To the Band of Brothers: February 16, 2024

In 1966, the great Percy Sledge introduced to the world a love song that put his name on the musical billboards. The song was called “When a Man Loves a Woman” and, not only was it the number one song in America for several weeks, but it also was considered many years later by “Rolling Stones Magazine” as one of the top 100 greatest songs of all time.

In the song, Sledge sings about the crazy things a man is willing to do when he falls in love with a woman. Here are some of the lyrics:

When a man loves a woman
Spends his very last dime
Tryin’ to hold on to what he needs
He’d give up all his comfort
Sleep out in the rain
If she said that’s the way it ought to be.

Sing it Percy… I know exactly what you are talking about. And I am sure it has happened to all of us at one point or another.

I remember being in middle school and having a crush on a girl in my class. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I don’t know what came over me. I would save my lunch money so I could buy her little things, I would wait for her after school so I could ask her how her day had been, I would give up my place in the lunch line so I could stand next to her, I would not play dodge ball with my friends so I could sit with her during recess, and I even joined the choir because she was in it (and I’m a terrible singer!). I was in love and, even though my friends laughed at me and mocked me, I was determined to be with my love and express to her my interest no matter what.

I eventually got over her, but there were others. The funny thing was every time Cupid struck my heart with his arrow of love, I would take off again. I would act out of the ordinary and go beyond the call of duty to impress the girl, to demonstrate my interest and affection.

Believe it or not, very little has changed. I am still very much in love and I continue to find myself doing crazy things to demonstrate that interest and affection. Only now, my love is for Jesus Christ, my heart belongs to him, and I find myself going out of my way to express it. I may not be sleeping out in the rain or spending every last dime, but I do find myself offering things up, sacrificing little things, doing a little extra.

The season of Lent we began on Wednesday is a lot like this. It’s about recognizing Jesus as our love and that it is good for us to go out of our way to offer him things that express that love. It’s about doing little things that show we are interested. Abstaining from eating meat on Fridays, fasting, going to Mass an extra day during the week, praying the rosary I usually don’t pray, serving the poor I usually don’t serve, giving up chocolate or soda or dessert may all sound foolish in the grand scheme of things, but it’s the kind of foolish things that people do when they are in love. I don’t know about you, but I find that to be very romantic. But then again, I’ve always been a romantic at heart.

Auspice Maria.