The aura that The Hollies’ 1969 song, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” produces is fascinating to the senses. Akin to the Righteous Brothers’ hit “Unchained Melody” in its reality for love, closer perhaps than one could truly experience with another person, this song brings with it links to Boys Town, founded by Father Edward Joseph Flanagan.
Father Flanagan “realized that all boys needed love to be productive citizens. That was why [he] turned his energy to loving boys who were neglected.”[1] There is little doubt really that the culture and values of Boys Town captured the brotherhood Worship Songs Download (and sisterhood) of humanity; that innate desire of the good person to lend a hand to another struggling circumstantially with life. The lyrics of the song that characterised Boys Town’s image from 1941 are chillingly wholesome, at once taking us “right there,” where the man or woman is carried — but carried by whom? It starts:
The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where,
Who knows when
But I’m strong,
Strong enough to carry him.
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.
We know the love of the brother here, most of us. We’ve either seen it or experienced it personally. The road of life is long and it’s mysterious in that we have no idea what a day holds; we simply make our plans don’t we? But how often are our plans fraught with dangers we did not at first see, and how often did we not suspect things that would necessitate re-planning? There is One strong enough to bear all of this however, our brother Jesus — he’s more than strong enough for each of us.