I knew a guy once, he met a girl and dropped out of college to move hundreds of miles to be with her. It was the stupidest thing I ever heard of. I don’t mean they were dating and he made a decision to live closer to her. I mean he /met/ her, and then he moved a good five states away.

Most folks will say this is at the least not very well thought out. Others might even call is psychotic. My friend, he wouldn’t say it was love because after all, real men don’t talk about love. But you could add up the grunts and evasions and figure that is what he’s saying.

I had met a girl in college, and after the breakup spent something like four days in my room, listening to Snow’s “Lonely Monday Morning” over and over and over and over. Don’t even try to doubt me because people who knew me back then read this blog now. They know.

The less said about this, the better.

I’m pretty sure we’ve all known someone that’s couldn’t eat and barely sleep for days after falling in love. I’m sure the only thing they would talk about would be, “Bobby, Bobby, Bobby” or “Jenny, Jenny, Jenny”. To everyone else within a five mile radius, it’s annoying enough to build a temporary insanity case around. The person in love doesn’t notice.

The bottom line is, people do really stupid things when they’re in love. More correctly, people in love do things that are perfectly sane to them, but seem stupid to the rest of the world. The worst effects occur, usually when the beloved does something special for the lover. I always wonder about the diamond commercial that uses something like, “A diamond will leave her speechless” (personally, I read that as saying, “Diamonds: that’ll shut her up” but that’s just me). Has anyone ever met a woman that got a diamond from her boyfriend and then was quiet about it? I mean, you could spend hours being forced to admire the precious gift she was given. For you, it’s torture. For her, it’s sublime.

I know another guy that most people would think was crazy. He was in love with someone who rejected Him. However, His love was so great that He took one of the worst beatings in history and died on a cross.

St. Benedict loved God. He had promised himself totally to Him. Yet, early in his relationship with God he was sorely tempted by Satan. One of the toughests temptations he faced was the memory of a beautiful woman he had met once. St. Benedict overcame his thoughts for this woman by rolling around in a bush bristling with sharp thorns. To just about everyone else, this was lunacy. To St. Benedict, it was love.

This brings us to Lent.

Us Catholics are getting ready to give up things, as is our custom. I’ve written about it before, stressing discipline and sacrifice and willpower. Many other folks have done the same as well. This is important, but only as a starting point. As men, we are imperfect creatures who desire for perfection. The desire isn’t enough, however. We have to progress towards perfection.

Focusing on discipline and willpower and whatnot is a necessary first step. This is sort of an imperfect fasting. It is good in and of itself, but it is not the greatest good. We need to grow and to move towards a more perfect fasting. It’s the difference between taking out the trash so the wife stops complaining and giving up bowling night with the guys without her ever mentioning it. One of the most common things heard by a man trying to cajole his love is, “I can change!” One of the best descriptions of love was uttered in a movie by Jack Nicholson, “You make me want to be a better person”. The people who make those statements, they don’t sigh when they see a donut they can’t have. They don’t see the donut, or they look at the donut and see the person they love. That is the goal that we need to strive for. That is what the saints achieved.

For all of our offerings we make this lent, for every fast and abstinence, let us also try to remember the great love we have. Like the girl with the diamond, let us be enraptured with the gift of salvation Our Lord has offered from the Cross. Like the moonstruck teenager, let us have the names of the most adorable Blessed Trinity upon our lips. Let us not even notice that we can’t eat or sleep, or do anything but think of the One we love.
Lent is the time of great love, for He truly desires love, and not sacrifice.