The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of San Roque (St. Rock/Roche), Healer, 16 August 2024 Ezekiel 16:1-15, 60, 63 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 19:3-12
Photo by author, 15 August 2024.
God our loving Father, thank you for the gift of personhood, for your gift of personal relationship with each one of us; your servant St. John Paul II defined a person as a "full, conscious, relating being."
Very true but sadly, we never recognize your gift of personhood, of our being a person and its fruit of relationships; instead of looking into the heart and soul of every one of us, we prefer to see each one in the mind, in the letter, in the technical than personal:
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” (Matthew 19:3)
Soften our hearts, Jesus; take away our stony hearts and give us natural hearts that beats with firm faith, fervent hope in You, and unceasing charity for everyone.
Forgive us for being so captivated by our own beauty and prowess, remove our confusion and let us be silenced for shame (Ezekiel 16:15, 63) to remember your covenant by appreciating and being open to your gift of person and relationships by striving to keep this alive despite our many flaws and sins. Amen.
St. Rock, pray for us so infected by another kind of pestilence of pandemic proportion when we see persons as objects and make objects like persons. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 15 August 2024 Revelation 11:19;12:1-6, 10 ><}}}}*> 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 ><}}}}*> Luke 1:39-56
Photo from shutterstock.com
Glory and praise, God Almighty Father in sending us Jesus our Savior who gave us His Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary, the very first fruit as St. Paul said of Christ's wondrous work of salvation due her oneness in Him.
Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-40).
Right after the Annunciation to Mary, her path to her Assumption began when she "set out and travelled to the hill country in haste" to share Christ in her with Elizabeth; what a beautiful imagery of the same path to the Calvary, another hill outside Jerusalem to be with Christ her Son.
Bless us with the same grace You gave Mary your Mother, Lord Jesus, to follow your path to every hill in this life, to be one with those especially who are in pain and suffering; let us trust in You fully in faith, hope and love that the sufferings we may endure in setting out to travel to the hills of this life is the very path of our assumption in You; let us realize that despite the many comforts and ease of technology today, it is not what life really is, that we all have to go through your Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Like Mary, may we believe your words, Jesus, will be fulfilled. Amen.
“The Assumption of the Virgin” by Italian Renaissance painter Titian completed in 1518 for the main altar of Frari church in Venice. Photo from en.wikipedia.org.
I had published my Sunday homily that Saturday morning when I decided to unwind by watching any movie on Netflix which I do only on weekends. So glad it was the first movie I saw, very related with the story of Prophet Elijah and Jesus Christ’s “Bread of Life Discourse” that Sunday.
First think I liked with Lolo and the Kid is its fast-paced story that revolved around the two characters played by veteran Joel Torre and GMA7’s famed Firefly star Euwenn Mikael Aleta.
Second thing so interesting with me is how Lolo and Kid have no proper names at all (I just learned Lolo’s name was Mario after reading the various write ups) maybe because they stand for all of us who are caught in this great race for money and material things but deep inside longing for the more essential and truly lasting in life like love. And people who love us too, who care for us, and would stand by us.
We are Lolo and Kid who many times have traded our principles for momentary satisfaction but despite our seemingly strong facades of pragmatism and “resourcefulness” or madiskarte as Lolo taught Kid in the movie, deep inside us is still our conscience where God dwells, telling us to pursue good and shun evil. Joel Torre perfectly portrayed this beautiful side in each one of us (with his Ilonggo accent) of keeping a conscience despite our sinfulness, like a soft shell we delicately keep whole and intact inside lest we lose everything in life.
Photo from de.flixable.com
Recall our first reading last Sunday about Elijah fleeing to the mountain from an army pursuing to kill him. Elijah felt a total failure like Lolo and us many times in life when after all our goodwill and love, we are dumped by the very people we care for.
Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death, saying: “This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4).
In one of the scenes of Lolo and the Kid, we find Lolo crying, cursing everyone and murmuring just like in last Sunday’s gospel. As he tried to end his life with a knife, Lolo suddenly heard the cry of an infant from the heap of garbage around him. What a beautiful portrayal of that infant left in the trash like Jesus Christ born on a manger becoming the savior of Lolo, a definitive message of mercy and love from God after his apparent cry of “This is enough, Lord!”
