What The World Needs Now is …?

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What does the world need now? Ask this of your friends and associates. I am guessing the top answer today might be ‘peace.’ Others will say, ‘unity.’ Each of these is true; we need each. But is there a durable, constant root answer that actually spawns peace and unity?

In 1963, American composer Burt Bacharach wrote the song, “What the World Needs Now is Love,” and it was sung by Jackie DeShannon. The song held on for a while but two years later as the war in Vietnam was swirling into the American psyche, it exploded in popularity skyrocketing to the top of the charts by 1965 and remaining popular for years to come. 

A blend of the jaunty and the serene, the melody and the song’s simple lyrics could lull a listener into a reflective mood: “Lord, we don’t need another mountain, we have mountains enough; we don’t need another ocean, we have oceans enough.” No, what we need is Love. “It’s the only thing we have too little of.” Lyricist Hal Davis had been struggling to come up with the proper words for Bacharach’s developing tune but driving to work one day and seeing the ocean in the distance he was inspired with what he called a “prayerful lyric,” and that is how he came up with the words, “Lord, we don’t need another mountain…another ocean; we need Love.” It played almost incessantly after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

In my world of people seeking peace and direction, I have come to realize that at the base of every search is the need to realize, internalize, and share love. The human heart can do so much more and can be at peace if it shares love. What I mean by love is the hollowing out of the soul in giving of oneself without expecting any return. “To give without counting the cost,” as St. Ignatius wrote in his famous prayer. This kind of love leads us to more acceptance of others, more openness to their condition in life, more desire to help them rather than judge, criticize, demonize. It means suggesting your best ideas and efforts for solutions to help others. This kind of action will leverage peace and unity in your own life. You will learn from the efforts in giving by doing what you need to do to change your mind, your attitude where it will help others. You will become more peaceful; you will experience unity. You will not sit back and criticize in the comfort of your own opinion and information.

For example, we often opine that peace must be made between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, but that leaves us off-the-hook. It is not enough to say that the leaders must affect peace, important as that is. We, too, must be active in working for that peace. And this takes love. It takes us back to giving as I said above. It means getting out of one’s comfort zone and joining a group working for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, even our neighborhoods. This effort is love. The peace will come later. Unity will also come as a result. You might consider volunteering to assist in the upcoming elections. Perhaps you could join a church or community group to assist the underserved in the community. If I could paraphrase Davis’s lyrics for Bacharach’s song I might say, Lord, we don’t need another AR15, we have guns enough, or, Lord, we don’t need another bomb, we have bombs enough. And very importantly, Lord, we don’t need more name-calling in our politics, we have name-calling enough! The world needs to see, feel, and know our love and our caring. We need to be there for strangers as we are for those we know. “What the world needs now is love.” Peace and unity will come.

Reflection 

Saint Paul has provided the most famous, most read, most appealing definition of love in his first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 12, Verses 1 through 13. You hear it at every wedding, and you always think of its beauty and poetic depth starting with the words, “Set your hearts on the greater gifts.” But I suggest you think of it apart from wedding vows and insert the reality and struggle we are undergoing now with the political division in our country. Let’s  paraphrase a little here as it applies to us now: “if I speak with human tongue and angelic as well, but have not love,” I will criticize, malign, and be spiteful, “a noisy gong, a clanging symbol.” “If I have the gift of prophecy, and with full knowledge speak all things and have not love,” I will be supporting false promises like a dishonest charlatan and promoting issues without consideration of what others may contribute. 

“If I give everything, I have to feed the poor and hand my body over to be burned but do not have love,” my activism is done for attention and “I gain nothing.” Every single line or phrase of this magnificent message can be applied to healing the divisions we face which diminish the possibility of peace and unity and every line is an argument for Love. 

This week, take both the Bacharach song and the reading from Paul and go through them thoughtfully. I think you will see that, indeed, it is Love that we need and each of us can do more than we think to enliven that Love that will bring healing to our divisions and peace into the world.

I wish all of you, my Anonymous Angels, and my faithful readers a happy growth in Love this week. As our politics descend into despair and division, we must be witnesses that God’s Love is what the world needs now.