YOUCAT Question n. 123 - Part II. 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 765)
The Lord Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will remain until
the Kingdom is fully achieved. Before all else there is the choice of the
Twelve with Peter as their head (Cf. Mk 3:14-15). Representing the twelve
tribes of Israel, they are the foundation stones of the new Jerusalem (Cf. Mt
19:28; Lk 22:30; Rev 21:12-14). The Twelve and the other disciples share in
Christ's mission and his power, but also in his lot (Cf. Mk 6:7; Lk 10:1-2; Mt
10:25; Jn 15:20). By all his actions, Christ prepares and builds his Church.
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 766)
The Church is born primarily of Christ's total self-giving for our salvation,
anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross.
"The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water
which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus" (LG 3; cf. Jn
19:34). "For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death
upon the cross that there came forth the 'wondrous sacrament of the whole
Church" (SC 5). As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam's side, so the
Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross (Cf.
St. Ambrose, In Luc. 2, 85-89: PL
15,1666-1668).
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