How many times have we found ourselves in the same situation, often in less momentous ones than Elijah or any prophet and saint, crying out to God in the heavens “this is enough”?
But, what is also most true behind every cry of “this is enough” that we make, we continue to believe and to hope in God that there is still a way out of our plight. And very often like in the story of Elijah last Sunday and in that scene in Lolo and the Kid, God comes at the nick of time like that infant crying in the garbage heap, a reminder of life and beauty found within us despite all the dirt we may have around us.
From netflixlovers.it
Here we find the Kid, perfectly played by Euwenn like in Firefly, as the saving grace, the Christ-figure in the movie bringing salvation to Lolo. Kid was “the bread of life from heaven” who “fed” Lolo with life with its meaning and direction. And joy found in Kid, the image of Christ Jesus.
Now, joy according to Jesus at the Last Supper is like a woman at the pangs of childbirth (Jn.16:21-22); it is deeper than happiness. True joy is borne out of self-sacrifice, a fruit of self-denial, of loving somebody more than one’s self. This we find at the end of this moving film.
Now all grown up, Kid finally met again Lolo in the hospital a day after his college graduation. Kid brought Lolo while seated on a wheelchair to visit Taba (another character without a name), their suki in fencing. From there, they went to their usual stop, a videoke bar to eat and drink, singing repeatedly Kenny Roger’s Through the Years.
Then, Lolo died, singing the only tune he knew that summed their beautiful relationship.
Photo from list23.com.
After Lolo’s body was taken out of the videoke bar, Kid opened Lolo’s bag that had a tin can of biscuit filled with old photographs taken with their stolen Polaroid camera. The photos did not merely remind Kid of their happy times together but most especially when they were already apart!
Unknown to Kid, Lolo hid to take photos when he moved to his adoptive parents, from his first ever birthday party to his college graduation! Through the years, Lolo, like God, was always there, present in all of Kid’s milestones in life because he is truly loved.
I have never liked that song Through the Years even when it was a hit during our high school days in 1981 but since Saturday, I have been humming it silently, hearing it inside me as an LSS until now. We hear the song playing throughout the end of the movie with scenes of how Lolo secretly took Kid’s photos filled with love and joy amid the strong current of pain within he had to endure to be far and away yet so near to his beloved apo.
If the Kid is the Christ figure in this film, Lolo is the God-the-Father figure, the One who seems so far from us as if He does not care at all. In Lolo and the Kid, there is that message of God never leaving us wherever we may be, whether we are in the squalor of poverty and sin or in the purity and cleanliness of affluence and grace maybe. God like Lolo to Kid is always with us but never interferes, silently doing many things to ensure that despite our many faults and failures in life, we end up in Him and His love.
We go back to Elijah’s cry of “This is enough, Lord!”, our very same cry like Lolo in the movie.
It is a cry that is also a prayer coming from our innermost being when we feel so saddled with no one to unload our woes except to God – who after all is the very reason why we cry! Watch for Lolo’s soliloquy on this reality we often do.
Photo by author, James Alberione Center, QC, 08 August 2024.
It is a cry of faith so akin with love because to believe and to love go hand in hand. It is during that moment when we feel like giving up to God, crying “this is enough” when in reality we surrender everything to God because we have been caught up by Him that we cannot resist His attraction.
It is that moment when we feel so “fed up with life” but deep inside, we hear God telling us like Lolo with the cries of an infant or like Elijah with an angel instructing him, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” (1 Kings 19:7).
Yes, our life journey is still long but we have a companion in Jesus, our bread of life from heaven, nourishing us, strengthening us, teaching us that essential beauty of love found only in sharing one’s life for the other. As we have said in last Sunday’s homily, it is when we cry “it is enough, Lord” when God gives us more than enough to sustain us sometimes in the form of a good movie like this one. May we have more “bread” like Lolo and the Kid that feeds our soul and gladdens our heart.
