Known by many as an evocative late sixties song, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” was, in fact, a take on the motto for Boys Town, the community for troubled or homeless boys founded by Fr. Edward Flanagan in 1917. Fr. Flanagan had seen the phrase in a magazine, along with the drawing of a boy carrying a younger boy on his back. He sought permission to commission a statue of the drawing with the inscription, “He ain’t heavy, Father, he’s my brother.” It’s a powerful phrase that draws us in, knowing that we occasionally need to carry others amid their pain in our lives. There are also times when we need to be carried by others. Fr. Brendan McGuire writes that in today’s Gospel, Jesus commends the four men’s faith who carried the paralytic man and the man himself. Faith is an attitude of trust in the presence of God. Faith is openness to what God will reveal, do, and invite. It should be evident that in dealing with the infinite, all-powerful person who is God, we are never in control. Jesus healed the paralytic first of his sins and then of his physical ailment, giving us the clear message that our spiritual healing is of the highest importance. There are times in our lives when we are like the paralytic, crippled in our relationship with God. Sometimes, we know we have made mistakes, and there is distance in our relationship with God. And so, we ask for forgiveness. There are other times when we carry others to God for healing. They are unable to get there themselves because they are paralyzed in one way or another. Can we open our eyes and find the compassion within our hearts to carry them? They’re not heavy. In Christ, they’re our brothers and sisters. “Oh, what needless burdens we bear when we fail to take them to God in prayer.”