While visiting Mexico last February, Pope Francis intervened in America’s political battles. Although he did not mention Trump’s name, the reference was clear: “A person who thinks only of building walls, wherever it may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.” I sympathize with the Holy Father’s instincts. As St. Paul reminds the Ephesians, the blood of Christ has broken down the wall of hostility that separates Jew from Gentile. In the Old Testament, this wall is theologically central, and as it falls, so do all the walls that divide us from one another. For this reason, St. Paul proclaims to the Galatian followers of the Christian way: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

This proclamation of unity pertains to the Church, the new commonwealth established in Christ, not to sovereign nations, a distinction we always need to keep in mind when thinking about immigration and refugees. That said, a culture influenced by Christianity cultivates virtues of hospitality and welcome, or as Pope Francis likes to say, “encounter” and “dialogue.” We should encourage them. But St. Paul does not say that God tears down walls simply because that’s a good thing to do. The future promised in Christ is not one of limitless openness and a world without boundaries. We are united because our baptism overcomes divisions, bringing us into the supernatural city of God that walls us off from the power of sin and death. Nothing could be more solid, reliable, and immoveable than our covenant with God in Christ, our rock and our salvation. The Lord’s enduring Word brings us together in a common love, not inclusive sentiments or proclamations of universal rights.

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