El Greco ("The Greek"; 1541 – 7 April 1614) was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. He usually signed his paintings in Greek letters with his full name, Doménicos Theotokópoulos, underscoring his Greek descent.

El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. He is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western civilization. -Wikipedia

I’ve been working on an article about immigration reform—buzz words, here in Southeast Texas—but something kept nagging at me while I was scrutinizing statistics and researching the impact on the economy. I’ll probably submit an article about that in the future, but I became increasingly aware that something was wrong with my approach.

I wrote to one of my Franciscan brothers who teaches at Columbia University and asked if he had any relevant information I could see, as he's been very involved with an immigration task force and lives in Brooklyn, where there are thousands of immigrants. He sent me several files and, as I was reading them, a message kept repeating in my head—one which has also come to me when writing about the war in Iraq, the trafficking of children, or equal rights for women. The theme of that message is that we're all connected on this earth and, I believe, beyond this earth, and our collective attitudes and understanding of what this means needs adjusting. The approach is spiritual.

My method had been an intellectual one, much the same as the political parties trying to hash out a law on what immigration reform should look like. I'm not going to offer a solution, but, rather, suggest a new approach to examining the issue.

I know I may be preaching to the converted, but if one or two people stumble across this article and it causes them to think of their neighbors in a way they hadn’t before, then the ripple effect of that will go a long way. A longer way than most of us realize.

A few years ago, it was politically hip to talk about practicing tolerance as the answer to hate crimes and acceptance of marginalized people. I can’t help but wonder if tolerance is truly helpful; it almost seems to be the loophole one can slide through in order to escape having to sincerely care about another person. Marco Visscher, Managing Editor of Ode Magazine, writes, in a short article titled "Beyond Tolerance", that "putting up with people is not the same as welcoming them".ⁱ

I find it really hard to swallow that no one is asking the original people of this land what we should do about immigrants who continue to come to the United States. It’s confusing, to me, that my ancestors from Ireland and Wales came here for the same reasons people are crossing our borders today. The very ones who are now building a wall out in the god-forsaken desert of the U.S., to keep people from entering, are descendents of folks who were also once unwelcome in this country.

Regardless of the melting-pot history of the United States, people are arriving on our shores and at our borders for many reasons—most of which are honorable or, at least, understandable. Admittedly, many problems need to be addressed immediately, but I think the greater problems are the abuses and unfair treatment immigrants have to endure in this country. The immigration problem is a symptom of a human relations illness. Huston Smith reminds us, "The crisis that the world finds itself in, as it swings on the hinge of a new millennium, is located in something deeper than particular ways of organizing political systems and economies."

The world’s religions all teach respect and love of all creation, of each other. But it's religious intolerance that causes most of the world’s violence and oppression. "There will be peace on Earth when there is peace among the world religions." Hans Küng, is credited with saying. Yet, for thousands of years, w've continued to harm one another in the name of God.

I believe it takes a greater courage to stand in the name of love—whether that love is God, Allah, Grandfather, or the Great Being—than to engage in a battle where one might lose his or her earthly life.

For some, it might be hard to imagine that the present tide of war, disaster, hate and poverty can be turned around. The wave appears like a tsunami on the horizon, but I wholeheartedly believe there's a stronger force of light and love at work in this world, radiating from beyond it. There are those at work, now, who pray and meditate, day and night, to bring light into dark places, to bring healing instead of harm, love instead of hate, peace instead of war.

St. Francis, disgusted by the religious ignorance and intolerance of his day, traveled by foot to speak with the sultan, himself, as his armies fought the Crusaders. Thomas Cahill wondered, in his New York Times article, "The Peaceful Crusader", if the centuries of conflict between Islam and Christianity could have had a different outcome if Francis had been successful in his attempt to negotiate a truce.

But many of the people streaming into the United States from other countries, either seeking asylum or work, come from the same religious backgrounds as the majority of Americans. The Christians speak of the most important commandment in their scriptures

And yet, we may not all be aware how similar the teachings of faith are from one religion to the next. While our President may speak of Islamic states such as Iran and Iraq as the "axis of evil"^v, the Qu’ran has teachings similar to the Christian scriptures about human rights:

Even more staggering is this Qu’ranic teaching:

I could continue with other sacred texts, but a comparison of religions isn't the subject of this article; it's about the connectedness of all things. It's about how we treat our neighbors, moving past mere tolerance. Whomever we refer to as "them" is also "us". The Divine dwells in every life. The treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib is connected to how we greet our families. The God you worship is the 69 immigrants who were rounded up in Maryland, in March, and sent to jail, many of whom had small children and babies waiting at home. That is connected to this. Who we are is connected to who they are. We can't mistreat others without direct consequences to how we exist in the order of the Universe. The wall we erect along borders is a wall we erect in our own souls. Unnecessary imprisonment and abuse is also an abuse to our own spirits. We've all been taught this truth, but don't take the time to really listen and learn. We repeat the cycle, and will continue to do so, until we finally surrender to what recovery groups call, "A Higher Power". Then, we can look at immigration reform as if we are dealing with members of our own family. Because we are.