How competitive are you? How far are you willing to go for the things you believe in the most, cherish the most, value the most?

Jesus tells his disciples the parable of the dishonest steward. To their surprise, the steward ends up being praised, held by Jesus as an example. Why? Because although what he did was dishonest, he understood something about the power of mercy. What began in dishonesty became, strangely, an act of generosity. And that generosity created unity.

Jesus uses this surprising example to make a point: if even the children of this world know how to take risks to secure their futile future, how much more should you, children of light, risk everything for the Gospel, i.e., your eternal future?

That’s a powerful question. And it’s true: people risk it all for the things of this life. Migrants put their lives on the line seeking financial stability and safety for their families. We hear the tragic stories of those found suffocated in a semi-truck at the border. We see once-millionaire businessmen thrown in jail for fraud, they are willing to risk their careers and reputations to maintain status. People are even willing to risk their morality, sell their bodies on OF, even selling their souls to Satan in order to succeed in this world. That’s not hyperbole by the way, I am a natural skeptic but now as a priest I do work with people who have done just that, made deals with the devil.

If people can risk everything for things that we know are not ever lasting, then we, children of light, who know there is more than the things of this world, shouldn’t we be all the more willing to risk everything for what leads to eternity? And is that obvious to the rest of the world?

Meaning this: If the mission of the Church is to be the visible sacrament of union with God, and to work for the unity of all humanity, when people look toward the Church, do they see how united with God we are? Do they see us striving to understand each other as human beings? Or do we look like just another group competing for power?

Jesus talks a lot about money and the spiritual life. And he does that because money is one of the major sources of human power and division in the world. We can see it in our economic statistics; wealth disparity is widening even as we speak. One of the leading causes of divorce is financial burdens or undisclosed debt. Siblings are often divided over inheritance disputes.

Another reason Jesus often speaks about money is because we tend correlate financial wealth with being blessed. Jesus says: Be careful not to assume that the fact that you have money is a sign of God’s blessing. God’s blessing is not dependent on what we have, rather, what we do with what we have. God cannot bless us with money otherwise we would constantly be competing for God’s blessing, and competition leads to division, the opposite of unity.

The prophet Amos denounces people who can’t wait for religious observances to be over so that they can get back to business. Amos talks about price fixing and price gouging: We will buy the lowly for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals.

In Catholic social teaching, we talk about God’s preferential option for the poor. The unity of humanity will be achieved when we pay attention to the people at the bottom of the social ladder and when we see their lives improving. If as children of light we know this, we have to rise above poverty and how we approach charitable works. Charity is not giving someone hand me downs, it is working to provide the proper structure so the lowly can be uplifted, otherwise charity becomes toxic, more about me feeling good about doing the bare minimum.

The people of God have always been called to have a distinct identity as a unifying force for all humanity. The original people of God, Israel, is a very unique reality in salvation history. In the bible, Israel is a race (the Hebrews). Israel is a religion (Judaism). And Israel is a nation (the nation of Israel). But with the coming of the Church, God extends his covenant to all the world to teach us that there is no privileged race, there is no privileged religion, and there is no privileged nation. The Church is the place where it is recognized that all women and men are created in the image of God, and all are equal.

Modern genetics supports this teaching. Biologically, there is only one human race. Differences among so-called “races” are extremely small. What we often call “race” refers to external differences like skin color and facial features but we now understand these are just are adaptations to geography and climate, not markers of fundamentally different humans.

But, while Christ revealed this way before modern genetics, there is still more to be done. We entered World War II because of the vision that the Aryan race was a superior race. Some would argue that the Bible has sometimes been used to justify racial privilege. In Deuteronomy, chapter 7, there is a commandment against interracial marriage. But the reason for that commandment is the concern for absorbing practices of other cultures, especially idolatry, it is not a statement about race. If as children of light we know this, we have to rise above racism and offer to public discourse a unifying vision of our human family.

The people of God are also intended to serve as a point of unification for world religions. Ancient religions were all sacrificial religions, and sacrifice led to competition and division over who had the favor of which gods. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament we see the truth emerge: that Yahweh, the one true God, does not desire sacrifice. And eventually revelation makes that definitively clear through the sacrificial offering of Jesus himself as the final and unique sacrifice given by God.

It has taken the Church a long time to understand how we are to serve as the unifying point for all religions. In earlier times in Church history, people talked about there being “no salvation outside the Church.” And that led to fear, which led to violence. The Holy Land itself has been a site of violence between Jews, Muslims, and Christians. In the sad history of the Americas, indigenous peoples and their beliefs were seen as barbaric and forced conversion by violence was justified. That is where the story of Guadalupe changes the script, she unifies two completely different worldviews, the European and the indigenous, under one language.

Now, in Catholic theology, we talk about no salvation without the Church. The Church is the place where the revelation of God, that is understood in different ways in different religions, is brought to fullness and completion. Every religion plays its part in the discovery of the truth about God and the history of humanity, a truth that is found in its fullness in the Church.

The Letter to Timothy was written at a time when the Church was taking on an institutional structure. It’s one of the latest documents of the New Testament. And you see there the distinction between religion and state: I ask that prayers be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.

No state can legislate the truth of divine revelation. And there must be freedom of religion so that every man and woman, created in the image of God, has the opportunity to freely discover and to freely accept the truth about God that they are coming to know.

Timothy is saying that the response to oppression and persecution of Christians by Romans has to be prayer. It cannot be violent revolts. And gradually the idea that a king or an emperor is a divine figure would have to be overcome.

And central to the understanding of divine revelation has been the idea of the separation of Church and state. But again, it has taken a long time for this understanding to grow.

When the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the 4th century, the way was opened for Christianity to be made a state religion. And eventually the Pope became ruler of the Papal States instead of a shepherd of nations. And when the Papal States fell in the 19th century, the first and second Vatican Councils reimagined the Pope as a teacher of humanity rather than a political ruler.

Some people don’t like this. In a recent interview Pope Leo said, “my priority is the Gospel, not solving the world’s problems.” It doesn’t mean the Church should not engage politics, rather, the Gospel must come first.

That is why the Catholic Church today does not endorse any political system or candidates, because no political party aligns completely with Catholic social teaching. What the Church does say is that you need to form your conscience so that you can make the right decision and offers principles like the principle of the common good as a guide when making these kinds of decisions.

Yes, we are seeing vast manifestations of a divided world today. Timothy reminds us, let people pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument.

Our ultimate purpose as children of the light, people of God is to be the power of unity in the world. We are called to be the center of the sacramental unity of humanity. That comes about only as we grow in union with God and only as we are able to see all men and women as children of God.