I don’t know how I lost it, how I missed the change – I guess it just slipped by me amid the daydreams and inattentiveness between my youth and where I find myself now. But, darnit, my simple, open-ended life went somewhere!

My youthful days were spent rambling through vacant fields just beyond suburbia’s control, a creek and the “Big Hole” (think, ‘stagnant, larvae infested, collector of water and little boys’ fantasies’), and the woods. It was all so simple and clear then: obey the Church or sin; do what Sister wants or pay the price; kids go to school and play; adults work, usually at the same job, for a long time before they get grey and become grandparents. And, oh yeah, we Catholics had the unchangeable and true faith, and all priests were holy.

Now, when I wake up in the early morning, that’s not the world I see.We face enormous global issues related to the environment, world population, and mass extinction of species. How can our old earth survive unfettered consumption of both renewable and non-renewable resources? On the home front, our sagging economy and lifestyle demands have sent the manufacturing industry packing; health care deteriorates for most; it gets harder and harder to afford college for the kids; and as we fight the war against terrorists, when are we going to ask them (as we might openly ask ourselves) why they’re so mad at us anyway?

And all this before we even broach the issue of how well we’re doing in transmitting our faith to our youth!

In these moments, when irrepressible forces close in on me from every side, my proclivity is to retreat into a quiet place and seek wisdom from others who wrestled with similar issues – especially Bishop Oscar Romero.

Recently we observed the 24th anniversary of his death. If ever there were a fellow who yearned for the peaceful “good old days,” Bishop Romero was one. However, he found himself embroiled in an ugly civil war. His friends on every side, be they rich or poor, campesino or cleric, ended up trying to shoot their way to peace. It got to be “them” against “us,” with everyone talking and no one listening. And in the middle, Bishop Romero, shaking his weary head, and saying, “There has to be another way. There just has to be another way.”

And certainly, there is another way: dialog. Sadly, Oscar Romero was caught up in a world of “either-or” and “all or nothing.” These forces killed him but not his voice, which rises ever more clearly each year. “In our differences, we are all Salvadoran! We are brothers and sisters.”

For me, that is the key. In place of the destructive tension of embattled polar opposites (labor/management, poor/rich, Americans/undocumented, us/them), how do we substitute the creative tension of dialogue? Can Eastern techniques complement Western medicine? Can “Indian time,” (we start when all the right people are finally present) enrich my very functional “time is by the clock” mentality? Can those effusive greetings so common in many Latino cultures say anything to my dispassionate “Hi, let’s get to the point” approach?

I say, “Absolutely.”

Our differences (philosophical, cultural, spiritual) may seem great, but through it all, if we all are created in God’s image, must not our similarities be greater than our differences? But where do we go, and how do we get there? I don’t have all the answers, but the clues I receive often come through prayer, as they did for Oscar Romero. Included in this text is a simple prayer, written by Fr.Michael Moynihan, SJ and published in a prayer book edited by Fr.Mike Harter, SJ in 1993 titled Hearts on Fire. Some of the conflicts in the prayer are still with us. Others have become less combative, some seem all but gone, and a few seem more severe.

We can edit and add to the prayer or invent our own. But as Oscar Romero would assure us, if we seek the answers through prayer, we can take hope that God’s grace might guide us.

Wheat and weeds: let them grow together.
Arabs and Jews in Palestine: let them grow together.
Greeks and Turks of the Balkans: let them grow together.
Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland:
let them grow together.
Pros and Contras of Central America: let them grow together.
Documented and undocumented aliens: let them grow together.
Immigrants and Native Americans: let them grow together.
Blacks and whites of South Africa: let them grow together.
Sikhs and Hindus of India: let them grow together.
Revolutionaries and reactionaries: let them grow together.
Russians and Americans: let them grow together.
Religious leaders who lay and lighten burdens:
let them grow together.
Disciples prone to boasts and betrayals: let them grow together.
People of God who wound and heal: let them grow together.
Rich and poor, humble and haughty: let them grow together.
Those whose thinking is similar and contrary:
let them grow together.
Those whose feelings are transparent or concealed:
let them grow together.
Days of sparseness and days of plenty: let them grow together.
Winter, spring, summer, fall: let them grow together.
All the seasons of one’s life: let them grow together.
Joys and sorrow, laughter, tears: let them grow together.
Strength and weakness: let them grow together.
Doubt and faith: let them grow together.
Denial and commitment: let them grow together.
Preoccupation and freedom: let them grow together.
Virtue and vice: let them grow together.
Contemplation and action: let them grow together.
Giving and receiving: let them grow together.
The helpful and the helpless: let them grow together.
Wisdom of the East and West: let them grow together.
All contrarieties of the Lord: let them grow together.

Ignatian spirituality calls us to find God in all things. Bishop Romero reminds us that we must seek God in our differences as well as our similarities, even if those differences disrupt our comfort zones.