies the beauty of life, of following Jesus: while the world tells us that to see is to believe, Jesus tells us that to believe so we would see; the world tells us to enjoy life without inhibitions one’s enjoyment, Jesus tells us that it is in dying that we truly live.

Both happens when we dare to ask, when we dare to step forward and take the plunge, of giving one’s self in love. To ask of seeing Jesus, of seeing somebody special, of asking if is it you is also believing in him or the other person.

Believe. And you shall see that indeed, it is you, Jesus!

Here is Lee Ritenour with Eric Tagg.

From Youtube.com

Nicodemus and James Taylor

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 March 2024
“Nicodemus and Jesus” painting by James Tissot (1836-1902) from SuperStock/GettyImages via learnreligions.com.

One of our favorite singer-songwriters James Taylor is coming next month for a one-night concert at the Mall of Asia Arena; hence, we are featuring two of his songs we find so related with the gospel message this fourth Sunday in Lent also known as Laetare or Rejoice Sunday.

But first, let us take a slight deviation from our usual manner of coming up with the music right away as we realized too the strong links between Nicodemus and James Taylor in their experiences.

Nicodemus belonged to the group of Pharisees, one of the enemies of Jesus at that time. But he admired and believed in Jesus that is why he chose to visit the Lord at night so that people would not notice. Eventually, Nicodemus became a disciple of Jesus after Good Friday after he and another Pharisee named Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Christ and buried him in a tomb (https://lordmychef.com/2024/03/09/lent-is-the-love-mercy-of-god-in-me/).

Nicodemus’ coming to see Jesus at night evoked his situation of being in the darkness of fears and confusions, trying to find directions in life which he found in Christ. It was similar with James Taylor’s plight he beautifully expressed in his 1970 hit Fire and Rain which is about the suicide of a childhood friend as well as his coping with his addiction and depression following his fame.

Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone.
Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you.
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song,
I just can’t remember who to send it to.
I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I’d see you again.

Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus, You’ve got to help me make a stand.
You’ve just got to see me through another day.
My body’s aching and my time is at hand and I won’t make it any other way.
Oh, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I’d see you again.

From https://www.wildflowersprovence.fr/plant/convolvulus-lanuginosus/

Many times, we find ourselves in situations like Nicodemus when everything is all dark like the night, or James Taylor going through fire and rain.

Now look, Jesus is most present with us when we are in the darkest darkness of the night, right in the middle of a raging storm. Many times we could not see him because he hugs us, embraces us to shield us from more harms.

When Jesus told Nicodemus about his coming crucifixion – “when the Son of Man is raised up” – it was an assurance to us all too that Christ is with us in our worst situation because he suffered first for us on the Cross. I am so glad that JT mentioned Jesus in his song, pleading to the Lord to “look down upon me and help me make a stand.”

That is why we rejoice this Sunday: in the midst of our troubles and sufferings, there are bursts of joy and relief from Jesus within us dwelling in our hearts. And that is why, we find JT’s 1976 hit, Shower the People, so related too with our gospel this Sunday.

When Jesus told Nicodemus how “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16), it was also a call for us all to be the love and mercy of Christ in the world.

Nicodemus eventually became a disciple of Jesus while JT is still very much around, having weathered so many fires and rains or storms in his life, both telling us how God finds ways to save us, even extricate us from our worst situation. Hence, the need for us to become the presence of Christ’s joy and mercy to people especially those closest to us so that they may realize and experience that God so loved the world because of the way we shower them with love through us.

You can play the game and you can act out the part,
even though you know it wasn’t written for you.
Tell me, how can you stand there with your broken heart ashamed of playing the fool?
One thing can lead to another; it doesn’t take any sacrifice.
Oh, father and mother, sister and brother, if it feels nice, don’t think twice,
just shower the people you love with love, show them the way that you feel.
Things are gonna work out fine if you only will do as I say, just
shower the people you love with love, show them the way you feel.
Things are gonna be much better if you only will.

Here is our doubleheader from the “Sweet Baby James”. Have a blessed, lovely week ahead!

*Both materials are not ours without any intentions at all of infringing its copyrights.

From YouTube.com
From YouTube.com.

“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” by The Righteous Brothers (1964)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 03 March 2024
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 2018.

Our 40-day Lenten journey gets more intense this Sunday with the gospel scene where Jesus cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem to signify the need for us to recover our zeal for God who is also our first love (https://lordmychef.com/2024/03/02/lent-is-the-zeal-of-jesus/).

In a similar manner, we picked the intensely passionate 1964 hit You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ by The Righteous Brothers matching today’s Sunday gospel as it tells us the similar teaching of Jesus Christ, of how we have lost our zeal for God and the need to bring it back for our own good.

Of course, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ is a love song with its usual sprinklings of sensuality but its sublimity and accuracy in describing the common experiences of love going bad have made it as the most-played song in American radio and television – perhaps even the world – in the 20th century. It is also the most successfully covered song by artists, including by our favorite Hall & Oates who must literally heed the song’s message after their falling apart as musicdom’s dynamic duo of all time.

Written by music producer Phil Spector with some help from Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ as a ballad is soulfully penetrating with the contrasting vocal ranges of Bill Medley’s bass-baritone voice and Bobby Hatfield’s tenor that enabled them to create a distinctive sound as a duet.

This perfect blending of their voices is felt, not just heard in You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ that is a kind of music that can disturb and awaken one’s callous conscience to put it in order. Or have it cleansed as Jesus did in the Temple when he drove out the oxen and sheep, overturned the tables of money changers and drove the doves away being sold.

Notable also is the song’s slow opening – and video – with Medley’s deep voice so hauntingly cool but not scary at all but simply disarming, making it perhaps the most coveted style in singing.

You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips
And there’s no tenderness like before in your fingertips
You’re trying hard not to show it
But baby, baby I know it

You lost that lovin’ feelin’
Whoa, that lovin’ feelin’
You lost that lovin’ feelin’
Now it’s gone, gone, gone, whoa-oh

All in all, here is a most beautiful music, so universal as a language in its melody and lyrics that reminds us that love is not everything; love is more than a feeling but a decision we have to nurture and deepen in order to grow and mature. And bloom.

Most of all, to remain rooted in our first love of all, in God who gives us the zeal, the spark to keep it burning. Have lovin’ week ahead, everyone.

From YouTube.com