Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 123 - Part VII.

YOUCAT Question n. 123 - Part VII. What is the task of the Church?

(Youcat answer - repeated) The church’s task is to make the kingdom of God, which has already begun with Jesus, germinate and grow in all nations.        

A deepening through CCC    

(CCC 776) As sacrament, the Church is Christ's instrument. "She is taken up by him also as the instrument for the salvation of all," "the universal sacrament of salvation," by which Christ is "at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God's love for men" (LG 9 § 2, 48 § 2; GS 45 § 1) The Church "is the visible plan of God's love for humanity," because God desires "that the whole human race may become one People of God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit" (Paul VI, June 22, 1973; AG 7 § 2; cf. LG 17).   

Reflecting and meditating  

(Youcat comment) Wherever Jesus went, heaven touched earth: the kingdom of God was inaugurated, a kingdom of peace and justice. The Church serves this kingdom of God. She is not an end in herself. She must carry on what Jesus started. She should act as Jesus would act. She continues the sacred signs of Jesus (the sacraments). She hands on Jesus’ words. That is why the Church, for all her weakness, is a formidable bit of heaven on earth.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 779) The Church is both visible and spiritual, a hierarchical society and the Mystical Body of Christ. She is one, yet formed of two components, human and divine. That is her mystery, which only faith can accept. (CCC 780) The Church in this world is the sacrament of salvation, the sign and the instrument of the communion of God and men.     

(The next question is: Why is the Church more than an institution?)