*BTW, we are not paid to endorse this movie; simply sharing with you its good news.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Martyr, 09 August 2024 Nahum 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 16:24-28
Photo by author, Chapel of the Angel of Peace, 25 June 2024.
Lord Jesus Christ, yesterday You reprimanded Peter for "thinking not as God does, but as human beings do"; today, You tell us what is to think as God does by choosing your path of the Cross:
Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).
Forgive us, dear Jesus, for always choosing the path of humans, thinking of one's self, taking and grabbing whatever is available, unmindful of others; give us the courage of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross known as the philosopher Edith Stein: born to a family of means and comfort, one of the first women to study and teach in university before World War II in Europe who became an atheist only to discover the truth of God upon meeting a good friend filled with joy despite the death of her husband; she eventually converted to Catholic faith and when war was raging in Europe as Hitler ordered the extermination of Jews, St. Benedicta remained despite her many chances of leaving safely to Switzerland or South America only to be imprisoned later at Auschwitz where she died a martyr in 1942, described by one survivor of the Holcaust as a "Pieta without the Christ."
In this life of affluence, of noise and glamor, St. Benedicta of the Cross taught as of the beauty of poverty, of silence and of simplicity, of choosing your ways, O Lord Jesus for indeed, "what would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?"
Sadly, it is happening now, Lord, it is happening: families so divided because of fame and wealth, friendships destroyed because of ideologies, a nation, a culture going down the drain because of modern thoughts so far from your ways, Jesus.
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Pray for us to see and follow the light of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Memorial of St. Dominic, Priest, 08 August 2024 Jeremiah 31:31-34 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 16:13-23
Graffiti: a writing or drawings on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view.
Writings on the wall: an idiom that means to say something will fail or something unpleasant will happen like during the time King Belshazzar when there appeared writings on the wall of Babylon's impending end (see Daniel 5:1-30).
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, 20 March 2024.
The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place my law within them, and write it uppn their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Jeremiah 31:31, 33).
How lovely, O God our Father, You chose to write your covenant on our hearts- not on the walls nor documents that often spell danger and disaster or doom and endings; how lovely to simply just look inside our hearts to find You and your covenant, O God; no need to look out or look up or look down and see dirt and chaos.
Your writing on our hearts is simple, noble and reassuring: You shall be our God, we are your people; when Jesus came, He gave us His heart to visibly make that writing, that covenant simply the word LOVE. Many times, we cannot find your laws, your writing on our hearts because we have covered them with so many other gods; very often, Jesus comes to us asking us the same question to the Twelve, "But who do you say that I am?" but we are so busy with our many pursuits in life, reading the many writings on the wall and pavements of our sick world.
Cleanse our hearts, Lord to truly give You our sincere answers and remember your covenant of love written on our hearts. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest, 31 July 2024 Jeremiah 15:10, 16-21 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 13:44-46
Photo by Ms. Jessica Soho, caves of Manresa in Spain where St. Ignatius prayed and compiled his journals, the Spiritual Exercises, May 2024.
Dearest Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous like your servant St. Ignatius of Loyola, like the Prophet Jeremiah; grant me the grace of "positive indifference", of letting go whatever keeps me from loving God and others while remaining engaged with whatever that makes me love God and others so that I may always praise, revere and serve God my Lord and Master.
Forgive me, dear Jesus, at times when I complain, when I cry out to You like the Prophet Jeremiah today: "Why is my pain continuous, my wounds incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become for me a treacherous brook, whose waters do not abide!" (Jeremiah 15:18)
Let me realize that as a disciple, as your prophet especially in this time of so much emphasis on relativism, on having one's self as the measure of what is right and acceptable, of what is cultured and intellectual even at the expense of making a mockery of you, our Lord and God, I have to speak in clear and blunt language, calling a male as a he or a sir, a female as a she or a ma'am, nothing of them or their as singular, of immoral as wrong and sinful, of every life in whatever stage as precious that may all make me be an object of attacks and ridicule even among friends and relatives.
Let me realize, Jesus, my Lord and Master, that despite the trend of many today to wave the banner of evil in multi-colors and shades, we have to be firm in waving your white and pure banner of truth even if it may be old and tattered in time; most of all, let me keep in mind and heart and soul that as we continue to love and forgive even our bashers and haters, we would never be loved in return just like You.
