In these passages, we see how Jesus provoked opposition from religious authorities, especially through his authority to forgive sins and his merciful conduct toward sinners. He ate familiarly with tax collectors and sinners, teaching that sin is universal and that those who think they do not need salvation are blind to themselves. Jesus called sinners to repentance and, by forgiving sins, revealed God’s own merciful attitude toward them. He did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it, and the Temple prefigured his own mystery: his Body would be the definitive Temple. For Catholic families, these passages invite us to humility, repentance, and merciful attention toward those in need of salvation, trusting that Christ calls sinners to himself.
The Church’s origin is rooted in the Holy Trinity’s plan and unfolds gradually through history as the “family of God,” called to share in divine life. God created the world for communion with him, brought about through the gathering of people in Christ, which is the Church. After sin disrupted communion with God and one another, God began gathering his People, preparing this gathering through Abraham and Israel and bringing it to fulfillment in the New Covenant instituted by Christ. Jesus inaugurated the Church by proclaiming the Kingdom of God, gathering a little flock around himself, and preparing and building his Church through the Twelve and the other disciples. The Church is born above all from Christ’s total self-giving for salvation, anticipated in the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross, where the blood and water flowing from his side symbolize her origin and growth. As we reflect together, we can give thanks for God’s loving plan to gather his people into communion with him in Christ.
The Church, established and sustained by Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, is missionary by her very nature: she is sent to all nations to make disciples and to spread the Gospel through preaching (CCC 767). To fulfill this mission, the Holy Spirit gives the Church varied hierarchical and charismatic gifts and directs her as she proclaims and establishes the Kingdom of Christ and God among all peoples (CCC 768). Although the Church will receive her perfection only in heavenly glory, she journeys through the persecutions and consolations of this world, longing for the Kingdom’s full coming and enduring great trials before the final gathering of the just (CCC 769). The Church is present in history while also transcending it; with the eyes of faith, she is seen in both her visible and spiritual reality as bearer of divine life (CCC 770). She is a community of faith, hope, and charity, visibly structured and also the mystical Body of Christ, a single reality made up of human and divine elements through which Christ communicates truth and grace (CCC 771).