Take my will, O Lord, my liberty and everything I have like that man in today's parable (Matthew 13:44-46), let me leave everything behind to gain You like that great treasure and pearl of great price; give me the grace and courage to do your most holy will. Amen.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, Pray for us.
Photo by Ms. Jessica Soho, Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, Spain where St. Ignatius pledged his loyalty to the Mother of God, May 2024.
A wedding homily for Sir Vicente R. Santos III & Ms. Jillian Bianca Carpio St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, 12 July 2024 Tobit 8:4b-8 >><}}}}*> + <*{{{{><< John 15:9-12
Photo by author in La Trinidad, Benguet, 12 July 2023.
Congratulations, Sir Teng and Mam Jill on your wedding day. Your decision to get married in the Church is an expression of love itself because love is a decision, not just a feeling. Making a decision to get married is a choice to be small, to be broken into pieces to be united, to be one with the other person, your beloved.
Every time we make that decision to love, we renounce our very selves, our selfishness. The truest sign that we love is when we are able to love somebody more than our self; and to grow in love is to always choose the other person by a daily renunciation of one’s self which Ben&Ben sang so well, “Mahiwaga… pipiliin ka sa araw-araw…”
Photo by author, Camp John Hay, 12 July 2023.
This we saw in our first reading in the beautiful prayer by Tobiah with Sarah on their honeymoon when he mentioned God’s original plan in Genesis in creating woman as a suitable partner of man.
The root word of “partner” is part. A part is always small that makes up the whole. Every whole is made up of small parts.
A part-ner means you are both a part of each other and you both have to be small in order to be whole as married couple.
In that beautiful story of Tobiah and Sarah, we find them choosing to become small in order to become part of the bigger whole, of each other, and of God.
Tobiah is the son of Tobit who lived in exile in Nineveh, the capital of Assyria that had conquered Israel in the Old Testament. Tobit used to be wealthy but had a reversal of fortunes later in life made worse with his going blind. He sent his son Tobiah to Media to collect a debt from a fellow Jew with hopes he could also find there a bride for himself among their kindred.
God then sent Archangel Raphael who disguised as a traveler to Tobiah who was so kind to welcome him as companion. On their way to Media, Tobiah was attacked by a large, strange fish while taking a bath at the Tigris River. Tobiah was able to subdue the creature while Raphael instructed him to take out its heart, liver and gall due to its medicinal properties. Tobiah obeyed Raphael and they proceeded to Media to collect the debt owed to his father. There he met and fell for a Jewish woman named Sarah.
But, there was a major problem with Sarah: she had been widowed seven times because the devil Asmodeus would always come and kill her husband just before their honeymoon!
Engraving of Raphael instructing Tobiah to gut the fish by Georg Pencz (1543) from en.wikipedia.org.
Raphael pushed Tobiah to still marry Sarah, teaching how to drive away the devil Asmodeus on their honeymoon by burning the heart and liver of the strange fish he had killed. Tobiah followed Raphael’s instructions and Asmodeus was finally driven away that is why we have this scene of them praying in thanksgiving for their marriage. (This is the reason St. Raphael is portrayed with a fish and why arbularyos burn fish intestines to drive away evil spirits.)
Tobiah returned home to present his wife Sarah to his parents in Nineveh; Raphael again instructed Tobiah to apply the dried gall of the fish onto the eyes of his father Tobit to regain his sight. Amid their celebrations for Tobit’s healing and Tobiah’s marriage, Raphael revealed himself as God’s archangel sent to them to bring their healing which is the meaning of the name Raphael, “God has healed”.
See how Tobiah and Sarah, as well as Tobit even Archangel Raphael chose to be small and humble before God and everyone, to play mere parts in the grand plan of God in their lives. They were all willing to be humble and small.
Photo by author, St. Michael Archangel Parish, BGC, Taguig City, 12 July 2024.
Sir Teng and Mam Jill, you were sent for each other by God like St. Raphael to Tobiah and Sarah and Tobit. Handle your life with prayer. Always invite Jesus into your life as a married couple just like today you when you invited Him to bless your wedding. Do not forget to celebrate Mass every Sunday, to pray daily, as much as possible together as husband and wife.
True greatness is in becoming small like a little child as Jesus Christ repeatedly told His disciples. In this world where we compete on being the biggest and most powerful, God tells us the key to fulfillment is in being small, being humble, to become a part of the whole. The greatness of every person depends on the measure of his or her ability to share because it is only in participating in the whole does one becomes truly great.
Marriage is becoming small to become one. Husband and wife cannot be one unless they let go of themselves first. Marriage is not a competition of who has more love to give and share but simply of loving and loving, giving and giving.
When you reflected Sir Teng on what to do with your life and realized you will never be complete without Mam Jill, that is being small, that is truly loving because you are willing to let go of yourself to be a part of Jill.
Remember, there’s no perfect husband nor perfect wife but you can be the ideal husband, the ideal wife by forgetting yourself through daily conversion in Jesus Christ who gave His total self out of love for us. And you do not have to die on the cross literally, Sir Teng and Mam Jill.
Sir Teng, the ideal husband is someone who is deaf. Bingi. You know how women are. They talk a lot as they remember everything in detail even from long, long time ago. The moment Mam Jill starts talking, play deaf. So you don’t quarrel or debate.
Mam Jill, the idal wife is someone who is blind. Bulag. Problem with women is you see everything, kahit wala naman, may nakikita pa rin mga babae. When you see something with Sir Teng, play blind. Wala yun. Mabait siya talaga.
You two were brought together by your love for the French language. Every language is made up of small parts called letters used to form words put together in a sentence to express a thought or a feeling so we can communicate.
But, “communication is more than the expression of one’s thoughts and feelings; at its most profound level, it is the giving of self in love like Jesus Christ on the Cross” (Communio et Progressio #11)… just like every husband and wife too.
So, be small, Sir Teng and Mam Jill for you to remain in love, to grow in love, and be great in love. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Memorial of Sts. Martha, Mary & Lazarus, 29 July 2024 1 John 4:7-16 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> John 11:19-27
“The Raising of Lazarus”, 1311 painting by Duccio de Buoninsegna from commons.wikimedia.org
If you have love in your heart, you have been blessed by God; if you have been loved, you have been touched by God (Anonymous author).
What a lovely Monday You have given us today, O God our Father as we celebrate the Memorial of the friends of Jesus Christ, the sisters St. Mary and St. Martha with their brother St. Lazarus - a beautiful and most powerful reminder to us all that Jesus comes first in our family most especially among our siblings.
How sad, dear Father are the growing number of couples having only one child or two the most with kids denied of this most wonderful experience of kinship; on the other hand, there is the growing trend of family disintegration due to divorce and separation of many couples with children as main casualties; likewise, of the growing trend among young people to selfishly pursue many things in life in total disregard of others beginning in their own family circle.
No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us (1 John 4:12).
Help us, dear Father, to rekindle this love we first experienced in our homes, among our siblings like Saints Mary, Martha and Lazarus; let us discover anew the wonderful and amazing gifts of brothers and sisters in the family who remind us of your blessing us with so much love in our hearts; let us feel and experience again your gift of love in our hearts in the mere mention of names of our own brother and/or sister who made us first experience love next from our parents; refresh our memories of those times You touched us with the selfless love, the unconditional love freely shared with us by our brother and/or sister.
We pray, most merciful Father, for all brothers and sisters separated from each other due to misunderstandings, jealousy, betrayals and mistrust; like St. Martha, let us never lose faith and hope for estranged brothers and sisters to rise anew from their deaths into sin, to find again that love You have given them in their hearts and most of all, touch them so they may remember and miss anew those experiences of being loved by their siblings in their childhood to rebuild their ties again in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
An icon of Jesus visiting his friends, the siblings Sts. Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Photo from crossroadsinitiative.com.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, 22 July 2024 Song of Songs 3:1-4 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> John 20:1-2, 11-18
“The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene” painting by Alexander Ivanov (1834-1836) at the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia from commons.wikimedia.org.
We rejoice today, Lord Jesus, for this most wondrous Feast of your friend St. Mary Magdalene: in her we find hope and joy that like her, we who are sinners are assured of a grace-filled future, of a trustworthy friend in You, and abounding love and mercy also in You.
We are, dear Jesus,
the modern Mary Magdalene:
sinful and worldly,
perhaps so vain with our
outside appearance and bearing
in public, sometimes on the brink
of giving up in life because nobody seem
to care at all for us;
many times like Mary Magdalene,
we walk alone in darkness
searching for You, Lord Jesus;
many times we wonder too
how we could move the huge
and heavy stone of past sins,
weaknesses and failures,
addictions and vices
that cover us and prevent us
from moving forward, finding You;
many times, O Lord,
we mistake You for somebody else
like Mary Magdalene when she mistook
You to be the gardener at the tomb
because we are so preoccupied
of many things in life.
But, You assure us today
on this Feast of St. Mary Magdalene
our fears and assumptions are not
true at all; help us to stop clinging
to our many past for You are not there,
Jesus; You are always in the here and now,
in the present moment, personally calling us
in our name like Mary!
The Bride says: On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves – I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek him whom my heart loves. I sought him but I did not find him. The watchmen came upon me as they made their rounds of the city. Have you seen him whom my heart loves? I have hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves (Song of Songs 3:1-4).
Like that lover, the Bride in the first reading, we are Mary Magdalene in search of love and meaning in this world; in search of You, Jesus, our Lord and Savior; so often, we seek You in this world, in its loud noise of too much self bragging as well as in the midst of the world's riches and powers; the more we seek You, the more elusive You have become until You came when like Mary Magdalene we have believed in You, we have listened to You. we have become silent and attentive to You, Lord Jesus; thank You for coming, thank You for finding me, thank You for calling me like Mary to proclaim You are risen to others who believe in You, searching You, waiting for You. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 21 July 2024
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, Infanta, Quezon, 2020.
We’re back on this lazy but blessed Sunday when our gospel is about rest, “Jesus said to his apostles, ‘Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while'” (Mk. 6:31).
And we thank God for the gift of music that is the easiest, most affordable and most rewarding manner of rest for us next to prayer and the Mass. Most of all, see that every song, every musical piece is always about love who is God Himself!
For this Sunday, we go back to 1977 with Roberta Flack’s romantic ballad The Closer I Get to You that is more than a song of love but a story of love in itself.
According to Ms. Flack, it was her manager David Franklin’s idea that she record a duet of that song with her college friend Donny Hathaway who was then suffering with clinical depression. Both have worked together earlier in several duets. As a way of helping her friend get over his depression, the song was re-written while Ms. Flack had to make a lot of sacrifices in recording and shuttling between New York City and Chicago where Hathaway was confined to a hospital and had refused to travel.
Hathaway never recovered from his depression and eventually died a few years after the release of their duet in 1978 that became an instant hit, earning praises and had them nominated for Grammy the following year.
Ms. Flack said in an interview that their duet would always be her dedication to Hathaway as she donated all the money earned from that song to Hathaway’s widow and two children.
As we have mentioned in our homily today, rest is getting closer with God and the closer we get to Him, the closer we get with others. That is why Jesus was moved with pity to the vast crowds who have followed them to a deserted place to rest: His oneness with the Father moved Him closer to people especially the poor and the suffering. And that is why we find The Closer I Get to You perfect with our gospel this Sunday: the more we get closer with Jesus, the more we get closer with our family and friends and those in need.
The closer I get to you The more you make me see By giving me all you've got Your love has captured me
I love that first stanza of The Closer I Get to You; it says the very essence of the song which is a gospel in itself. It reminds us of St. John’s first letter when he wrote, “No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us” (1Jn.4:12).
The more we get closer with anyone, the more we love, because the more our eyes are opened to see others to love. And God becomes more present among us!
It’s a Sunday, go celebrate the Mass and enjoy some beautiful music to remind us of God’s presence among us. Here now is The Close I Get To You…
